Your registered office address is public, so choose it with care

Set up a company and the form asks for a registered office address. Founders who work from home usually type in their home address, because that's where they work and where the mail arrives. A few months later they look the company up and find their street address on a public register beside the company name.

That's the system working as designed, and changing the address later means lodging a change with ASIC. The time to decide is before you register.

Every Australian company must have a registered office. It's the company's official address, where formal documents can be served on it and where ASIC sends its letters and notices. It has to be a street address in Australia, not a PO box. If the company doesn't occupy the premises itself, it needs the occupier's written consent to use the address.

It isn't the same as the principal place of business, which is where the company actually does most of its work. For a small company they're often the same address, but they don't have to be.

Why anyone can see it

ASIC keeps a public register of companies, and the registered office is one of the details on it. ASIC's free search shows the suburb, state and postcode of the registered office, and anyone who buys a company extract for a small fee sees the full street address.

The reason is practical. A customer, a supplier, a court or a regulator has to be able to find somewhere to send formal documents.

You might be happy for clients to have your mobile and email and still not want your home address listed for anyone to find. Plenty of founders feel that way. Bear in mind the registered office isn't the only address ASIC holds, and changing it doesn't change the other details ASIC holds about the company.

Choosing an address

If you lease a shop, office or workshop, that's the simplest choice, as long as someone is there to take in the mail. Your home costs nothing, but the address is public. An accountant or another professional may let you use their office with their written consent. A virtual or serviced office gives you a street address and deals with the mail for you.

Whichever you pick, the mail matters more than the address. ASIC sends important letters to the registered office, including the paperwork for the company's yearly review, and that deadline doesn't move because a letter sat on someone's desk for three weeks. Whoever receives your mail has to pass it on promptly.

This is general information, and your accountant can tell you which arrangement suits the way your business runs.

When you register a company with us, the registered office is one of the details you give us. On our company registration page you check the company name, enter the directors, shareholders and registered office, and pay. We lodge the registration with ASIC and you get the company's ACN, and an ABN application can be added to the same order. If you're using someone else's premises, have the occupier's written consent before you enter their address.

If privacy is what makes you hesitate over your home address, that's what our Premium Registered Office is for. It's an optional add-on to the same order. Your company's registered office becomes a Sydney CBD address instead of your home, and the mail sent to the company there is scanned for you to read online. Our partner runs an ID check as part of setting it up, and next month we'll explain how the whole thing works, from that check to where you find your scans.