Idiotiki Kefaleouchiki Eteria

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Idiotiki Kefaleouchiki Eteria ( Greek Ιδιωτική Κεφαλαιουχική Εταιρία ), abbreviated IKE , or with the optional use of an English-language company name Private Company , abbreviated PC , is a legal form under Greek law . The literal translation into German is private capital-containing company , freely translated as private capital company .

character

The IKE is a corporation , so that it has its own legal personality and the liability of the shareholders is limited to the company's capital. It is very similar to the German legal forms GmbH and UG .

Capital & deposits

The required minimum capital of the IKE is 0 €.

Deposits can be made in three ways:

  1. Capital contributions, whereby both cash contributions and contributions in kind are permitted. Cash contributions must be paid in full for the formation
  2. Services, d. H. the obligation of the shareholder to provide a certain service over a defined period of time. This performance is assessed in the partnership agreement and the value corresponds to the contribution of the partner
  3. Guarantees, d. H. a partner guarantees the IKE up to a specified amount. This enables IKE, for example, to increase its credit rating vis-à-vis potential creditors

Initially, at least one shareholder had to make a contribution from the capital contribution category, but this has ceased to exist due to the subsequent reduction of the minimum capital to € 0 by the legislature. Each partner can make contributions from several or all categories.

Only capital contributions are used to calculate the company's capital. The contributions of the other categories are only used to calculate the shares of the shareholders.

Calculation example

  • Shareholder A makes a capital contribution of € 10,000, which he pays in as a cash contribution
  • Partner B undertakes to develop a software application full-time for 12 months. This deposit is valued at € 20,000
  • Partner C undertakes to take care of the company's bookkeeping for 12 months. This deposit is valued at € 1,000. Furthermore, he brings a car worth € 4,000 as a contribution in kind to the company. In order for the bank to grant the company a current account credit, the shareholder takes on a guarantee worth € 15,000

The following composition of the capital and the distribution of the shares result from the contributions:

  • The company's capital is € 14,000 (cash contribution + car)
  • The sum of the deposits is € 50,000, i.e. H. in the event that the company chooses € 1 shares, 50,000 shares. Not applicable:
    • for partner A 10,000 shares, or 20%
    • to partner B 20,000 shares or 40%
    • to partner C 20,000 shares, or 40%

Reduction of minimum capital from € 1 to € 0

The minimum capital required by the IKE was initially € 1. The legislature later reduced this to € 0, i.e. H. no capital is required at all. This amendment by the legislature is owed to the particularity of the IKE to know several types of deposits (capital, performance, guarantee) and henceforth prevents a company from being threatened with liquidation in special cases, although this was not desired. Such a special case was z. B. that the last shareholder who made a capital contribution leaves the company and withdraws his capital (e.g. contribution in kind car), so that the capital of the company falls to 0 €, while shareholders with other contributions, e.g. B. Service, have remained in the company and want to continue this.

Legal bases

The legal requirements for the IKE were created in Greek law by law 4072/2012 of April 11, 2012. Law 4155/2013, published on May 29, 2013, made some subsequent adjustments to Law 4072/2012. Together, the directives of both laws form the current legal position of the IKE

Compared to German UG and GmbH

The Greek legislator introduced the IKE primarily with the aim of introducing a modern and innovative alternative to the EPE - the Greek counterpart to the German GmbH - in order to make it easier to set up a company and to meet modern requirements in terms of flexibility, duration and costs.

It is different, however, than the German UG, which initially aims to make it easier to set up companies compared to GmbHs, but in the later course of time introduce the growing companies to the legal form of the GmbH in order to finally convert it into this (which is why UGs are also colloquially mini -GmbHs ), the aim of the Greek legislature with the IKE is to completely replace the old EPE legal form with the new IKE in the long term. Immediately after the introduction of the IKE, a special transition period was granted for this, during which the conversion from an EPE to an IKE was additionally facilitated.

Compared to the German UG, the Greek IKE is much more flexible, cheaper and quicker to set up, but has significantly higher running costs. Examples for this are:

  • No notarial obligation
  • Three ways of making a contribution for calculating the share of the shareholders: capital, work, guarantee
  • Formation time: Approx. 1–2 hours for the registration formalities in the "One Stop Shop" (Υπηρεσία μιας στάσης, pronounced "Ipiresía mías stásis"), then about 5–10 working days waiting for the tax number (Α.Φ.Μ., pronounced "Afimí") from the commercial register (Γ.ΕΜ.Η., pronounced "Jemí") was awarded (as of 2016). As soon as the tax number has been announced, the company is fully operational.
  • Start-up costs for fees total approx. € 90 (as of 2016)
  • Ongoing fees: approx. 100 € annually for the obligatory membership in a chamber of industry and commerce (Επιμελητήριο, pronounced "Epimelitírio"), 1,000 € annually for the non-profit-related basic business fee for corporations of the tax office (Τέλος επιτηδεύματος, pronounced "Stand .matos epositosit") 2019)

resonance

Just like the UG in Germany, the IKE in Greece is particularly popular with start-ups and innovative startups . In addition, many established Greek companies are also changing their legal form to IKE in order to gain the advantages of greater flexibility, reduced bureaucratic hurdles and lower running costs of IKE.

The introduction of the new legal form IKE is already rated as a great success in the Greek media and the new legal form makes a significant contribution to promoting Greece's international competitiveness. In April 2014, IKE was the most popular legal form, with 39% of all start-ups, followed by the two partnerships OE (32%, roughly corresponds to the OHG ) and EE (15%, ≈ KG ), whereas the corporations EPE (≈ GmbH ) with 8% and AE (≈ AG ) with 6% have lost their importance. In a direct comparison of the “competing” legal forms IKE and EPE in particular, it becomes clear that the newly introduced IKE seems to be fulfilling its goal of replacing the EPE in the long term.

Web links

  • National printing house of Greece : Publication of Law 4072/2012 in full in the Government Gazette, edition ΦΕΚ A 86/2012, signed download link (Greek, PDF)
  • academia.edu : Perakis, Evanghelos: "The New Greek Private Company ( IKE ) - Law 4072/2012". Unofficial English translation of the IKE section of Law 4072/2012

literature

  • Astbooks, «Πρακτικό Βοήθημα ΕΠΕ. & ΙΚΕ. ». 2013: Astbooks. ISBN 978-618-809-820-6 (Greek)
  • Αντωνόπουλος, Βασίλης Γ .: «Ιδωτική Κεφαλαιουχική Εταιρία (ΙΚΕ) - Κατ 'άρθρο ερμηνεία του Ν. 4072/2012 ». 2014, Αθήνα, Θεσσαλονίκη: Εκδόσεις Σάκκουλα. ISBN 978-960-568-055-8 (Greek)
  • Περάκης, Ευάγγελος: «Ιδωτική Κεφαλαιουχική Εταιρία (ΙΚΕ) - Η νέα εταιρική μορφή». 2013, Αθήνα: Νομική Βιβλιοθήκη. ISBN 978-960-562-184-1 (Greek)
  • Σπυρίδωνος, Αλέξανδρος Π .: «Δίκαιο ΙΚΕ & ΕΠΕ - Ερμηνεία κατ 'άρθρο» 2012, Αθήνα: Νομική Βιβλιοθήκη. ISBN 978-960-562-032-5 (Greek)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ΙΚΕ: Βασικά πλεονεκτήματα έναντι των άλλων εταιρικών μορφών www.capital.gr, accessed on November 20, 2014 (Greek)