I think you’re now conflating the principal place of business activity with a mailing address.
The principal place of business has to be an address where actual business activity takes place. That establishes your business nexus and which states/agencies have jurisdiction over your business.
It doesn’t matter if it seems “fine” to put down a virtual address in the principal location field, it’s not sketchy — it’s simply not allowed. The state can revoke your business registration for doing so. (And if you look at the terms and conditions for your bank and/or credit cards, they can close your accounts for doing so as well)
In the context of business formation, it is entirely legal for a business to have three different addresses for the three different address roles (principal place of activity, mailing address, and registered agent) provided those are real addresses.
Every secretary of state (or division of corporations, if it’s called that in your target state) that handles business formation allows for this. Sometimes the principal location is public data, sometimes it’s not. The registered agent is always public data.
The original comment I responded to was in regards to your stated requirement of the CEO receiving mail for the company — that is the role of a mailing address. The address to where the business can be served notices, subpoenas, etc, that is the role of the registered agent address. In the context of a remote-first business, you can choose to put your home address here or you can put in legal substitutes.
With regards to your last comment, the judicial system uses your principal address for determining jurisdiction and your registered agent address for delivering notices. If you are providing a virtual address when they go looking for any of these two address roles, you have screwed the pooch.
In the new context you’ve raised regarding tax authorities such as the IRS, when you are filling out said registration paperwork or change of address forms, you are explicitly asked to give the physical address where your records are kept which introduces a fourth address role — that again does not have to be your house, but it does need to be a real, legal place.
The principal place of business has to be an address where actual business activity takes place. That establishes your business nexus and which states/agencies have jurisdiction over your business.
It doesn’t matter if it seems “fine” to put down a virtual address in the principal location field, it’s not sketchy — it’s simply not allowed. The state can revoke your business registration for doing so. (And if you look at the terms and conditions for your bank and/or credit cards, they can close your accounts for doing so as well)
In the context of business formation, it is entirely legal for a business to have three different addresses for the three different address roles (principal place of activity, mailing address, and registered agent) provided those are real addresses.
Every secretary of state (or division of corporations, if it’s called that in your target state) that handles business formation allows for this. Sometimes the principal location is public data, sometimes it’s not. The registered agent is always public data.
The original comment I responded to was in regards to your stated requirement of the CEO receiving mail for the company — that is the role of a mailing address. The address to where the business can be served notices, subpoenas, etc, that is the role of the registered agent address. In the context of a remote-first business, you can choose to put your home address here or you can put in legal substitutes.
With regards to your last comment, the judicial system uses your principal address for determining jurisdiction and your registered agent address for delivering notices. If you are providing a virtual address when they go looking for any of these two address roles, you have screwed the pooch.
In the new context you’ve raised regarding tax authorities such as the IRS, when you are filling out said registration paperwork or change of address forms, you are explicitly asked to give the physical address where your records are kept which introduces a fourth address role — that again does not have to be your house, but it does need to be a real, legal place.