Best stock brokers & investing apps in Germany

• 12 stock brokers & investing apps with a verified licence serve residents of Germany: 4 hold a local licence (BaFin) and 8 serve under an EU passport.
• Top pick by Coinish Score: Interactive Brokers (71/100, Editor Rating 4.1/5).
• $0 commission on US stocks: XTB, Trading 212 and NAGA.
• No minimum deposit: Trade Republic.

Ranked by Coinish Score: half the Editor Rating for the entity that serves residents of Germany, half Market Signal. Brokers without enough verified data for a rating are placed by Market Signal and labelled; brokers with neither are listed last. How we rate

Of the 12 stock brokers & investing apps on this list, 5 serve Germany from a CySEC licence in Cyprus (eToro, Trading 212, NAGA and 2 more), 4 hold a licence from the Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin) (Trade Republic, Scalable Capital, flatex and 1 more), 1 serves Germany from a CBI licence in Ireland (Interactive Brokers) and 1 serves Germany from a KNF licence in Poland (XTB); 1 more is licensed by Finantsinspektsioon.

Currency conversion, which you pay on every US share bought from a non-dollar account, costs from 0.25% (DEGIRO) to 0.5% (XTB). Trade Republic charges €1 per order for stocks and ETFs, Scalable Capital charges €0.99 per order for German exchanges (stocks & ETFs) and flatex charges €5.90 per order for Germany, USA/Canada, other foreign.

• Search the company name on the BaFin register (portal.mvp.bafin.de); for a firm licensed elsewhere, on its home regulator's register too (CySEC, CBI and KNF for most of this list).
• Check which company your contract is with. Interactive Brokers, for example, onboards residents of Germany through Interactive Brokers Ireland Limited (CBI licence C423427), and the name on the account-opening documents should match the list.

Yes, with a licensed provider. Brokers need MiFID II authorisation from an EEA regulator; firms authorised elsewhere in the EEA may serve residents under the European passport.

Source: bafin.de

By Coinish Score, Interactive Brokers (71/100, Editor Rating 4.1/5), through Interactive Brokers Ireland Limited (CBI licence C423427). eToro (71) and XTB (69) follow. The score rates the company that would serve you in Germany, so the same brand can rank differently in another country.

Trade Republic, Scalable Capital, flatex and DEGIRO are licensed in Germany. A German bank takes the 25% flat tax off your investment income automatically, along with solidarity surcharge and church tax where due, and pays it to the tax office. The other 8 are licensed elsewhere in the EU. A foreign institution can't be required to deduct German tax, so with those you declare the income yourself.

Your first €1,000 of investment income each year is tax-free, or €2,000 for couples assessed jointly. A Freistellungsauftrag tells your bank to apply that allowance before taking any tax, and you can split it across several banks as long as the total stays within the limit.

If you use Trade Republic, set it up within the calendar year. An order filed the following year can't get back tax that has already been deducted.

Sources: finanzamt.nrw.de (1), finanzamt.nrw.de (2), finanzamt.nrw.de (3), support.traderepublic.com

Yes. A firm authorised under MiFID II in one EEA country can serve residents of the others once its home regulator has notified them. 8 of the 12 on this list reach Germany that way, most from Cyprus (5), Ireland (1) and Poland (1).

The home regulator supervises the firm and its compensation scheme applies, while BaFin can still set conduct rules for clients in Germany.

Source: bafin.de

If a broker fails, the compensation scheme of the regulator that licenses it applies, not one chosen by where you live. For this list: Entschädigungseinrichtung der Wertpapierhandelsunternehmen (EdW): 90% of the claim, up to €20,000 per investor for clients of BaFin-licensed investment firms (4 on this list); Investor Compensation Fund (Cyprus): 90% of covered claims, up to €20,000 for clients of CySEC-licensed investment firms (5 on this list); Investor Compensation Company (ICCL): 90% of the loss, up to €20,000 per investor for clients of CBI-licensed investment firms (1 on this list); KDPW investor compensation scheme (Poland): 100% up to €3,000 and 90% above that, at most €20,100 per investor for clients of KNF-licensed investment firms (1 on this list). Compensation covers missing client money and assets after a firm's failure, never trading losses.

Sources: e-d-w.de, cysec.gov.cy, investorcompensation.ie, kdpw.pl

Investment income (Einkünfte aus Kapitalvermögen) is taxed at a flat 25% under § 32d EStG.

Coinish isn't a tax adviser: check your own situation with the tax authority or an accountant.

Source: gesetze-im-internet.de