To work with UberEats in Germany, you must have a company (Transport up to 3.5 tons or Food and Beverage Delivery Services) from your first day. Since the work is independent, you need a company in your name. A sole proprietorship (Einzelunternehmen) is sufficient.

Uber works with fleets (delivery service partners) who verify your documents and facilitate the connection with Uber managers. To start working, we need to know you have a company or at least intend to apply for one.

You can open your own Einzelunternehmen by completing a form (Gewerbeanmeldung) and submitting it at the local town hall (Rathaus) or the Gewerbeamt. The usual cost for opening and closing a company is between 15 and 60 euros.

For a husband and wife working under the same Gewerbe:

To provide clarification on a husband and wife working under the same Gewerbe I will quote from: https://www.manager-magazin.de/finanzen/artikel/a-270568.html:

“Each spouse has the right to work for remuneration. Section 1356 of the Civil Code (BGB) clearly states in paragraph 2: 'Both spouses have the right to engage in gainful employment. When choosing and pursuing a job, they must duly consider the interests of the other spouse and the family.'”

This means that nothing stands in the way of employing the spouse. However, if the partners live in a community of property, it must first be checked whether the business is part of the spouses' 'joint property.'

In these conditions, no employment contract can be concluded. In this case, it is a partnership relationship. Salaries will then be paid as a share of the profit.

Even if the spouse is not a co-owner of the business, they can be employed as an assisting partner based on a partnership agreement.

So even if the wife cannot be employed in your sole proprietorship, she can work with you in an Einzelunternehmen.

For groups of 2-3 people, a GbR (civil-law partnership) works, where the profit is divided at the end of the year, and one of them can declare more profit to protect the others from declaring too much profit in various places.

For example, one of the employees in a GbR also works at Lieferando and, in reality, exceeds the profit limit, so they must also pay a difference in health insurance. To avoid complications, another person in the same GbR declares a higher profit but ensures that the gross profit is less than the gross salary for the whole year.

We can teach you many aspects of tax minimization, but this is just an educational aspect.

In your current situation, we recommend writing down many questions in a notebook and consulting an accountant to see what applies to your case.

First of all, I am not a certified accountant in Germany, but after paying a significant amount of taxes, I can share my personal experience to give you some important details about taxes in Germany and why you shouldn't worry too much about them.

It's normal to be concerned about taxes at first if you don't know how much, how, or when to pay them, because you don't want to have issues with the German authorities over a small mistake.

In any case, you can't avoid taxes in any way, whether you are an employee or an entrepreneur, so it's better to learn about the tax system than to fear it.

Unless you are an accountant, your goal should be to focus on earning money to live a better life in Germany, not to worry about taxes.

There are a few simple tricks that will help you avoid any tax issues:

· Be calculated and always keep a reserve of money to pay taxes.
· Know the basics of the tax system so you can earn more and save at the same time. (Read on to see which taxes you need to pay based on your situation).
· If you have a question or concern, consult an accountant if you need help.

I had an example where the difference in taxes between two employees, both earning €20,000 a year, was over €3,000. So, if you know how to navigate the unclear world of accounting, you can save more than €3,000 a year.

Next, I will provide you with the basic information you need about taxes, whether you already have a full-time job and want to work part-time for UberEats or you want to work full-time for UberEats without another job.

When you work as a side job (nebenjob) with Uber and already have a part-time (teilzeit) or full-time job:

The only mandatory tax for those who work with UberEats in addition to a full-time job is the income tax (Einkommensteuer).

When you have income as a sole proprietor (Einzelunternehmen), you need to file a family tax return (Steuererklärung): Gross salaries + gross profit from the sole proprietorship + other income - prepaid tax through tax class (Steuerklasse) - family deductions determine the payment difference.

Here are examples of deductible expenses:

· Car expenses: There are three ways in Germany to deduct car expenses.
· Phone expenses: like purchasing phones, subscriptions, or prepaid card top-ups.
· Work equipment: such as work bags, jackets, shoes, etc.
· Meals at restaurants while acquiring new clients.
· Daily Allowance: €14 per day for any day you were away from home for more than 8 hours.


Here are examples of family expenses:

· Kindergarten and mandatory education expenses (hobbies are not included).
· Donations: to churches or other associations.
· Volunteer work: If you are a volunteer for a non-governmental organization (NGO), you receive a tax deduction (Freibetrag).
· Medical expenses: including travel to the doctor, are deductible at €0.30 per kilometer.

VAT

Value Added Tax (Mehrwertsteuer or Umsatzsteuer) is 19% for most services and products, including food delivery.

If you have a Kleinunternehmen and make up to €22,000 per year, you can choose whether to pay VAT or not.

I recommend being a VAT payer, even if you work part-time and have another job because:

When you are a VAT payer, it doesn't matter how much VAT you collect, but how much you consume. For example, in one year you collect €10,000 VAT but consume €6,000. The difference of €4,000 goes to the Finance office.

Another example: In one year you collect €1,000 VAT but purchase a car with €1,500 VAT and make additional purchases with €300 VAT. Then you will receive the difference between €1,800 and €1,000, which is €800, from the Finance office.

In principle, if you plan on making large purchases, such as a car, you can buy it 19% cheaper. To take advantage of this benefit, you need to register as a VAT payer by obtaining your company number (Steuernummer) from the Finanzamt.

Whether you are a VAT payer or not, we can only pay you up to €5,000 without a Steuernummer, so you should obtain this document as soon as you receive your Gewerbe number and upload it in the app.

What benefits do you have when working with a Gewerbe and a full-time job?

· You can file an appeal with BG Verkehr to be exempt from paying the insurance of around €70 per month.
· As long as your gross salary is higher than your gross profit, you are exempt from paying health insurance.
· As long as the gross profit, i.e., revenues minus expenses, is under €24,500, you do not pay Gewerbesteuer for Einzelunternehmen and other simpler legal forms.
· A pension is not mandatory in the first few years, but I recommend it.


There are more benefits and requirements for working part-time at your own company that you can learn about by consulting with an accountant. 

Or you can search for more information about benefits and requirements at Deutsche Rentenversicherung.

When you work full-time on your Gewerbe:

The same taxes as part-time, but here you will pay:

· Workplace accident insurance with BG Verkehr of around €70 per month.
· Income tax (Einkommensteuer).
· Pension contributions.
· You need to pay health insurance, but you can choose between public and private insurance providers.
· As long as your gross profit exceeds €24,500 per year, you will pay Gewerbesteuer. Click here to calculate it.


The contributions you make annually are less than what your employer would normally pay for you if you were an employee.

So, it is worth studying the German tax system and understanding what and why you need to pay to the state, as it can save you a considerable amount of money.

The answer to this question is that it depends on many variables, but YOU are the most important one…

You can earn anywhere from €12 up to our fleet record of €2260.87 per week.

To get an accurate idea of your weekly earnings, consider the city you work in:
· If it is a city where Uber has recently expanded, it means there aren’t that many orders yet, but there is a guaranteed minimum of €12/h + VAT + tips.

This could be an excellent alternative to a part-time or mini-job to supplement the income from your main job.

If you work 3 hours a day, 6 days a week at €12/h, you earn €936 monthly if you don't deliver any orders but just relax in your car after your main job. Add to this number the earnings from the orders made, and you can make a few hundred euros a week if you “work” this way.
· In a big city with many orders, you can focus completely on Uber because you have no limit to your earnings.

You can deliver 3 different orders at the same time, work around 8 hours a day, and consistently earn over €1000 per week.

Just like over 25 couriers in our fleet who have earned over €1000 weekly this year using THIS SECRET to get more orders in big cities (but it also works in smaller ones to some extent).

If you work efficiently and quickly, Uber will give you more orders, thus increasing your chance to boost your income.

The Uber system assigns orders to couriers with the most experience (total number of orders delivered) and the best rating according to Uber standards.

UberEats standards are as follows:

· At least 95% order acceptance rate.
· At least 95% order completion rate, so do not cancel more than 5% of received orders.
· Positive client feedback of over 95%.
· An average time of under 10 minutes to the restaurant.
· An average time of under 30 minutes from the restaurant to the customer.


If you meet these standards and increase your total number of deliveries day by day, not only will UberEats see you as a VALUABLE courier and not block your account in case of misunderstandings…

But it will also give you more and more orders until you don’t know which ones to accept.

UberEats fleets charge a commission from the weekly earnings of each courier.

And I’m sure you can’t name another fleet on the market that charges a lower commission than us.

In my fleet, the percentage can be AS LOW AS 5% of your weekly income.

The fleet commission varies based on your weekly income after you start working. 

Here is a chart to see the fleet commission based on your weekly earnings: