> ("Insolvenzverschleppung" - the punishments are a little draconic)
The concept of declaring bankruptcy is well known in most western jurisdiction, as is the criminal practice of delaying bankruptcy. Believe it or not, in most of the developed world you can't just have a company go tits up and expect to go out of there scot-free.
> Durchgriffshaftung
I've never heard of this concept before, but from what I can gather it's a rarely applied legal practice that's defined by case law (case law is is pretty rare to encounter in Germany) and it essentially just sounds like what happens in the case of gross neglience / large scale fraud.
I don't know the implications outside of Germany although looking in the Wikipedia article it sounds it's an especially big deal here. If I recall it correctly from a back then mandatory course I did about it, it can even happen for an unpaid parking bill on an empty account.
I'd assume so but probably most legal matters are settled outside of courts. Also looking at it the other way around, it would be pretty silly if creating a GmbH would create immunity. Indeed I doubt it's applied very often but when trying new territory regarding copyright, it's probably worth a consideration that one may still be personally liable.
That said, my point is just that UG/GmbH is overkill in many cases especially if the company isn't making any serious money. You can invent a name, go to the town hall, fill a form so you can do business with it and it's possible to legally receive payments. Founding a GbR is a quite informal thing
A lot of companies do not want to deal with GbR / freelancers anymore as it quickly gets them on the hook for evading social security taxes (Scheinselbstständigkeit) - in my experience having a limited is helpful for landing projects with big corps
The concept of declaring bankruptcy is well known in most western jurisdiction, as is the criminal practice of delaying bankruptcy. Believe it or not, in most of the developed world you can't just have a company go tits up and expect to go out of there scot-free.
> Durchgriffshaftung
I've never heard of this concept before, but from what I can gather it's a rarely applied legal practice that's defined by case law (case law is is pretty rare to encounter in Germany) and it essentially just sounds like what happens in the case of gross neglience / large scale fraud.