Gründung eines Unternehmens in Europa und im Partnerland: Steuern, Rechtsformen und gesellschaftlicher Beitrag

Es gibt viele Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen den europäischen Ländern, wenn es um die Gründungsvorhaben von Unternehmern geht. Aber natürlich gibt es in den verschiedenen Ländern unterschiedliche Systeme. In dieser Lektion werden relevante Beispiele für Unternehmensgründungen über Steuern, Rechtsformen und Sozialabgaben in Europa gegeben. Multinationale Organisationen wie die Europäische Kommission und die OECD haben relevante Informationen über Steuern und andere wichtige Systeme in ihren Mitgliedsländern gesammelt, die für die Lehrzwecke dieses Moduls verwendet werden.

Die Lektion startet mit einer kurzen Definition dazu, was es bedeutet, ein Unternehmen in Europa zu gründen.

Eine Definition der OECD betont den dynamischen Charakter der unternehmerischen Tätigkeit.. Die Aufmerksamkeit wird auf das Handeln einer Unternehmerin gelenkt und nicht so sehr auf ihre Absichten und Angebot in Bezug auf Produkte oder Dienstleistungen.

More narrow definitions (Wikipedia / OCDE) have described entrepreneurship as the process of designing, launching and running a new business, which is often initially a small business, or as the “capacity and willingness to develop, organize and manage a business venture along with any of its risks to make a profit.”

Source: insplash

The reasons for people to start a business is of different kind. The OECD published their findings for men’s and women’s main reasons for starting a business:

1. To pursue an interest or hobby
2. To make more money

Taxes of businesses in Europe

There are quite different systems of taxes and of support for small businesses across Europe. International and European organisation keep track of that. The most prominent organisations are the OECD and Eurostat for the European Union and the European Economic Area.

Eurostat presents a study on tax compliance and costs for SME’s (Small and Medium sized Enterprises) in Europe. The study states that taxes are higher for SME´s compared to larger companies. The most important taxes are the VAT (Value Added Tax) the income tax and the payroll tax. It is important for the entrepreneur to seek knowledge about the tax system in her country. The OECD runs an online tax database for its member countries. It is very useful to visit the web and find out how the tax system in your county is structured.

Legal form of businesses in Europe

The OECD and the EU have important information on business demography on their web pages. Among the most important information to be found there are the different legal forms of enterprises. Eurostat offers insights into structural business statistics on its web page, including a chapter about Entrepreneurship. According to the OECD: “The most common forms of business are the sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, and the so called S corporation.

The method to start a business in all European countries are to be found at European Union web page.

What is the contribution of business to the society?

SMEs play a key role in all economies around the world, increasing employment and value added, and contributing to innovation. SMEs are central when it comes to environmental sustainability and growth. However, these contributions vary widely across firms and across countries and sectors.

The following graph shows how the role of small businesses is prominent for the establishment of jobs in most countries:

It can be stated that small businesses are among the most important kind of companies. It is therefore very important to encourage people to start a company around an interesting idea.