Registered Office

Every company must have a registered office at which official documents can be served and this address should be displayed on all business letterheads of the company.

This is the official address of your business where all official documents are served. This does not have to be your trading address but it must be located in Ireland, residential addresses are permitted. A P.O. number is not permitted as a registered office. The registered office address must be a physical location.

Official documents, such as documents from the court, are served on a company at its registered office and official correspondence is usually sent to the registered office, for example official letters from the Revenue Commissioners, the VAT authorities and the Registrar of Companies.

The provider of your registered office address is very important since as they receive all documents from both the Revenue Commissioners and the Companies Registration Office and should be capable of advising and or dealing with such official correspondence.

Please note that this address should not be used for any trading purposes or general correspondence, or for any form of advertising. The address is only to be used to comply with the requirements of the Companies Act in relation to official mail and documents.

We will forward on all official mail by first class post or airmail on receipt and:

• Accept service of legal documentation.
• Immediate forwarding of letters and notices from the Companies Registration Office.
• Holding Statutory Registers, if required (electronically or physically).

In addition, a copy of a company’s official books must always be kept at the Registered Office for the benefit of both shareholders and other interested parties.

We can make the following registered office address available to be used as the Registered Office of your new company:

Blair House
Upper O’Connell Street
Ennis
Co Clare
Ireland

All official communications with the company are issued to the company at its registered office. This includes strike off notices and annual return reminders. Any change of registered office should therefore be notified to the CRO without delay following the change.

It is the address of a company to which CRO correspondence and all formal legal notices addressed to the company will be sent. The registered office can be anywhere in the State. The address must be a physical location, not just a post office box number, because people have the right to visit the company’s registered office to inspect certain registers and documents and to deliver documents by hand.

A company notifies its change of registered address by sending a completed Form B2 within 14 days of the date of the change to the CRO.

Business Trading Address

The Companies Act 1999 Act introduced a new requirement to identify the places in the State where the company will carry on business together with an obligation to nominate an address, whether in the State or not, where the central administration will be carried on. For most companies, each of these addresses will be the same.

The trading address is the address at which the proposed business is actually carried on. In many small to medium sized business concerns and company start ups, this is the same as the registered office address. There is a legislative requirement to state the trading address when applying for registration. The centre of administration of the business is the address at which the overall control of the company is exercised and at which the central administrative functions of the business are carried on.

The trading address of a company is the address at which the proposed business is actually carried out. This is the often same as the registered office address with many small to medium sized companies. There is a legislative requirement to state the trading address when applying for registration. The centre of administration of the business is the address at which the overall control of the company is exercised and at which the central administrative functions of the business is carried on.

A company will not be incorporated unless it appears to the Registrar of Companies that the company, when registered, will carry out an activity in the Republic of Ireland. Activity means ‘any activity that a company may be lawfully formed to carry on and includes the holding, acquisition or disposal of property of whatsoever kind’.

Form A1 contains a declaration that one of the purposes for which the company is being formed is the carrying on of an activity in the State. The declaration contains the following particulars:

• The general nature of the activity and the appropriate NACE code classification The NACE code is the common basis for statistical classifications of economic activities within the European Union.
• The places in the State where it is proposed to carry out the activity.
• The place where the central administration of the company will normally be conducted.

In the event a company is being incorporated to conduct two or more activities within the State, the particulars to be furnished on Form A1 relate to the principal activity.