All businesses operating in Italy are required to indicate a registered office and therefore establish a tax domicile from the moment of incorporation.

The registered office represents the central headquarters of the business, where the management and administration of the legal entity in question take place and where official communications are delivered.

However, in addition to the registered office, companies may have other locations, corresponding, for example, to laboratories, branches, offices, and stores. In other cases, the business activity may be conducted at an operational headquarters different from the registered office, and the company may also have a secondary office capable of stably representing the central company.

Tax domicile and Registered office: the differences

When a company is established, it is necessary to elect a tax domicile and a registered office, meaning it must have an address where all official and tax-related communications can be received. However, the tax domicile and registered office do not always coincide. A company may, in fact, have its registered office in one city and different tax domiciles in other areas of Italy.

According to a well-known analogy, the difference between a registered office and a tax domicile is similar to the difference between a citizen's residence and domicile. In reality, according to Article 46 of the Civil Code, the registered office coincides precisely with the general domicile of the legal entity, as it indicates the main location of its affairs. If residence corresponds to a person's habitual dwelling, domicile is defined as "the place where they have established the main center of their affairs and interests."

To summarize, the registered office is unique and indicates the administrative center and general domicile of the company, whereas the tax domicile may be elected in all places where professional activity is continuously carried out.

What is the Tax domicile?

The tax domicile is defined in Articles 58 and 59 of Presidential Decree 600/1973. Here, it states that entities other than individuals have their tax domicile at their registered or administrative office, or in the municipality where a secondary office is established or where the activity is predominantly carried out.

The tax domicile may coincide with the registered office but may also refer to the branch office of a company. The purpose of the tax domicile is to establish the territorially competent office of the Revenue Agency for declarations and tax controls.

If a large company with a registered office in Rome has several offices or stores (owned or rented) located in other cities, these can be elected as tax domiciles of the business. In this way, each location will receive communications from the territorially competent office of the Revenue Agency for the area where the activity is conducted.

Administrative office and Registered office

The registered office, also known as the legal domicile or administrative headquarters, is the one that appears in the company's statute and is made public through the Business Register. As such, it constitutes the general domicile of the legal entity, considered the main seat of its affairs and the address to which communications and documents intended for the company's management or administration should be sent.

Precisely because of its function, the registered office of a sole proprietorship generally coincides with the residence or tax domicile of the owner.

In very large companies, however, the registered office may be one of the many locations of a company - specifically, the one corresponding to the administrative and managerial center of the business. In some cases, a company's domiciliation may be reduced to a simple address for receiving legal correspondence and storing official documentation. It is not uncommon for companies and cooperatives that do not have a physical headquarters to indicate the office of a trusted professional as their registered office.

In any case, every company can have only one registered office, and it is required to communicate it to the CCIAA (Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Crafts, and Agriculture).

Operational headquarters, Secondary offices, and Local units

In addition to the registered office, a company may have other corporate locations: this occurs, for example, when the company's activities are carried out primarily or specifically in offices and branches different from the registered office.

Beyond the main headquarters, there are different types of business locations, each with particular characteristics and functions:

• Secondary office: A location with a certain degree of decision-making autonomy where the stable presence of company representatives is ensured, such as the secondary offices of large multinational groups operating in Italy. As indicated in Article 2197 of the Civil Code, when a secondary office is established, its registration with the Business Register office must be requested within 30 days. The name of the designated representative must also be indicated at that location.

• Operational headquarters: The place where business activities are actually carried out. It may or may not coincide with the company's legal domicile (e.g., in the case of a clinic that has chosen its registered office at the doctors' office or a construction company that decides to open an operational headquarters at a large construction site). The opening and closing of operational headquarters must still be communicated to the CCIAA. Unlike a secondary office, the operational headquarters does not require the stable presence of the company's representative.

• Local units: Operational facilities different from the registered office (such as laboratories, workshops, offices, plants, and warehouses) where one or more specific business activities are carried out. Except for warehouses, all operational units are considered active from the moment they are established and must be declared closed when they cease operations.

How to find the Registered office and Local units of a company

A company with multiple locations may decide to communicate its presence to clients and suppliers using one location or another. On the other hand, when communicating with a company, it is essential to distinguish the registered office from branches and local units.

Since these are public data made available by the Chambers of Commerce, finding a company's registered office is relatively simple. There are several ways to do so: if the search is occasional, it is possible to obtain the data for free on the Business Register portal through the "Find Company" function or request a chamber of commerce company report.

These channels are obviously not practical for those who manage dozens or hundreds of transactions and interactions daily, nor for those who have decided to automate their business processes, as they would have to manually resolve each potential error.

Finding a company's Registered office via API

In environments that benefit from a certain degree of automation, the process of verifying a company's headquarters can be delegated to APIs: for example, the Registered office address service by Openapi allows real-time retrieval of the main headquarters address of any Italian company registered with the Business Register, always updated with official data.

If, in addition to the registered office, it is necessary to know the address of local units and various administrative offices of a company, one can instead use the Full Company service, which provides access to over 1,300 data points on a single company, including its various operational and administrative headquarters.

The potential of API implementation also extends beyond national Chambers of Commerce: with the European VAT service, it is possible to verify the VAT number of all European companies and obtain their name and registered office. Additionally, the Company Start services for France, Germany, Spain, and Portugal allow access to over 60 data points on thousands of European companies, such as registered office with geocoordinates, business status, and LEI Code, with a single API request.