Shareholder Loan to a GmbH in Germany 2026: Arm's Length Interest Rate, Tax and Bookings

German law sets no fixed interest rate for a shareholder loan in 2026. The arm's length rate is what a bank would charge your GmbH for a comparable loan: according to the Bundesbank, companies paid an average of 4.57% on new loans up to €1 million in August 2026, and 5.94% with a 1 to 5 year fixed rate.

Key points

• Interest rate: the test is the arm's length principle (Fremdvergleich). A good anchor is the bank rate for business loans with the same term: 4.33% with up to 1 year fixed in August 2026, 5.94% with 1 to 5 years.
• Too high is the risk, not too low: interest above the arm's length rate is a hidden profit distribution to the extent of the excess (§ 8(3) KStG). A low rate or an interest-free loan to the GmbH is harmless for tax.
• For a shareholder with 10% or more: the interest is taxed at the personal rate of up to 45%, not the flat tax (§ 32d(2) no. 1(b) EStG).
• In the GmbH: the interest is a business expense. For trade tax, a quarter is added back, but only above an allowance of €200,000 (§ 8 no. 1(a) GewStG).
• Booking: liability on SKR03 0730 or SKR04 3510, interest on SKR03 2114 or SKR04 7316. The annual accounts show it separately (§ 42(3) GmbHG).
• Insolvency: the loan is subordinated (§ 39(1) no. 5 InsO). The administrator can claw back repayments made in the last year before the insolvency filing (§ 135 InsO).

Arm's length interest rate 2026: how to find it

The tax office asks one question: would an unrelated lender have given your GmbH money on these terms? Term, collateral, ranking and the GmbH's credit standing decide. The benchmark comes from the Deutsche Bundesbank's MFI interest rate statistics, which report every month what banks in Germany charge on new loans to companies.

Source: Deutsche Bundesbank and ECB, MFI interest rate statistics, loans to non-financial corporations, as of October 2026. The figures move from month to month. Use the current month when you sign the contract.

Bank loans are usually secured and rank first in an insolvency. A shareholder loan is subordinated and often unsecured. A surcharge on the bank rate is therefore defensible, and a rate well below it is also allowed (see below). In practice, arm's length rates for loans to small GmbHs mostly sit between 4% and 8%.

The base rate under § 247 BGB is only a floor. It has been 1.52% since 1 July 2026 (1.27% before) and changes again on 1 January 2027. No lender lends to a small GmbH at that rate.

Document how you got to the rate in the contract or a file note: the Bundesbank benchmark with month and term band, plus an offer from your bank if you have one. In a tax audit, this shows the rate was not picked at random.

Too high, too low, interest-free: what the tax office objects to

The direction of the loan decides:

An interest-free loan to the GmbH no longer triggers anything in the tax balance sheet either. The duty to discount non-interest-bearing liabilities at 5.5% ended for financial years ending after 31 December 2022 (§ 6(1) no. 3 EStG). The cases in which payments to shareholders are reclassified are covered in the article on hidden profit distributions.

The contract: what the tax office checks

For a controlling shareholder (usually more than 50% of the votes), the agreement must be clear, made in advance and actually carried out. The tax office does not accept backdated or oral agreements. The contract should cover:

• Loan amount and payout date
• Interest rate, how interest is counted (months or days) and when it is due
• Term, repayment in instalments or at the end, notice rights
• Collateral, if any, and whether a subordination agreement applies
• Date and signatures before the first transfer

The interest clause can read:

The loan bears interest at 6.0% per year. Interest is calculated by months and is payable annually in arrears on 31 March. The rate is based on the Deutsche Bundesbank MFI interest rate statistics for loans to companies up to €1 million with a fixed rate for over 1 and up to 5 years (August 2026: 5.94%).

If you are both managing director and lender, you sign the contract with yourself. That only works if you are released from the restrictions of § 181 BGB (self-dealing). The articles of association and the commercial register extract show whether you are.

Worked example: €50,000 for three years

On 1 April 2026 you lend your GmbH €50,000. Term three years to 31 March 2029, repaid at the end, 6.0% interest, payable annually on 31 March. You hold 100% of the shares.

The GmbH saves the full trade tax as long as all financing items together stay below the €200,000 allowance. That is true for almost every small GmbH.

As the shareholder, you pay tax on the interest only when you receive it (§ 11 EStG): the €3,000 from 31 March 2027 goes into your 2027 income tax return. At a marginal rate of 42%, that is €1,260 of income tax. The GmbH usually withholds no capital gains tax; you enter the interest yourself in Anlage KAP.

Booking entries in SKR03 and SKR04

The accounts are those of the DATEV standard charts. The account for interest to shareholders holding more than 25% (SKR03 2117, SKR04 7317) keeps that expense separate for the interest barrier and the E-Bilanz.

If you hold more than 25%, book the interest to 7317 (SKR04) or 2117 (SKR03) instead of 7316 or 2114. Neither the loan nor the interest carries VAT. On the balance sheet, the loan sits on the liabilities side under liabilities to shareholders. How the annual financial statements of a GmbH are built is covered separately.

Tax on both sides

In the GmbH, the interest reduces profit and with it corporate income tax (15% plus solidarity surcharge, also in 2027) and trade tax. The interest barrier (§ 4h EStG, § 8a KStG) only applies when net interest expense reaches €3 million or more a year.

For the shareholder, the 25% flat tax plus solidarity surcharge only applies to a stake below 10%. From 10%, and also when a person close to you makes the loan, the personal rate applies. You then lose the saver's allowance, but expenses become deductible, for example interest if you borrowed the money yourself.

Loan or dividend? Interest reduces the GmbH's profit but is taxed in full at your personal rate. A profit distribution is paid out of taxed profit (about 30% corporate and trade tax), and you then pay 26.375% flat tax. Which route costs less depends on your marginal rate.

Loan, capital increase or capital reserve?

Insolvency risk

If the GmbH becomes insolvent, you get your loan back only after all other creditors are paid in full (§ 39(1) no. 5 InsO). In practice that usually means not at all. The only exception is a shareholder with 10% or less who is not a managing director (§ 39(5) InsO).

If the GmbH repaid you anything in the last year before the insolvency filing, the administrator can claim it back (§ 135(1) no. 2 InsO). If over-indebtedness looms, a qualified subordination agreement (qualifizierter Rangrücktritt) helps: the loan then does not count as a liability in the over-indebtedness test (§ 19(2) sentence 2 InsO).

How to handle it in Norman

1. Assign the payout. Norman pulls in the transfer to the GmbH through the bank connection; you confirm the category "Shareholder loans". Norman treats the amount as a balance sheet item without VAT; it does not appear as income in the P&L.
2. File the contract. Attach the signed loan contract to the transaction as a document. The proof for the arm's length test then sits next to the booking.
3. Assign interest payments. Interest you pay goes to the "Interest expense" category, repayments back to "Shareholder loans".
4. Accrue interest at year end. In the Max plan you click "Start annual close". Under "Add closing entry" you enter the debit account, credit account and amount of the accrual. In the "Trial balance (SuSa)" you check that the loan balance matches the contract, then send the E-Bilanz to ELSTER.
5. File the tax returns. From the locked annual accounts, Norman automatically carries the interest expense into the trade tax return as consideration for debt (Entgelte für Schulden) and builds the corporate and trade tax returns. You file both with the tax office straight from Norman.

Bookkeeping, the bank connection and the AI autopilot are in the free plan. Every booking stays traceable in the journal with its document, and the GoBD export gives you the archive for a tax audit. Annual accounts with E-Bilanz, corporate tax and trade tax are in the Max plan at €39 a month billed yearly. What Norman covers for the bookkeeping and taxes of a GmbH is on the product page.

More on the topic: GmbH bookkeeping, managing director salary and GmbH equity.