The legal and physical addresses often do not match. How does the law look at this, and will there be any sanctions for this?
As practice shows, it is difficult to find an organization whose legal address of registration coincides with its actual location. Because of this, the question arises, do these addresses have to be the same, or is it not important?
Differences between the actual and legal address from the point of view of the law
A legal address is assigned to a legal entity upon registration. It is also entered into the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRLE).
State registration of a legal entity is determined by the location of its executive bodies. This address will appear in all processes with government agencies. Letters will come to it, taxes will be paid on it and other procedures will be carried out.
The actual address has no legal force. This is the address where the legal entity is actually located. In fact, nothing depends on him at all, he is not even fixed anywhere.
Could these addresses be different?
If you look at paragraph 2 of Article 54 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, you can see that a legal entity must be located at the place of its registration. This means that from the point of view of the law, the legal and actual addresses must be the same.
This strictness is due to the fight against illegal money circulation, tax evasion and fraud. For example, to prevent the registration of fly-by-night companies that launder money.
It is most advantageous for the owner of a legal entity to be at the place of registration, since it is there that legally significant messages will be sent. This definition means any correspondence related to the activities of state bodies of the Russian Federation.
The main problem is that such messages can be considered delivered, even if they were not actually delivered to the owner of the legal entity. faces. And from the point of view of the law, this is logical, because they were delivered to the place of registration, where the legal entity should be located.
You also need to take into account the fact that from June 30, 2018, state bodies have the authority to check the accuracy of the data entered in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. This means that a check may come to the legal address, the purpose of which will be to find out whether a legal entity is really located here.
What is the threat of the discrepancy between the legal and actual addresses?
Suppose a legal entity was checked, and the check revealed that it is not at the place of registration, what will happen? There are several scenarios here.
Full liquidation of legal entities. faces
This scenario is only possible if the founder ignored the requirement to provide up-to-date information on the location of the legal entity.
When the deadline expires, a claim is sent to the court demanding the complete liquidation of the company.
Closing an account
In accordance with clause 1, article 7 of the Federal Law of August 7, 2001 No. 115-FZ, the Bank is obliged to obtain reliable information about the location of the organization.
If the company changed its place of residence, but did not inform the Bank about it, then the contract with it may be terminated and the accounts closed.
Fines for violation of tax registration
If the legal entity, within a month after the change of the actual address at which the activity is carried out, did not report this to the tax service, it will be fined.
The penalty is 10% of the income received during the specified period, but not less than 40,000 rubles.
