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Comment by chvid | Hacker News Reader

In Denmark you log in using your national identity card (a card with some one-off passcodes) on the following webpage; limited liability companies carries a fee of approx 100 USD, other forms of companies are free.

The process takes a few minutes in the simplest case:

https://indberet.virk.dk/myndigheder/stat/ERST/Start_virksom...

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It's not for nothing that .dk is #3 on this list:

http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings

But their reported procedures/costs differ from what you wrote:

http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/denmark/#...

Something that's nice in the US as compared to most continental European countries is that no 'initial capital' is required.

In Austria, you don't need any capital at all, to start a EPU (One-Person-Company) which is really convenient.

Same in Denmark; you only need capital for certain kinds of limited liability companies.

Limited Liability Companies are "real" companies that you need to do real things like take investments or take on other people as partners, without putting your other assets (houses, etc...) at risk.

Unless you're doing something super simple, you don't want to mess around with a "single proprietorship" or the like.

In most states you can freely run a business under your own name, and if you'd like a business name to be simply an alias for yourself (not a separate legal person) a Doing Business As arrangement is trivial, fast, and cheap.

But the whole point of a company is limited liability, an entity which can own property, sue and be sued, etc. separately from its collection of owners.

Yep, pretty much this, it's the limited liability you incorporate for.

> In Austria, you don't need any capital at all, to start a EPU (One-Person-Company) which is really convenient.

You can do that in any country. Austria sucks donkeyballs for staring an actual company however. You need 35.000 in capital and you need to involve a notary. The additional cost for actually getting the company in place is a few thousand euro, you need to listen to the notary read down the contract you made yourself and then you are subject to all sorts of utterly bizarre rules and regulations such as publishing your yearly report in a specific newspaper which charges you an arm and a leg for this privilege.

Can we please fix this?

Heh - your comment reminds me of one of my impressions of Austria, where we spent a couple years: "a lot of the same bureaucratic BS as Italy, just administered a lot more efficiently".

I'm cautiously optimistic that things are going to change. The bureaucracy is efficient, no doubt there. However some of it just has no reason to exist and we all would be better off by getting rid of it.

> Heh - your comment reminds me of one of my impressions of Austria, where we spent a couple years: "a lot of the same bureaucratic BS as Italy, just administered a lot more efficiently".

German administration feels exactly the same. I have heard that situation being called "Prussian administration": slow and cumbersome to operate like a Prussian tank, efficient in its task like a Prussian tank.

BTW, here is a Prussian tank: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A7V#/media/File:A7v-wotan-dior...

It seems incredible that you need such a lot of money. What is the justification given by politicians or those who support such a system?

UK it's £20, no capital needed, ten minute job online.

It's come down since you've tried, its £12 now.

Getting a business bank account is also trivial and you can do it over the phone. Pretty awesome.

Really? 2.5 years ago still involved going to a bank, signing in blood, and several hours. Most complicated past of the process, would be good to hear it had changed

I started a Ltd a couple of months ago and applied online for a Santander business account, I had my card and account set up within 7 days or so (I was away from home so it could've been quicker). I got a company credit card 2(!) days after applying online to Barclays. No phone calls, no visits to a branch for either.

Interesting. I switched to Barclays for my personal accounts, and they seem unusually tech savvy.

I'm with them for personal and the app is great (website also pretty good but it has an unusually strict timeout on entering indentity codes that makes me sit there with the app poised, so I can enter it within 3 seconds!)

Santander's mobile app is awful though. It kind of works but it's a chunky pre-iOS 7 hybrid monstrosity. Web access is pretty smooth however.

Co-op who I was previously are a crap beast on all counts.

It depends on the bank I think, some are still doing it that way but others you can set up over the phone no problem.

As in a useable account? IIRC in the UK we had to show birth certs, drivers licence, have an interview, present a business plan, sign several lots of dead tree, provide details of other finances ... just to get a deposit account.

Yes, I did it this year, over the phone, ready to use same day.

Golly, looking at that table I really wonder how Canada is #105 for "Getting electricity". Energy is one of our largest export sectors, how on earth are we so incapable of electricity?

It is the same here.

Over the past few decades we got our rules "synced" to the rest of the EU (or the rest of the world). We now have several forms of limited liability companies. The capital requirement ranges from approx. 0.20 USD (IVS) to 100.000 USD (A/S) (or more ... if you want to make a bank).

It used to be that to do a Danish LLC you had to put up at least 20.000 USD in capital but because of the EU you could just go to the UK and start a LLC with no/very little capital there and then operate in DK with the same creditor protection.

Anyways; the point was that in many places creating a company is of very little trouble.

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