Business Incorporation Blog

Search Knowledge Base by Keyword

Registered office

What is a registered office?

A corporation’s registered office is an official address of a corporation that’s listed publicly with the applicable corporate registry office. It’s a place at which legal documents can be served upon the corporation. These legal documents include civil claims (if the corporation is being sued), property tax notices, and annual return notices, among others.

In most cases, the registered office address is also the corporation’s records address, where the corporation’s corporate minute book is kept, but that’s not always the case.

What are the requirements of a registered office?

A registered office must be:

  • a physical address and not a PO box; and
  • accessible to the public during normal business hours in order to accept service (delivery) of legal documents.

Why appoint a law firm as the registered office?

A registered office can be any address within the incorporating jurisdiction that meets the above requirements, however, most corporations choose to have a corporation act as the registered office. There are a number of reasons for this, including the following:

  • some business owners do not have an office that’s open during regular business hours or would prefer not to list their home address publicly;
  • if legal documents are served upon the corporation at the registered office (which is typically the case), a law firm can often take steps to delay any further proceedings until such time as instructions can be obtained from the corporation. This can prevent the corporation from losing the claim by default for failing to file a response in time;
  • if a law firm acts as the registered office, it typically also arranges to file the corporation’s annual corporate return with the applicable corporate registries office when due. Failure to file on time can lead to the corporation being struck from the corporate registry.

Corporate law services

The Standard and Pro incorporation packages available at allincorporated.ca each include one year of registered office and records address services from All In Business Law. This includes acting as the registered office and records address for one year following incorporation, preparing and filing the first year’s corporate annual return, and preparing annual resolutions of the directors and shareholders to be effective on the first anniversary date of the corporation.

Share this Article