Association of Founders and Self-Employed Germany

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Association of Founders and Self-Employed Germany V.
(VGSD)
logo
legal form registered association
founding 06/26/2012
Seat Munich , Germany
purpose Representation of the interests of founders, self-employed persons and small business owners including part-time self-employed
Chair Andreas Lutz , Claudia Kimich, Tim Wessels
Managing directors Maximilian Hilgarth
Members 4,096 (as of April 1, 2020)
Website www.vgsd.de

The Association of Founders and Self-Employed Germany e. V. (VGSD) is a cross-sector, nationwide association based in Munich . It was founded in June 2012.

tasks

The VGSD is aimed at founders as well as self-employed sole proprietorships and small companies with 9 or fewer employees. The association sees itself as representing their interests . He performs his tasks through press work, social media campaigns, statements on current legislative proposals, discussions with politicians, participation in hearings, expert workshops, technical discussions, organizing lecture tours, conducting surveys and studies, so-called election test stones , petitions and support of small business owners who are standing for IHK plenary meetings.

The most important political goals of the association are determined by the members through a UserVoice vote. They mainly fall into the subject areas of social security and legal security, reducing bureaucracy and promoting start-ups. In the area of ​​social insurance, the association is campaigning against existing high minimum contributions to health and long-term care insurance for the self-employed, for a sensibly structured obligation to provide for old age in the statutory pension insurance and for legal security when checking for bogus self-employment .

Emergence

The association emerged, among other things, from nationwide protests against cuts in the start-up grant and other start-up subsidies.

The Bundestag petition filed by the later VGSD board member Tim Wessels in April 2012 against an income-related pension insurance obligation for the self-employed mobilized 80,000 signatories. Ultimately, the bill was withdrawn. In 2013, Tim Wessels received the Werner Bonhoff Prize against the §§ jungle endowed with 50,000 euros .

Development and Milestones

The petition presented to State Secretary Yasmin Fahimi in May 2016, “The subject of bogus self-employment - legal security for the self-employed and their clients”, achieved around 22,000 co-signings. It was initiated together with other activities by the VGSD working group on bogus self-employment. Christa Weidner, a spokeswoman for the working group on bogus self-employment, was also awarded the Werner Bonhoff Prize against the §§ jungle 2016 for her commitment to the VGSD, in particular a nationwide lecture tour .

At the end of 2018, the VGSD asked almost 2,000 self-employed people in an online survey, mainly from the IT and engineering sectors, on the effects of legal uncertainty related to legal regulations on bogus self-employment when commissioning external experts. As a result of the survey, there was a trend towards the relocation of orders abroad.

The VGSD-supported ADESW campaign “Expert Work Save”, in which the self-employed sent 120,000 e-mails and 11,000 letters to members of parliament, won the 2016 Political Award in the “Social Campaign” category.

Together with the German Association of Interpreters and Translators (BDÜ) and the German Direct Sales Association (BDD) as well as 16 other signatory associations, the VGSD achieved that in January 2019 the minimum contributions to statutory health insurance were reduced by 56 percent. For this purpose, the associations commissioned a study from the Munich Institute for Health Economics (IfG) and carried out a petition with 25,000 signatories.

VGSD member Vera Dietrich initiated a Bundestag petition against abuse of warnings in 2018 and thus initiated a legislative procedure on this topic (law to strengthen fair competition).

In 2019, the VGSD was involved in four technical discussions of the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs on the design of the planned pension obligation for the self-employed and then in three technical discussions on the reform of the status assessment procedure.

organization

With regard to the members, the VGSD differentiates between club membership and free community membership. Regional groups meet regularly in Berlin , Bremen , Düsseldorf , Dortmund (Ruhr area group), Frankfurt am Main , Hamburg , Hanover , Karlsruhe , Koblenz , Cologne , Leipzig , Mainz (Rheinhessen), Mannheim (Rhine-Neckar), Munich, Nuremberg , Osnabrück (OWL) and Stuttgart . Several times a month there are video conferences with experts, so-called “expert telcos”, on specialist topics from the areas of law, taxes, social security, provision / insurance, customer acquisition, self-management and self-marketing.

The association's board members are the Munich author and entrepreneur Andreas Lutz , the Munich computer scientist and consultant Claudia Kimich and the Münster entrepreneur Tim Wessels. The managing director is Max Hilgarth.

Memberships and cooperations

The VGSD is a founding member of the Federal Working Group of Self-Employed Associations (BAGSV), which has existed since 2017 , an amalgamation of around 25 associations with a high proportion of solo self-employed among the 100,000 members. The initiators of the working group are Andreas Lutz (VGSD) and Victoria Ringleb (AGD), together with Marcus Pohl (ISDV) they are also their spokesmen.

Since 2019 the VGSD has been a member of the MittelstandsAllianz, an association of around 40 professional and business associations. In this context, the VGSD organizes parliamentary breakfasts, organizes and takes part in group meetings, typically at ministerial and department head level.

After all, the VGSD is a member of the Association of Bavarian Business at regional level and was involved in the development of position papers and podiums.

Web links

Commons : Association of founders and self-employed people in Germany  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Articles of Association accessed on April 3, 2020.
  2. ↑ About us , accessed on April 3, 2020.
  3. ↑ VGSD statutes (purpose of the association)
  4. ^ Sven Astheimer: The world of work. Who protects the self-employed? In: faz.net. January 4, 2016, accessed October 18, 2019 .
  5. ^ Opinion VGSD on the draft law on work contracts 2016
  6. ↑ Public list of the associations registered with the Bundestag. In: bundestag.de. German Bundestag, April 1, 2020, accessed on April 5, 2020 . P. 676.
  7. ↑ Election test stones 2017: the overview - Update: Now with YouTube playlist. In: vgsd.de. Association of German founders and self-employed people, September 21, 2017, accessed on April 6, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Lists of small businesses running for IHK plenary meetings
  9. ↑ Online voting using UserVoice on the most important concerns of founders and self-employed people
  10. ^ Open letter to the members of the Bundestag Committee on Labor and Social Affairs on the cuts in the start-up grant
  11. ^ Eva-Maria Hommel: Business start-up: Lottery for subsidies. In: spiegel.de. July 19, 2012, accessed October 18, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Bundestag petition against compulsory pension insurance for the self-employed
  13. ↑ Wirtschaftswoche : Wirtschaftswoche: Resistance to the precautionary obligation for the self-employed. August 27, 2012. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
  14. ^ Campaign for bogus self-employment 2015–2016
  15. ↑ Werner-Bonhoff-Stiftung.de: Werner Bonhoff Prize, u. a. 2016 to Christa Weidner
  16. ↑ Large survey paints a gloomy picture of innovation and competitiveness in Germany Bogus self-employment - consequences of legal uncertainty. In: gulp.de. GULP Information Services, March 20, 2019, accessed April 6, 2020 .
  17. ↑ 2016 Political Award for Save Expert Work campaign
  18. ↑ Victoria Ringleb: GKV contribution reduction from 2019. In: agd.de. Allianz Deutscher Designer, November 18, 2018, accessed April 6, 2020 .
  19. ↑ Thorsten Maybaum: The high contribution burden of health and long-term care insurance prevents self-employment. In: aerzteblatt.de. Deutscher Ärzteverlag, August 23, 2017, accessed April 6, 2020 .
  20. ↑ Moritz Orendt: Are the self-employed structurally disadvantaged in Germany? - Interview with Andreas Lutz, the founder of the VGSD. In: moritzorendt.com. December 18, 2019, accessed April 6, 2020 .
  21. ↑ Unfair competition Reform of the competition law warning system from 08.03.2018. In: epetionen.bundestag.de. German Bundestag, March 8, 2018, accessed April 6, 2020 .
  22. ^ MU: Position paper on the draft law to curb the abuse of warnings. In: iggdaw.de. Interest group against the delusional warning, October 10, 2018, accessed on April 6, 2020 .
  23. ↑ Sven Döring: Wicked project. In: spiegel.de. July 27, 2019, accessed April 6, 2020 .
  24. ↑ AGEV demands legal security for the self-employed. In: agev.de - AGEV magazine. Employers' association for companies in the IT and communication technology sector, October 1, 2010, accessed on April 6, 2020 .
  25. ↑ Regional meetings and expert telco
  26. ↑ Associations establish “Federal Working Group of Independent Associations”. In: bagsv.de. Federal Working Group of Self-Employed Associations (BAGSV), February 20, 2017, accessed on April 6, 2020 .
  27. ↑ BAGSV - Associations list. In: bagsv.de. Federal Working Group of Independent Associations (BAGSV), accessed on April 6, 2020 .
  28. ↑ New partner in the SME alliance. In: bvmw.de - News. Federal Association of Medium-Sized Enterprises, German Business Association, June 7, 2019, accessed on April 6, 2020 .
  29. ↑ Partner associations of the SME alliance. In: bvmw.de. Federal Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, German Business Association, accessed on April 6, 2020 .
  30. ↑ The SME Alliance meets Federal Minister Jens Spahn. In: bvmw.de. Federal Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, German Business Association, November 5, 2019, accessed on April 6, 2020 .
  31. ^ VBW - members. In: vbw-bayern.de. Association of Bavarian Business, accessed on April 6, 2020 .