Trade registration
Deregistering a trade — what has to be done?
If your business ends or passes into other hands, you deregister the trade with the municipality — with the official form GewA 3.
You enter on what date the business ends and for what reason.
As a rule the deregistration costs a small fee at the municipality; how high it is each municipality decides for itself.
Complete or partial
You can deregister the whole business or only a part of it — one of two activities, say, or a branch. The official form distinguishes between them.
In a handover
If the business is taken over, the name of the person taking it over belongs in the deregistration. That person registers the trade in their turn — that is a separate matter and a separate official form.
What comes after that
The municipality passes the deregistration on, among others to the tax office. Whether anything more is needed from you there, you settle with the tax office — we say nothing about that.
What that costs
The price depends on how many people need an official form of their own. With a partnership — a GbR, for example — every person who runs the business needs their own completely filled-in sheet with their own signature. The sample calculations are on the page about Trade registration.