Hong Kong Private Company Incorporation Guide Part 10 – Address of Registered Office

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1. Introduction

In accordance with the requirements of the Company Ordinance, every company registered in Hong Kong must have a street address as its registered office.

2. Requirements of the Registered Office

By law, every company must have a registered office – it’s the company’s address for formal communications. The registered office must be a real address, but it doesn’t have to be the place where you do business. For example, some companies use their accountants for company secretarial services, and the accountant address as their registered office. PO Box numbers alone are not acceptable.

In addition, the Company Ordinance does not specify the number of companies which can be registered at the same address. In other words, an address can be used as registered office by unlimited number of companies.

3. Purpose of Registered Office

You must be able to deal promptly with any mail sent there. Companies Registry and the Inland Revenue Department will write to you at your registered office and someone you owe money to might send a legal demand for payment to that address. If you don’t reply quickly, they might push your company into insolvency.

Unless you have notified an alternative location to Companies Registry, you must keep the company’s register of members and register of directors available for inspection at the registered office.

If any person you deal with in the course of your business requests in writing the address of your registered office or the location where they can inspect your company records or details of the records that you keep at your registered office, you must respond within five working days.

By law, the name of your company must always be clearly visible to any visitors to the registered office and any other place where you do business.

You are responsible for ensuring that the company’s name appears on all its documentation and that all its business letters and order forms also carry its name, registered number, place of registration and registered address. If the company has a website, you will also have to ensure that the website displays the company name and company number, details of the registered office and place of registration somewhere prominent.

4. How Kaizen Can Help

In any case that you wish to set up a Hong Kong company for investment holding or international trading purpose and they do wish to rent a physical office, you can make use of Kaizen’s registered office services so as to meet the registration requirements.

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