Keeping holding company assets
clearly organised.

A holding company pools investments, property and liquidity. To keep track of it all, you need a clear structure and up-to-date figures.

By Dr. Jürgen Lange, Managing Director of JSLM Products & Services GmbH

Holding company assets stay clearly organised when three things are in place: the ownership structure is mapped in full, the figures are brought together across all companies, and receipts and deadlines are assigned to the right company. With spreadsheets and folders, this works for a small number of companies. As the structure grows, software that understands these connections helps. This guide gives a general overview of the legal position in Germany (as of October 2026) and is not a substitute for legal or tax advice.

Why holding structures quickly become hard to keep track of

A holding company holds shares in other companies, which in turn own property, investments or operating businesses. Each company has its own accounts, receipts and deadlines, plus payments between the companies and many people involved: advisers, property managers, banks and family. Under German law, for example, every GmbH must in principle submit its annual financial statements, in abbreviated form for small companies, to the company register (Unternehmensregister) no later than one year after the balance sheet date (§ 325 of the German Commercial Code, HGB). Anyone who wants to know how much the family owns in total has to add up all the levels.

What is an asset-holding company?

An asset-holding company (vermögensverwaltende Holding) is a company, such as a GmbH or a GmbH & Co. KG, that holds and administers its own assets but does not run an operating business of its own. It typically holds investments in other companies, securities and real estate. Its income therefore consists mainly of dividends, interest, rents and gains on sales. Such a holding company makes it possible to pool assets and keep them separate from private assets. “Asset-holding” (vermögensverwaltend) describes the activity, not the tax status: for German trade tax (Gewerbesteuer), a GmbH always counts as a commercial business (§ 2(2) of the German Trade Tax Act, GewStG). How income in such a company is taxed is explained in the guide Family offices and taxes in Germany. Your advisers will clarify which structure suits you.

Holding companies for property investors

Some investors hold several properties not directly but through companies: a holding company at the top and, below it, a separate company for each property or group of properties. If these property companies have limited liability, for example as a GmbH, in principle only the assets of the company concerned are liable for its debts. Guarantees or joint liability towards banks can undo this separation, and in a German civil-law partnership (GbR) the partners are personally liable. At the same time, the figures for each property can be kept neatly apart. Your advisers will clarify which legal form suits you and whether such a structure pays off for tax purposes.

For administration, this means: each property company has its own accounts, leases, loans and receipts. Rents must be assigned to the right company, fixed-rate periods and notice periods tracked for each loan, and service charge costs compiled for each property. For the overall picture, what counts in the end is what all the properties earn together, which loans are outstanding and how much liquidity is available over the coming months.

Mapping the structure in full

It starts with a complete picture: people, the holding company, subsidiaries, property companies, foundations and private assets, linked by the actual ownership percentages. It is important to calculate shares through all levels. An example: if the family holds 60% of a holding company and the holding company holds 50% of a GmbH, the family’s look-through share of this GmbH is 30%.

This look-through calculation is not the same as the question of who counts as a beneficial owner (wirtschaftlich Berechtigter) in the German transparency register (Transparenzregister). There, under § 3 of the German Money Laundering Act (Geldwäschegesetz), what matters is whether a person directly or indirectly holds more than 25% of the shares, controls more than 25% of the voting rights or exercises control in a comparable way. Indirectly mainly means: through companies that the person controls. Every GmbH in the structure must report its beneficial owners there. Your advisers will assess the individual case.

Bringing figures together across all companies

For the overall picture, the figures of the individual companies are consolidated. Payments and receivables between your own companies are eliminated so that nothing is counted twice. In this view, which is meant for decision-making, only your own share is included for investments below 100%. Statutory consolidated financial statements (Konzernabschluss), by contrast, generally include subsidiaries in full and show the shares of other shareholders separately. A liquidity forecast also shows which payments will come in and go out over the coming months, for example expected rents or loan instalments.

This overall picture is a tool for decision-making and does not replace statutory consolidated financial statements. Whether a holding company must prepare consolidated financial statements is governed by the German Commercial Code (HGB). Smaller groups are exempt under § 293 HGB, for example as long as, on two consecutive balance sheet dates, they stay within at least two of three thresholds, each calculated for the group combined: total assets of €30 million, revenue of €60 million and 250 employees. Check with your adviser or auditor whether the obligation applies.

Receipts, deadlines and handover for each company

Every receipt belongs to a company and often to a property. If receipts are assigned correctly and checked as soon as they arrive, your adviser can process each company with fewer queries. Good order pays off for a long time: under German law, every GmbH must keep its records for years. Books and annual financial statements must be kept for ten years, accounting receipts for eight years (since 2025) and business letters for six years (§ 147 of the German Fiscal Code [Abgabenordnung], § 257 HGB). The period starts at the end of the calendar year in which the receipt was created, the last entry was made or the annual financial statements were prepared or adopted. So for 2025 annual financial statements adopted in 2026, it runs from the end of 2026. As long as the limitation period for assessing the taxes concerned (Festsetzungsfrist) is still running, the retention period does not end. Deadlines such as fixed-rate periods, notice periods or capital calls should be tracked in one place.

Deciding who may see what

In a holding structure, many people are often involved. Not everyone should see everything: the property manager needs the properties, the adviser the receipts, the family the overall picture. It should therefore be possible to grant permissions for each company and down to the individual property.

Wealth reporting: what a good report shows

A wealth report summarises what the family owns, how it has developed and what is coming up next. For a holding company, it should answer these questions:

How much are the assets worth in total, per company and per asset class?
How have they changed since the last report, and why?
What have the companies earned, without counting payments between your own companies twice?
Which loans and commitments exist, for example capital calls that are still outstanding?
How will liquidity develop over the coming months?
Which deadlines and decisions are coming up?

You decide how often to report, for example monthly or quarterly for the family and once a year in detail for the bank or advisory board. What matters is that every report is based on the same up-to-date figures and is not compiled again by hand each time.

Organising complex assets: step by step

Whether it is a holding company, property companies or private assets with many accounts: complex assets can be put in order in the same sequence.

Take stock: record all accounts, securities accounts, properties, investments, loans and contracts.
Map the structure: link people and companies with their ownership percentages.
Connect accounts: retrieve balances and transactions automatically instead of typing them in.
Assign receipts: every invoice and every contract to the right company and the right property.
Grant permissions: decide who may see and approve what.
Report regularly: choose a fixed rhythm for wealth reporting.

How Finaure helps

Finaure maps the real ownership structure and consolidates on that basis: a consolidated P&L that strips out payments between your own companies and accounts, a pro rata view by ownership percentage (proportionate consolidation), investments with KPIs, cash flows and deadlines, and a liquidity forecast with expected rents. Each property has its own cockpit with tenants, contracts and loans. For reporting, there are ready-made reports, a flexible report builder and report subscriptions that regularly send a secure link to the report by email. The AI reads receipts and suggests which company and property they belong to; you review and confirm. You assign roles per entity. Find out more under Features and in the documentation on the structure overview.

Sources

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Last updated: 6 November 2026

Keeping holding company assets clearly organised.