What Is a Business Address? Types, Examples, and What to Put

What is an example of a business address?

A business address looks like any other US address. A street address has a street number and name, an optional suite or room, a city, a state, and a ZIP code. IRS Form SS-4 lists the parts of its mailing line this way: “Mailing address (room, apt., suite no. and street, or P.O. box).”

Here are made-up examples. Each one shows a different kind of business address.

• Office or shop: 123 Main Street, Suite 200, Anytown, CA 90000. The company works from this space, so this address describes where the business is.
• Home office: 45 Oak Court, Anytown, CA 90000. The owner runs the company from home, so the home is the business location.
• PO Box: PO Box 100, Anytown, CA 90000. The company collects letters from this box, so this address can go on a mailing line that allows a P.O. box.
• Registered agent: 500 Center Avenue, Anytown, CA 90000. The agent named by the company accepts legal papers here.

What are the main types of business address?

Forms use different words for the place where a business is located. Form SS-4 says “street address.” California says “principal office.” Form 8822-B says “business location.” Our guide to the principal office address explains that label.

The table below gives real examples from government forms and from Google. Read each row on its own, because a rule on one form may not apply to another form or another state.

What do I put for my business address?

Read the exact label first, then read the form’s instructions. Each label asks a different question, so use the steps below to match your answer to the label.

1. 1“Mailing address.” Enter a place where you will receive letters. The Form SS-4 instructions add that “Generally, this address will be used on all tax returns.”
2. 2“Street address,” “physical address,” or “principal office.” Enter the physical location of the business. Line 6 of Form SS-4 asks for the county and state, and the instructions say “Enter the entity’s primary physical location.”
3. 3“Registered agent” or “registered office.” Enter the address of the agent you named. If you hired an agent company, ask it what to enter. California Form LLC-12 takes a registered corporate agent by name only, in Item 6c.
4. 4Only “business address.” Look for instructions near the line. If there are none, ask the agency or company what it will use the address for. Then follow the matching step above.

State forms can differ from these examples. Texas says the initial mailing address on its LLC certificate of formation “may be a post office box or street address.” Texas also says the registered office “must be located at a street address where service of process may be personally served on the entity’s registered agent during normal business hours.” Our guide to registered agent address vs business address compares those two lines.

If the entity’s mailing address is outside the United States, Form SS-4 asks for more detail. The instructions say “you must enter the city, province or state, postal code, and the name of the country.”

If an address changes later, tell each agency that holds it. For the IRS, use Form 8822-B. The form warns that if you fail to give the IRS your current mailing address, “you may not receive a notice of deficiency or a notice of demand for tax.” Both notices are IRS letters about tax you may owe.

Can a business address be your home?

Yes, a home can be a business location if you run the business from it. IRS Publication 587, which covers the business use of a home, says “You can have more than one business location, including your home, for a single trade or business.” The home office deduction has its own tests, so listing your home as an address does not qualify you for it.

California’s Form LLC-12 also names a home directly. Item 5 asks for the “complete business or residential address” of each manager, or of each member if no manager was appointed.

Local rules can still limit what you do at home. The Small Business Administration (SBA) says “zoning ordinances can still apply even to home-based businesses.” It tells owners to check with their “department of city planning, or similar office.”

What becomes public if you use a home address?

A state filing can make your home address public. California is one example. The Form LLC-12 instructions say “The individual agent should be aware that the name and the physical street address of the agent for service of process is a public record, open to all (as are all the addresses of the LLC provided in filings).”

So in California, a home address you give as an address of the LLC in a filing is open to all. The same is true if you name yourself as the agent and enter your home on the agent line.

What a state shows can differ. The Delaware Division of Corporations says the information in its free online search “includes the entity name, file number, incorporation/formation date, registered agent name, address and phone number along with the entity kind, type, and residency.” Check what your own state publishes before you file.

Each line is separate, so one choice does not decide the others. On Form LLC-12, the mailing line may be a P.O. Box, but the principal office line must be a physical address. A registered corporate agent goes in by name only, but that choice does not change the principal office line.

Public listings have their own rules. Google tells service-area businesses to hide the address. Its example says “if you’re a plumber and run your business from your residential address, clear the address from your Business Profile.”

What about a virtual business address?

A virtual business address is a street address you use through a company that receives mail for you. Our guide to virtual business addresses explains the service.

Whether one fits a line depends on that line’s own rules. Some rules name virtual addresses directly. Wyoming’s Secretary of State says “Post office boxes, drop boxes, virtual addresses, mail forwarding locations, UPS or FedEx stores do not qualify as an acceptable registered office address.” Google says “If your business rents a physical mailing address but doesn’t operate out of that location, also known as a virtual office, that location isn’t eligible for a Business Profile.” The same page says service-area businesses can’t list a “virtual” office “unless that office is staffed during business hours.”

Those limits apply to any virtual address, including addresses from save office. For other lines, read the form’s instructions and ask the agency if the wording is not clear.

A mail service is one way to receive general business mail at a separate address. Our Silicon Valley and Los Angeles pages describe the business addresses save office offers.