Where can you locate your business and what address do you need to provide
Wondering if as an entrepreneur you need to have a fixed place for running a business? And what address you should register in the Register of Entrepreneurs? How is a business address different from a registered seat? From this article, you will learn about your obligations in terms of providing a business address.
Address of a one-person business activity in CEIDG register
Address for service, fixed place of business
As an entrepreneur required to register in CEIDG, first and foremost, you need to enter in the register the address for service of correspondence i.e. the address of a place where you will collect mail concerning your business activity.
If you run your business from a fixed location, you must also enter the address of your fixed place of business in CEIDG. The place of business may be a street address (street name, building number, apartment number). However, you could operate your business from a more unusual place, in which case you need to provide a description e.g. pavilion no. X in the underground passage under Y street underneath the building no. Z.
Please note! If, in addition to the principal place of business, your also run your business from some additional fixed locations (branches, subsidiaries), then you must also enter them in CEIDG.
If your business activity will involve frequent changes of place of operation (such as in the case of services provided at a client location) or it will be a mobile activity, you do not need to indicate the address of a fixed place of business – in this case, in your application for entry in the CEIDG register please indicate: "no fixed place of business”. The only address you absolutely need to enter in the application is the address for service of correspondence (please note, however, that it does not have to be your residence address).
Learn how to apply for an entry of your business activity in CEIDG register.
Running a business at your place of residence
Do you want to run a business from home? You can decide to reserve the whole apartment for this purpose or only a part of it e.g. a room.
According to the tax authorities' interpretations of tax law, expenses related to the maintenance and use of an apartment can be included in the tax deductible costs only if the apartment or at least one separated room in it is used only and exclusively for the needs of business activity and not for personal needs at the same time.
In a situation where the room is used for private purposes in general, and only additionally for the business activity, you must determine what part of it actually serves the business activity and then you may include the appropriate proportion of the expenses incurred (e.g. rent, electricity, water, heating charges) in the tax deductible costs.
Read the relevant tax ruling (PL).
Obligatory legal title
As an entrepreneur, you must have a legal title to each property the address of which you report to CEIDG.
The legal title to the property may be:
- right of ownership (co-ownership) of real property or residential unit
- right of perpetual usufruct of land with the right of ownership of buildings
- cooperative ownership right to residential unit
- tenancy
- lease
- lending for use.
The document confirming that the entrepreneur holds such a legal title may be:
- sale agreement (in form of a notarial deed)
- excerpt from a land and mortgage register
- deed of ownership of land
- administrative decision
- written agreement: tenancy, lease or lending.
You do not need to attach such a document to your application for entry in the CEIDG register. Note, however, that the office of the minister responsible for the CEIDG register, may ask you to present it. In such case, if, within 7 days of receipt of the request, you do not present the legal title to the property that you entered in CEIDG or you do not change the entry in the CEIDG accordingly, you may be removed from the register of entrepreneurs.
Also remember that if you want to conduct a business activity at a premises owned by someone else, for example in a rented apartment, you must have the consent of its owner.
Please note! If as a place of business you indicate a premises to which you do not hold a legal title or its owner has not agreed to you conducting a business activity there, this may not only be the basis for removing your entry from CEIDG, but also can cause you problems with VAT registration. The tax office may also question the costs that you have claimed in connection with what is found to be an unlawful use of the premises for your business activity.
Premises made available to you for free
If someone from your immediate family provides you with a business premises free of charge, this does not impose additional obligations on you.
The members of the immediate family are the persons listed as the 1st and 2nd tax group in the Act on inheritance and donation tax (PL), that is:
- spouse, ascendants and descendants, stepson, stepdaughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, siblings, stepfather, stepmother and in-laws
- descendants of siblings, siblings of parents, descendants and spouses of stepchildren, spouses of siblings and siblings of spouses, spouses of siblings of spouses, spouses of other descendants.
If you receive the right to use a premises for business purposes free of charge from an unrelated person e.g. a colleague, then according to tax law the savings you make as a result are considered to be part of the revenue from your business activity. You need to estimate the value of such a contract – i.e. how much you would have to pay if your rented these premises. This amount is your revenue and it is taxable.
What address should I indicate on bills or invoices?
The invoice should state the address of the taxpayer’s business’s registered seat, the same address that the taxpayer declared on their VAT-R registration form. In the case of natural persons it will be their address of residence.
However, if a natural person does not conduct business at their place of residence and has a fixed place of business (indicated in the declaration for tax identification purposes), the invoice should state the address of that fixed place of business.
Read the relevant tax ruling (PL).
Lack of a fixed place of business and Personal Income Tax (PIT)
If you do not have a fixed place of business, your residence address will be used for tax purposes. This means that you will submit your PIT declarations and pay your monthly income tax advances to the office competent for the location of your place of residence.
An important element in registering a business in CEIDG is indicating the place of storage of accounting documents.
This address may be different from the place of business or the registered seat of your accounting office – the documentation may be stored, for example, at the accounting office’s branch.
Change of address in CEIDG
In the case of CEIDG register, amending the information on the place of business is very simple. Just make the appropriate changes to the entry in CEIDG.
Changing of the entry details is free of charge.
Read how to report a change of address to CEIDG
Address of a civil law partnership
Entrepreneurs running a business together in the form of a civil law partnership must specify the address where the business activity is conducted. The address of the registered seat – i.e. indicating the street, house number or premises as well as the town or city – must be entered on the RG-OP form, which you submit to the statistical office in order for the civil law partnership to receive the REGON number.
What address should I indicate on bills or invoices?
The invoice should state the address that the taxpayer declared on their VAT-R registration form. In the case of a civil law partnership, it will be the address of its registered seat.
Address of the place of storage of accounting documents
This address may be different from the registered seat of the partnership or the registered seat of your accounting office – the documentation may be stored, for example, at the accounting office’s branch.
Change of the address of a civil law partnership
Report the change of the address of the civil law partnership to the statistical office via the Internet or by submitting a paper application to the office on the RG-OP form.
Read on how to update the details of a civil law partnership in the REGON register (PL).
Address of a commercial company entered in the National Court Register
Do you want to set up a business in the form of a commercial company? If yes, then you will need to indicate the location of its registered seat. The registered seat of a company or a partnership is the locality (city, town or village) where the company’s or partnership’s management body is established.
The address of the company or the partnership informs about the precise location of a given building or premises. It must be a specific address in a given city, town or village (street, number of a building/unit – e.g. ul. Kwiatowa 40, 80-690 Gdańsk).
The registered seat of the company or the partnership is a given city, town or village (in the example above – Gdańsk).
Address of the place of business
In the case of companies and partnerships registered in the National Court Register, you must also provide the address of the place of business of a company or the partnership, if different from the address of its registered seat. Such places of business may be, for example, wholesale depots or warehouses.
What address should I indicate on bills or invoices?
The invoice should state the address that the taxpayer declared on their VAT-R registration form. In the case of companies or partnerships entered in the National Court Register (KRS), it will be the address of their registered seat.
Address of the place of storage of accounting documents
This address may be different from the place of business or the registered seat of your accounting office – the documentation may be stored, for example, at the accounting office’s branch.
Change of address of a commercial company or partnership
A change of address does not always mean a change of registered seat – a company or partnership may change their address within the same locality. When changing the address or the registered seat, it is necessary to update the company’s or partnership’s details in the National Court Register (KRS).