June 24, 2026
Invoice Impossible
Founding a company in Germany: €9600, 152 days and I still can't send an invoice
Germany billed him fast, but commenters say he picked bureaucracy on hard mode
TLDR: A founder says Germany made him spend nearly €10,000 and wait five months to start a company, yet he still can’t bill clients. Commenters turned it into a fight over whether German bureaucracy is absurd or whether he chose an especially complicated setup and walked straight into the chaos.
This startup story hit the internet like a bureaucracy horror movie: one founder says he spent €9,654.71 and 152 days setting up shop in Germany, yet still can’t send a proper invoice. The crowd’s reaction? Equal parts sympathy, side-eye, and savage fact-checking. The biggest gasp came from the absurd punchline: everybody else managed to invoice him immediately—the notary, courts, lawyers, tax advisers, software vendors—while he’s stuck waiting for the tax number he needs to bill clients abroad.
But the comments didn’t just hand out pity. One of the hottest responses basically said: hold on, you chose one of the most complicated company setups possible, so of course this turned into paperwork Olympics. Another commenter dryly roasted the line that the state exists to help him send invoices, joking that this may be slightly overstating the purpose of government. Ouch.
Then came the international pile-on. People jumped in to say, actually, the Netherlands and Sweden make starting a company much easier, while others warned that Europe’s real nightmare often begins after the company is formed. And the spiciest twist? One commenter dropped the old founder mantra: don’t create the company until after the first invoice—then followed it with a suspicious little jab about tax avoidance that turned the thread extra messy.
So yes, the article is about fees, forms, and waiting by the mailbox. But the real show is the comment section arguing whether Germany is broken, Europe is uneven, or this founder simply selected bureaucracy ultra-nightmare mode.
Key Points
- •The author says he spent €7,654.71 in fees and bills plus €2,000 in locked share capital, totaling €9,654.71 during the company formation process.
- •The company structure selected was PlentyLabs UG & Co. KG, which the author notes is technically two companies.
- •The incorporation timeline ran from January 23 to June 24, including legal drafting, notarization, commercial register entries, and tax registration steps.
- •According to the article, tax questionnaires were submitted on May 29 with an urgent request for a VAT ID, but none had arrived by June 24.
- •The author says he had not sent any invoices because foreign clients required a VAT ID for reverse-charge invoicing and domestic invoices would need reissuing once the VAT ID arrived.