Choosing a registered office for your limited company may seem inconsequential, but it does require some consideration. You can use any address that you want, other than a PO Box, provided that it’s located in the same country where you set up your company. This means that you can use your home address as a registered office, but doing so is not advisable. Below, we explain why this is the case.
The benefits of a non-residential registered office address
Your registered office is essentially the HQ of your company, but you don’t have to base your business there. It simply serves as the official contact address where your company can receive written communication from HMRC, Companies House, the courts, and other government agencies and departments.
If you run your business from home or don’t have a fixed working location, you may be inclined to use your home address as a registered office. However, it’s generally accepted that a non-residential (commercial) registered office is the better choice. Here are five reasons why.
1. Privacy
Registered office address details are recorded at Companies House and published on the official register of companies. This information is available to the general public, including those pesky cold-callers and direct mail marketers.
Moreover, if anything goes wrong and your business becomes insolvent, clients and creditors have access to your home address on the companies register. Company insolvency could also impact your personal credit history due to the link to your residential address.
Therefore, the best way to protect yourself and your privacy is to avoid using your home address as a registered office.
2. Professional image
Thinking about the professional image you want to present, a commercial registered office is far more likely to impress potential clients and investors than a residential one.
Your business may be small, but that shouldn’t limit your ability to establish a corporate image and make a big impression.
3. Trustworthiness
Regardless of your residential postcode, a commercial registered office address will legitimise your company and boost your professional credibility to a far greater extent.
It’s a great way to build trust, because prospective clients and investors place greater confidence in a business if it has a commercial registered address in a prominent location.
4. Mail handling
Using a residential address as your registered office can lead to an increase in mail being delivered to your home. Whilst official government mail wouldn’t be an issue, you could end up receiving a significant amount of junk mail.
To avoid this potential nuisance, you can set up a commercial registered office service. This type of address service is available from company formation agents, like 1st Formations, and other third-party address providers.
As part of this service, junk mail is intercepted and discarded. Only statutory mail addressed to your company is forwarded to you by email and/or to your nominated contact address in the UK or overseas.
5. Flexibility
The mail that is delivered to your registered office is very important. If you travel or move around a lot, you run the risk of missing this mail. Setting up a registered office service with mail forwarding offers greater flexibility in these circumstances.
No matter where you are in the world at any given time, your statutory company mail will be delivered to your registered office and forwarded to you by email or post. This is much easier than using your home address as a registered office and having to go through the hassle of notifying Companies House whenever you travel or move.
Does a registered office address need to be registered for AML? So if an accountancy firm want to use somewhere local for their registered office ( a village center hall/shop) do they have to be registered with HMRC for AML?
Thank you for your enquiry, Alison.
What determines whether an organisation (such as an accountancy firm, or otherwise) needs to be registered for anti-money laundering (AML) supervision with HMRC is determined by:
1. The types of service that that company is undertaking and whether this falls under the supervisory requirements laid out in the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Regulations 2019
2. Whether that organisation is already supervised by another body prescribed in the above regulations.
You will often find that accountancy firms are regulated for AML purposes by the appropriate accountancy body, and therefore they will not also need to be required to be supervised by HMRC.
With regards to the Registered office address, this would need to be provided to the relevant supervisory body, whether it was HMRC or an accountancy body.
We trust this information is of use to you.
Kind regards,
The 1st Formations Team
Can any one help if i gave permission for someone to use my address could it be for froud and how
Thank you for your kind enquiry, Mark.
With regards to addresses being used for fraud, the most common reasons for this are likely to be the following:
– Obtain a business bank account where they otherwise could not pass compliance checks
– Committing VAT fraud by charging for VAT but not paying it, then being uncontactable when HMRC investigate the company and visit the address
– Criminal activity could be carried out via a limited company and the address is being used to shield the perpetrator.
We would strongly advise that members of the public do not allow other limited companies to register at their address unless they have full knowledge of that company’s activities – even then, it is probably not a good idea.
We trust this information is of use.
Kind regards,
The 1st Formations Team
Thanks for this, Matt – great article.
It can be difficult, time-consuming and expensive if your company has, at some point in its life, reported your home address was used as a registered office, and you no longer want that to appear on the public record – so very prudent advice to avoid using your home address altogether!
Nick
Thanks for taking the time to comment, it’s much appreciated!
That’s right – when it comes to protecting your privacy, it’s far easier if you use registered office service from the start.
Regards,
The 1st Formations Team