What the business owner needs to know about the legal address, the responsibility for not notifying the owner of the change of the legal address.
Legal address
Determining the legal address for a company is the very first step in registering a company. The application, which is drawn up during the registration of the company, always indicates the legal address of the company.
At the moment, the registration authorities do not require confirmation that the registered company really plans to be located at the specified legal address
After the registration of the company, the legal address will be reflected in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs (USR) along with other company information. In fact, of course, the company can be located anywhere, but all letters will be sent to the address indicated by the legal address when registering the company, and the state body may also come to conduct an audit and, if the inspecting state body does not find the company by its legal address, the company may have problems, which we will talk about later.
Buying a legal address via the Internet
Often on the Internet you can find an offer for companies to purchase a legal address. Buying a legal address, of course, greatly simplifies the life of the company, because there is no need to look for a premises in order to indicate it as a legal address.
This is especially true if the company has just opened, and there is no money to rent the premises yet. But, one must understand that placing a company at a different legal address is a violation of the legislation of the Republic of Belarus. And if the director of the company is a citizen of a foreign state, then such a violation may lead to the deprivation of a special permit for the company for the right to engage in labor activity in the Republic of Belarus.
Change of legal address: key issues
The procedure for changing the legal address is quite simple, the main thing is not to miss anything. Within 10 days from the date of the conclusion of a new lease agreement at a new legal address, it is necessary to notify the registration authority about the change of legal address. You can come personally to the registration authority with a notice of a change of legal address, you can send a notice of a change of legal address by mail, or you can fill out a notice of a change of legal address on the website egr.gov.by (an electronic notice of a change of legal address is signed with an electronic digital signature).
In addition to the registration authority, the change of legal address must also be notified no later than 10 business days to the Tax authority at the place of registration of the company, within 5 business days of the Federal Social Security Fund, and within one month to Belgosstrakh. There is no responsibility for the delay in the notification of the change of the legal address of the Federal Social Protection Fund and Belgosstrakh, but the obligation to notify the company of the change of the legal address is provided for in legislative acts.
The form of notification of a change in the location of the legal address is approved in Appendix 17 to the Decree of the Ministry of Justice of January 27, 2009 No. 8.
You must also notify the bank, your counterparties and your post office about the change in the legal address of the company. If the legal address of the company has changed during the proceedings in the court, then the change in the legal address must be notified to the court in which the proceedings are ongoing.
Previously, liability was imposed on the violator for the lack of notification of the court about the change of legal address, but, from March 1, 2021, such liability is excluded.
Despite the fact that the company is not responsible for the fact that the company did not notify the court about the change of legal address, we recommend that you still notify the court, because the company may miss important correspondence. the court will send all court documents to the old legal address.
Responsibility for failure to notify of a change of legal address:
If the company does not notify the registration authority of the change of legal address, the company may be held liable under Article 24.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO). The fine under this article is up to 20 basic units.
If the company has not notified the tax authority at the place of registration, the company may be held administratively liable under part 1 of article 14.6 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. In this case, the fine will be up to 20 basic units.It is not an administrative offense to fail to provide information on a change in the legal address within the prescribed period, if the delay in submission was no more than 3 working days.
It is not an administrative offense provided for in part 1 of article 14.6 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, failure to submit information on the change of legal address to the tax authority within the prescribed period, if the delay in submitting documents and other information was no more than one business day.
If you have any questions, you can always contact ProYuristBy law firm. We will answer all your questions and protect you from violating the legislation of the Republic of Belarus.
