(I'll figure out projected and actual costs and blog about this at some point! I selfishly want to get other tech companies to move, too)
Early on, pretty much irrelevant -- VAT is the pain (and the cost of flying to the Bay Area frequently, the cost of moving, putting a bunch of my guns in archival storage, extra hassle in fundraising, ...)
I'll probably be back in the US or in non-Germany by the time of taking capital gains, so it's really just:
1) Taxes on business profits
2) Personal income taxes (which, since I don't take a large salary, can't be huge; roughly the same German rate vs. SF rate)
3) Social insurance/etc. net of services
SF, CA has absurdly high taxes (federal/state/local) PLUS higher effective taxes due to both high prices pushing income brackets up, and things like $2mm shitty condos being effectively a "tax" as well, and shitty services for the money (so you have to purchase private alternatives on top of paying taxes).
On #3 -- I am indifferent between spending $500/mo in increased tax vs. $500/mo on healthcare. For people with school or college aged children, education benefits in Europe seem to be worth a huge amount. There are intangibles like not having to walk over homeless people to get into your office in the morning, or piles of human feces on the sidewalk during the mid-afternoon.
Being able to hire awesome people (competing with Rocket, Soundcloud, and a bunch of 1-2 person startups, rather than with ~every startup in SV), and not having to put up with US immigration hassle for a non-US cofounder, makes up for a lot of it. "Branding" advantages of being a European company make up for the rest.
I see, so it's basically a wash, except of course that Germany is awesome culturally and logistically (transportation, public services, technology, proximity to the great capitals of Europe).
