Can a virtual address be used as the registered office address and place of business address?

ASIC sets out three requirements for the nomination of a company’s registered office address:

1. The company must be able to receive correspondence at this address;

2. It must be a physical street address, i.e. it cannot be a PO Box;

3. If the company does not occupy the premises it must have the written consent of the occupier.

Following this logic, it would appear that a company is permitted to use a virtual address as the registered office provided that it meets the criteria outlined above.

A company’s principal place of business is an address where it primarily carries out business activities. It must also be a physical street address, however a company would have difficulty proving to ASIC that its business functions occur at the location of its virtual address. On that basis it should follow that a virtual address is not sufficient for use as a company’s principal place of business.

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Updated — Aug 30, 2018