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by weinzierl 1482 days ago
You can set up a UG for quasi nothing in Germany and it would be roughly equivalent to a US LLC or UK LTD with no capital. Thing is that almost no one does and the reason is that it is hard to do business as an UG because lack of trust as GP said.

I can't tell you why it is like that in Germany, but I'm curious why it isn't like that in the US and the UK.

2 comments

(german here and part time owner of a business as GbR - a rock band). I think it clearly comming from another tradition, businesses in germany start as person/owner funded than as externally funded. But the mentioned UG was to help change this state. Still, most partners/contractors would like to see a GmbH.
The UK hasn't got something similar to UG because it does not need to.

They made Ltd companies simple and cheap so that there is no need to complicate things like in Germany and most European countries.

Since the vast majority of companies are Ltd companies there isn't any connotation attached to them. You can just look the company up to check how old it is and to convince yourself of its 'trustworthiness'.