Starting as a home cook in Germany: what do you need to arrange?

1. Register your trade

If you sell food regularly to make a profit, you usually run a trade (Gewerbe). You register it with the trade office (Gewerbeamt) of your town before you start (Gewerbeanmeldung, § 14 of the Trade Regulation Act); in many places this can be done online. You then fill in the tax registration questionnaire (Fragebogen zur steuerlichen Erfassung) through ELSTER and get a tax number (Steuernummer) from the tax office (Finanzamt). You can apply for a VAT identification number (USt-IdNr.) on the same questionnaire. → Official: elster.de · the trade office of your town

2. Registration with the food control authority

Anyone who makes and sells food is a food business and must have it registered with the competent authority (Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004). In Germany that is the food control authority (Lebensmittelüberwachung) of your district or independent city (often the Veterinär- und Lebensmittelüberwachungsamt). Register before your first sale. [to confirm] Some trade offices pass your trade registration on; ask whether you still need to register yourself. → Official: Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 · the food control authority of your district or city

3. Hygiene and HACCP

You must work safely and be able to show it: own checks based on the HACCP principles (Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004), for example checking temperatures (fridge, freezer, core temperature), working cleanly and keeping track of where your ingredients come from. Anyone who makes or sells perishable food needs knowledge of food hygiene from a training course (§ 4 of the Food Hygiene Ordinance, LMHV). A kitchen used mainly as a private kitchen has its own minimum requirements (Annex II, Chapter III of the Regulation); the food control authority judges whether your kitchen is suitable. The guides to good hygiene practice (Leitlinien für eine gute Hygienepraxis) for your kind of business help you put it into practice. → Official: Food Hygiene Ordinance (LMHV) · the food control authority of your district or city

How Mealbooks helps: your daily, weekly and periodic checks are ready in HACCP & Hygiene. Mealbooks sees whether a check passed, asks for the action taken when it failed, and you print the logs as PDF for the inspector; the print names the Lebensmittelüberwachung as the inspecting authority. You set the temperature limits to match your hygiene guide.

4. Instruction under the Infection Protection Act

Anyone who commercially makes, handles or sells certain foods needs, before the first time, a certificate of an instruction (Belehrung) by the public health office (Gesundheitsamt) or a doctor it has commissioned (§ 43 of the Infection Protection Act, Infektionsschutzgesetz). These foods include meat, milk products, fish, egg products, deli and potato salads, mayonnaise and other emulsified sauces, and baked goods with a filling that is not fully baked (the list is in § 42). The certificate must be no more than three months old when you start. If others work for you, you instruct them again every two years. → Official: § 43 Infection Protection Act · your public health office

5. Allergens

You must be able to tell your customers which of the 14 legal allergens are in a dish (Food Information Regulation, LMIV, Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011). For unpackaged food the information must be available before the purchase, for example on the menu or a notice; orally only if there is a written record of the ingredients and a visible notice saying so (§ 4 LMIDV). For orders by phone, website or messenger this applies before the order is concluded. If you sell dishes prepacked, they need a full label. → Official: Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 · § 4 LMIDV

How Mealbooks helps: record the recipe and allergens per dish in Recipes, so the written record is always at hand.

6. VAT: small business or 7% and 19%

[to confirm] As a small business (Kleinunternehmer, § 19 of the VAT Act) you charge no VAT if your turnover did not exceed 25,000 euros in the previous year and does not exceed 100,000 euros in the current year; in the year you start, the 25,000 euros limit applies to the current year. Your invoices then state the exemption instead of VAT, and you cannot reclaim input VAT. You can opt out of the scheme; you are then bound for at least five calendar years. Without the scheme most food has the reduced rate of 7%, most drinks and other goods 19%; which rate applies depends on the product. You file advance VAT returns (Umsatzsteuer-Voranmeldung) through ELSTER, monthly or quarterly as the tax office decides. → Official: § 19 VAT Act (UStG) · elster.de

How Mealbooks helps: a new dish starts at 7%. In Settings > Company details you enter your tax number (Steuernummer) and your VAT ID; they then appear on your invoices, which show VAT per rate. As a small business you switch on “Not VAT-registered (small business scheme)” there: new invoices then have 0% on every line and a note on the exemption; with German as the language of your invoices it reads “Gemäß § 19 UStG wird keine Umsatzsteuer berechnet.” (no VAT is charged under § 19 UStG). Otherwise Mealbooks works out, in Accounting, the amount for every box (Kennzahl) of the advance VAT return for each quarter (for example Kz 81, 86 and 66), ready to enter in ELSTER; you file it yourself.

7. Your kitchen, your home and your town

[to confirm] Whether you may cook commercially in your home, and whether customers may collect there, depends on your tenancy agreement (ask your landlord), your town’s building rules (a change of use is sometimes needed) and the food control authority. Settle this before you start. → Official: your town’s website

8. Your first customers

Put your dishes on the menu with prices, make a price list for regular customers, and take orders with a delivery date. Mealbooks makes the invoice when you mark the order delivered.