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Registered office and principal place of business
Every Australian company gives ASIC two addresses when it registers: a registered office, where ASIC sends official notices and letters, and a principal place of business, the main address where the company conducts business. Both must be physical addresses and neither can be a PO Box. The registered office can be somewhere the company doesn’t do business, such as its accountant’s office, if the owner has given written consent.
The two addresses, side by side
| Address | What it is for | What it must be | Who can see it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registered office | ASIC sends official notices and letters here | A physical street address in Australia, not a PO Box; it need not be where the company does business | It is online on the companies register; ASIC’s company addresses page describes it as available to people who purchase information from the register |
| Principal place of business | The main address where the company conducts business | A physical address, not a PO Box | People who search the companies register |
A company can also give ASIC a contact address. That one is optional, can be a PO Box, and is where the company can choose to receive correspondence from ASIC.
Using premises the company doesn’t occupy, step by step
ASIC’s own example of a registered office somewhere else is the company’s accountant’s office. Here is the process in four stages, summarised in our words from ASIC’s pages on company addresses and changing a company address, where the full portal steps are set out.
- Consent first
A company that uses an address it doesn’t occupy holds the owner’s written consent in its own records, and confirms to ASIC that the owner agreed when it gives ASIC the address.
- Lodge the change online
The change goes through ASIC’s company officeholder portal on “Form 484 – Change to Company Details”. Logging in takes the company’s ABN or ACN, and its corporate key, which is printed on the latest annual statement.
- Name whoever does occupy it
Because the company won’t be in the premises, the form asks who is, and whether that occupier has agreed to the address being the company’s registered office. It also asks for the date of the change.
- Allow a week
The new address takes effect 7 days after the form is submitted. A PDF acknowledgement can be saved for the company’s files.
The clock matters at the start too. If any company address changes, the company must tell ASIC within 28 days or a late fee applies.
When a registered agent is involved
A company with a registered agent has the agent’s address on the companies register as its contact address, and that address may double as its registered office. ASIC reminds companies to update their addresses once the agent is no longer acting for them. The forms differ on PO Boxes: a contact address lodged on Form 486 may be one, while one lodged on Form 362, the form a company with a registered agent uses, may not.
When a registered agent withdraws consent
The arrangement can also end from the other side. ASIC’s guidance for people receiving a company’s mail, summarised here, works like this. Mail can be sent back to ASIC marked “Return to Sender – company no longer at this address”. A registered agent who has stopped acting tells ASIC so on Form 361 and, if its address is still recorded as the registered office, withdraws consent through ASIC’s online enquiry form. ASIC then asks the company to move its registered office. If the company hasn’t done that within 28 days, ASIC itself switches the registered office to a director’s home address, effective 7 days later.
That last step is the one to keep in mind: an address arranged for privacy can, if a registered agent withdraws consent and nothing is updated, be replaced by a director’s home address.
Officeholders’ home addresses
Separately from the company’s own addresses, companies must give ASIC their officeholders’ residential addresses. Since 2 February 2026, those addresses are no longer shown in company extracts on ASIC’s website, though they might still appear in other documents the public can buy.
An officeholder who believes their own or their family’s safety would be at risk can ask ASIC to suppress their residential address. They give an alternative address instead, which must be a physical address in Australia where documents can be served on them. The steps are on ASIC’s page on hiding a residential address.
A business that also holds a business name keeps a separate set of addresses on a separate register: see business names and their addresses.