Tool
Notary Fee Calculator.
Estimate typical notary and register fees for incorporations, financing rounds and share deals under German cost law.
You can have your result sent to you as a PDF report by email.
Notary fees ≠ lawyer fees
The fees estimated here are notary and court costs: they cover the notary’s work (notarisation including impartial statutory advice and drafting of the deed, execution and handling) and the register process. Notary fees are set by statute (GNotKG) and are identical at every notary; variations in the estimate stem only from the business value and discretionary scope (Section 36(1) GNotKG), not from negotiable prices.
The notary notarises and advises impartially but represents no party. Interest-driven contract drafting, negotiation and legal/strategic advice are handled by the lawyer. The more bespoke and the larger the transaction (multi-party articles, financing rounds, acquisitions), the more the actual drafting happens at the lawyers’ level before notarisation. The calculator does not capture those costs.
Calculator
Calculate notary fees
The estimate follows Table B (Section 34(2) GNotKG), the value aggregation rules under Section 35(1) GNotKG and the comparison logic under Section 94(1). The calculator applies the postage and telecommunications flat fee (KV 32005) per notarial procedure; the document fee (KV 32000 et seq.) and special cases are left out.
GmbH formation loaded. Estimated total costs 1,097.30 €.
Notary fees gross
797.30 €
Notary fees and outlays incl. VAT.
Register costs
300.00 €
Court fees and document provision under the HRegGebV.
Estimated total costs
1,097.30 €
Including VAT, register court fees and document provision, excluding the notary’s document fee.
The detail table is for traceability; the more important subtotals are shown above.
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GmbH formation
Model protocol vs. bespoke articles
The model protocol offers a genuine cost privilege: the minimum value of 30,000 € does not apply, and the actual share capital is used instead. In addition, the managing director appointment is already included and is not valued separately.
In practice, the downside matters more than the price advantage. The model protocol is only suitable for simple single-founder setups, not for multi-founder formations. Once several shareholders are involved, provisions on transfer restrictions, forfeiture, compensation and succession are strongly advisable, and the model protocol cannot cover them.
Authorised capital (Section 55a GmbHG)
Authorised capital is capped at 50% of the share capital (Section 55a GmbHG). The calculator automatically caps higher inputs and includes the permitted amount in the notarisation and filing values.
That extra cost can pay off later. If a GmbH is expected to raise financing soon, a clean authorisation in the articles will often save far higher follow-on costs because later capital increases can be structured more easily.
Trust instruction for share capital contributions
With a trust instruction, the parties sign the commercial register filing during the notarisation appointment. However, the notary only submits it to the register court once payment of the share capital contributions has been proven. This triggers a handling fee (0.5 based on the register value, KV 22200).
Background: in the filing, the managing director must confirm that the contributions are finally at their free disposal (Section 8(2) GmbHG); what matters is that this confirmation is accurate at the time the filing is submitted to the register court. In common practice, this requires payment into an account of the company (placing cash into a till of the pre-incorporation GmbH is theoretically possible, but is generally not recommended because it can trigger follow-up questions from the register court and resulting delays). Since the pre-incorporation GmbH must first open a business account and pay in the contributions after notarisation, the confirmation would not yet be substantively correct at the notarisation appointment; the notary therefore files the application, signed at the appointment, only once payment of the contributions has been proven. False statements are criminally sanctioned (Section 82(1) no. 1 GmbHG).
Without a trust instruction, a separate authentication appointment for the commercial register filing is therefore required. This saves the handling fee, but requires a second notary appointment.
Online formation
Since the Act implementing the Digitalisation Directive (DiRUG, in force since 1 August 2022), a GmbH can also be formed via video procedure through the German Federal Chamber of Notaries system. The core fees do not differ from an in-person notarisation; only small usage fees for the video system are added.
Technical requirements: all parties need an ID card with activated eID function (or an equivalent EU identification means), an NFC-enabled smartphone with the Federal Chamber of Notaries’ Notar-App (older ID cards additionally require a valid passport to read the photograph), and a computer with camera, microphone and stable internet connection. The notarisation takes place via the Federal Chamber of Notaries video communication system.
This is practical for simple standard cases. However, even common articles provisions such as forced transfer of shares upon shareholder exclusion are currently not available in the online procedure.
Managing director appointment inside or outside the incorporation deed
The managing director appointment can be made in private form outside the incorporation deed. This removes it as a notarisation item. In a sole-founder formation, the execution fee for the shareholder list then also drops from 0.5 (KV 22110) to 0.3 (KV 22111), because the notarisation procedure is then valued at a 1.0 fee only. With several founders, the 0.5 execution fee remains.
Drafting vs. mere authentication of the register filing
If the notary drafts the commercial register filing, a 0.5 fee under KV 24102 applies; with mere signature authentication, by contrast, only 0.2 applies (KV 25100, max. 70 €). Drafting sounds more expensive, but is not for smaller filing values.
The reason: with a draft, the XML structured data fee is 0.2 (KV 22114, max. 125 €), whereas without a draft it is 0.5 (KV 22125, max. 250 €). In addition, with a draft there is no separate filing fee (KV 22124: 20 €) and no authentication fees for copies (KV 25102: 10 € each). Up to a filing value of 230,000 €, the draft option is therefore cheaper; above that, mere signature authentication is cheaper (at 500,000 €: 592.50 € with a draft compared with 350 € without a draft including one certified copy, net in each case). On formation, the filing value is the share capital plus any authorised capital, at least 30,000 €. The calculator assumes drafting by the notary.
How notary fees arise under the GNotKG
Notary fees are set by statute (Court and Notary Costs Act, GNotKG) and cannot be negotiated. Two variables determine the fee: the business value and the fee rate of the relevant item in the schedule of fees (KV). Fee table B converts the business value into a base fee, which is multiplied by the rate: notarisation of contracts and of resolutions of corporate bodies costs twice the base fee (KV 21100), other declarations, in particular unilateral declarations, once (KV 21200). Execution and handling services cost a fraction of it; a complete draft of a declaration costs the same rate as its notarisation (Section 92(2) GNotKG, KV 24100 et seq.). Each item carries a minimum fee, for example 120 € for KV 21100 and 60 € for KV 21200.
Business values for formations, financing rounds and share deals
For a GmbH formation the business value is the share capital, at least 30,000 € and at most 10 million € (Section 107(1) GNotKG); for a formation using the model protocol, the minimum value does not apply (Section 107(1) sentence 2 and Section 105(6) GNotKG). A capital increase resolution is valued at the increase amount including premium; under Section 108(1) sentence 2 GNotKG, the value is not less than the value under Section 105(1) GNotKG, i.e. the nominal amount of the increase, at least 30,000 €. An amendment to the articles without a specific monetary value is valued at 1% of the registered share capital, at least 30,000 € (Section 108(1) sentence 1 and Section 105(4) no. 1 GNotKG). The business value of resolutions is at most 5 million €, even where several resolutions with different subject matters are combined in one notarisation (Section 108(4) GNotKG). For a share deal the business value is the purchase price; if the value of the shares is higher, the higher value applies (Sections 97(3) and 54 GNotKG). Share sales between affiliated companies are capped at 10 million € (Section 107(2) GNotKG), except for asset-managing companies.
Combined notarisation, execution and register
Where several declarations are notarised in one deed, their business values are added together (Section 35(1) GNotKG) if they concern different subject matters (Section 86(2) GNotKG); if they concern the same subject matter, only one value applies under Section 109 GNotKG. Investment and shareholders' agreements of a financing round therefore increase the business value, whereas adjusting the capital figure in the articles concerns the same subject matter as the capital increase resolution. Execution and handling fees (KV 22110 et seq., 22200), for example for preparing the shareholder list, expenses, a foreign-language surcharge of 30% of the notarisation fee, at most 5,000 € (KV 26001), and VAT are added. Register fees follow the Commercial Register Fees Ordinance (HRegGebV), for example 225 € for registering a GmbH formation (no. 2100) plus one third of that fee, 75 €, for making the documents available for retrieval (no. 6000).
What the calculator does not cover
The calculator works with typical business values and fee items. It replaces neither the notary's fee statement nor the assessment of which declarations actually require notarisation. Deviations arise from notarial discretion on execution services, from expenses and from special cases such as contributions in kind or additional trust instructions. For a specific notarisation, request a fee estimate from the notary.
This calculator provides a rough estimate based on typical business values and statutory fee items. The only binding amount is the specific fee calculation prepared by the notarising notary in the individual case.
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Incorporation, financing round or acquisition?
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