Correspondence address vs registered office — how they differ

“Registered office” and “correspondence address” are often confused, yet they are two different things. One says where the company is registered, the other where you want to collect your post. Below I explain the difference in concrete terms and show how a virtual office handles both cases.

What the difference is

In short: the registered office is the company’s address in the register, while the correspondence address is where you want your letters delivered. In many companies they are identical and no one even thinks about the distinction. The difference only becomes important when you want your post to go somewhere other than the entry in CEIDG or the KRS indicates.

Both concepts tie into the broader topic of the virtual business address, which I describe in the article on a virtual address for your company. Here I focus on the difference itself.

The registered office address

The registered office is a company’s formal address, entered in the KRS, and it is the one that identifies the company in business dealings. A sole trader doesn’t have a registered office in this sense — the equivalent is the business address given in CEIDG. For a company that pays CIT the registered office also sets the competent tax office (by the seat); for a sole trader the competent PIT office follows the place of residence, not the business address in CEIDG. This address is public — it appears in the open register, on invoices and in contracts.

This address must have a basis: you need legal title to the premises, and in the case of a virtual office that is the agreement for the use of the address. How to choose a good registered address I cover separately in the article on a company registration address.

The correspondence (service) address

The correspondence address — also called the service address — is the place your post should come to: letters, summonses, registered items from public offices. It may coincide with the registered office or be different. It is a practical address: it is not about where the company “is”, but where correspondence is actually directed and who receives it.

A sole trader in CEIDG can indicate a separate service address if they want letters to arrive somewhere other than the main place of business. In practice it is this address that decides whether an important letter reaches you.

A quick comparison

When it is worth separating them

Separating the addresses makes sense in a few situations. A classic example: a company has its seat at one address (say, where it actually carries out its work), but wants official correspondence to arrive at an address where someone will certainly collect it on time. Then the service address is set at a virtual office, so no time-sensitive letter sits unopened — and what the contact with the tax office looks like in that case I cover separately.

For most sole traders and small companies, though, it is simpler to have one address for everything. A virtual office gives you an address that is at once the registered office and the correspondence address — you don’t have to split anything or keep an eye on two places.

How a virtual office handles both

At VSTREFA our address — Al. Jana Pawła II 80/4 in Warsaw, in the city centre — fills both roles at once. You enter it as your business address in CEIDG, or as your company’s registered office in the KRS, and at the same time it is the address you direct all your correspondence to. Mail handling is identical regardless of how you label the address in your documents:

• We receive every item — including registered post from public offices — and notify you about it by email.
• We scan by default and without a limit — the contents of every item go into the Client Panel (unless you ask us not to).
• You have 24/7 access — you see all correspondence and case history in the panel and app at any hour.
• You collect originals in person, and in the PRO package we send a parcel of letters to an address of your choice once a month.

As a result the registered office and the correspondence address are, in practice, one place, and you never have to wonder where an important letter has landed — everything is in the panel.

It is worth keeping this separate from e-Doręczenia (e-Delivery) — Poland’s public registered electronic delivery service, a mailbox for official correspondence sent electronically rather than on paper. A virtual office receives the physical letters that come to your address; it does not replace your e-Delivery mailbox. KRS entities registered before 2025 have been obliged to use it since 1 April 2025 and new companies get an e-Delivery address at registration — that inbox is one the entrepreneur, or a designated administrator, monitors independently.

What it costs

A company registration address, plus mail receipt with unlimited scanning, comes with every package — including the cheapest, from PLN 29 net per month in the variant combining a virtual office with accounting. The full overview is below:

Frequently asked questions

Summary

The registered office says where the company is registered, and the correspondence address says where the post should arrive. They can be different, but in a virtual office they are usually one address that fills both roles. At VSTREFA a single city-centre address works as your business address in CEIDG and your company’s registered office in the KRS, and as the place where we receive and scan your correspondence — with no need to juggle two addresses.