Which of your clients a move to Monheim would work for
You know your clients' businesses better than any provider does. So instead of a sales pitch, here's what you need to judge the question yourself: under which conditions a desk with us holds up as a permanent establishment — and when it doesn't.
Starting point
The tax multiplier is the easy part.
Monheim am Rhein has levied a trade tax multiplier of 250 percent since 2018 — the lowest in North Rhine-Westphalia. That's a quick calculation. The harder question is whether a permanent establishment actually arises at the new location at all, and how much of the tax base amount ends up there.
We have a stake in getting this question answered properly. A client whose registered office doesn't hold up under scrutiny does harm to them, to you, and to us.
Conditions
Five points that should be clarified beforehand.
Management decisions are made here
This is the central condition, not one argument among many. The place of management is the center of top-level management — where the decisions that matter for the business are actually made. If you relocate the registered office but keep managing from home, you haven't actually relocated the center. Management needs to be here regularly and actually work here.
Right of disposal over the rooms
Under settled case law, neither a mere entitlement to use nor a purely practical opportunity to use is enough; what's required is a secured legal position that can't easily be withdrawn. It doesn't have to be exclusive. In practice, that means a permanently assigned desk (the Premium plus package) stands on much firmer ground than a rotating one. We state this explicitly in the contract.
Apportionment by payroll taken into account
If permanent establishments exist in several municipalities, the trade tax base amount is usually apportioned in proportion to wages; for sole proprietorships and partnerships, a notional owner's salary is added. So where the workforce is based decides the lion's share. For clients with a larger payroll outside Monheim, relocating achieves little.
Duration and permanence
What's required is a fixed facility of a certain duration, at which the company's own business activity is carried out with a fixed geographic tie. A registration lasting just a few months isn't enough for that. Our contracts run indefinitely; our customers' average tenure is several years.
Provability, in case of doubt
What can't be documented won't help in case of doubt. A contract, a desk assignment, a company sign on the building, room bookings, and a contact who can confirm someone was actually there — that all belongs in the file before anyone asks for it.
What we provide
Documentation for your file.
- A lease with the desk explicitly assigned
- Confirmation of the registered address for the commercial register and tax office
- A photo of the company sign mounted on the building
- An overview of booked rooms and usage times on request
- A named contact person on site, reachable by phone
What we don't offer
No address-only setup with no desk attached. No shared mailboxes with hundreds of companies. No contracts where it's clear from the outset that no one will ever show up. If a client is looking for exactly that, we're the wrong provider — and we'll say so.
Which clients
A rough first sort.
You'll judge each case better than we can. As a first approximation, it helps to ask where the value creation physically happens and how the payroll is distributed.
Worth considering
- Small service providersOne or two employees, output is created at a desk, no second premises in the business.
- IT and software firmsLocation-independent work, a modest payroll, management works hands-on.
- Young companiesThe registered office is being newly established anyway; relocating causes the least friction here.
Usually doesn't hold up
- Trading businesses with their own warehouseThe warehouse remains the permanent establishment; a desk doesn't shift the center of gravity.
- Haulage and transport companiesYard, vehicles and dispatch tie the business to premises we don't provide.
- Larger workforcesIf most of the payroll is based elsewhere, most of the apportioned share stays there too. The effort then doesn't pay off.
This page is not tax or legal advice and doesn't replace a review of the individual case. It summarises the questions that, in our experience as a provider, come up regularly. The judgement is yours to make.
Direct line
Call us before you make a recommendation to your client.
We'll tell you what we can and can't guarantee contractually — no sales pitch. We're happy to arrange a viewing with your client.
