On the frustration of trying to open a company in Germany

 On chapter 37 from his Story of Wine Hugh Johnson decides to dedicate the whole extension of it to the tax system that the Prussians have created in order to favour some wine regions as it also excluded some others from entering a growing wine market. 

This sort of commercial war is more than a current theme for us nowadays as this article from Wein Plus brilliantly summarizes. The way Trump has been playing with tax changes has been disruptive and has been creating uncertainty in the global markets and wine is not an exception. 

I am not going to go too much deeper on this subject as there are many articles out there portraying this new conjucture and how it is affecting people all around the world.

Now that I am trying to get into the business of importing wine from Portugal to Germany, I have been confronted with an unprecedented bureaucratic monster that I could hardly imagine before. To the promises of having a facilitated and fast online business registration I have found myself in a turmoil of frustration and anger.

After having filled an online registration process and having paid its consequent fee, I have waited for almost three weeks for a confirmation that everything worked out so that I could proceed to the tax department and apply for a commercial tax number.

Once no confirmation came, I have decided to go there anyway  and ask whether I could already apply for the tax number. As they have checked that tehy had already some kind of information concerning my case, I was given a sheet explaining how I could apply online to be granted the tax number. 

As I was confronted with questions such as "how much do you estimate to be the difference between the taxes I'll pay as an import and the ones the final customer will pay for the wines per year?", I soon grew rather distressed and unsure whether I have answered to the extensive questionnaire correctly. 

After having sent it, I let two weeks pass and, as no answer came, decided to go there again. A team of four workers has promised see whether I have done anything wrong while filling the registration. According to them, an answer via post will come within two weeks. 

When I have asked whether there would be a provisory alternative  I was told I had to wait. And the people who have already ordered wine from me have to wait as well. The way they said it made me doubt whether they were still vital signs. 

After one and a half months I have gotten an email from the first department asking for a copy of my id,which I have already sent as I have first enrolled.

At the moment I am writing this, the whole process is not finished and I sincerily doubt whether it will come to an end any time soon.

I have to confess that I have been feeling rather demoralised and only the belief in the products I want to sell along with the support of the people around me I keep on fighting. 

At a time that Germany is starting to feel the economic consequences of having refused to innovate in many aspects in the last twenty years, this is just another example of a general lack of compromise and mobility which is discouraging new business to launch and confer a new social and economic dimension to society.