Pillar Two
Swiss substance package
The wider presence the registered office is the foundation of: people, premises, decision-making.
Swiss substance packageRegistered office
& domicile
Every Swiss company needs a statutory seat and an address where it can be reached. But a bare nameplate behind a company claiming a Swiss tax or treaty position is exactly what authorities now challenge. We provide a registered office in the canton of seat backed by genuine administrative presence: post and official communications handled, the company truly reachable, real administration behind the address. Defensible against substance challenges, because it is presence, not a letterbox.
At a glance
Registered office in Switzerland: a domicile with administrative presence
Defensible — not a bare letterbox.
- What
- Registered office in canton of seat
- Behind it
- Genuine administrative presence
- Handles
- Post & official communications
- Canton
- Chosen on tax & substance
- Not
- A nameplate that gets challenged
The essentials
What a registered office is
Every Swiss company must have a statutory seat in a municipality, recorded in the commercial register under the Code of Obligations, and an address there where it can be reached. The seat fixes the canton, the competent register and tax authority, and the courts. A domiciliation provides that address and the presence behind it. The decisive point is what stands behind the address: a bare nameplate is challenged, a registered office with genuine administrative presence is defensible. We provide the latter.
Who this is for
- companies without their own Swiss premises;
- holdings and SPVs needing a defensible seat;
- foreign groups establishing a Swiss-registered entity;
- companies moving their seat between cantons.
Where it fits
The registered office is the foundation of the substance package, sits within SPV administration, and pairs with directorship.
The distinction
Office vs letterbox
The same address can be a defensible registered office or a liability, depending entirely on what stands behind it.
| Aspect | Bare letterbox | Registered office |
|---|---|---|
| Behind the address | Nothing | Genuine administration |
| Reachability | Nameplate only | Truly contactable |
| Under challenge | Position fails | Defensible |
| Role | A liability | Foundation of substance |
Authorities test whether a company is genuinely seated where it claims, and a nameplate invites the conclusion that it is not, losing the tax or treaty position behind it. A registered office with real presence stands up. We provide presence behind the address, never an empty one.
| Requirement | What it means at the address | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Legal domicile at the seat | A company that can no longer be reached at its registered seat has an organisational defect | Art. 731b(1)(5) CO |
| Share register on site | Kept so that it can be accessed in Switzerland at any time | Art. 686(1) CO |
| Beneficial-owner register on site | Same standard: accessible in Switzerland at any time | Art. 697l(4) CO |
| Resident representation | A board member or executive officer resident in Switzerland, with access to both registers | Art. 718(4) CO |
| Consequence of failure | A shareholder or creditor may apply to the court, which may set a deadline under threat of dissolution or dissolve the company | Art. 731b(1bis) CO |
Notice that three of the five requirements are about someone being reachable and something being readable at a Swiss location. That is the practical content of a seat: correspondence that is received and acted on, registers that can be produced when asked, and a person who can answer for the company. An address that forwards post satisfies none of them, which is why the difference between domicile and a mailbox shows up the moment anything is actually demanded of the company.
How it runs
How we provide it
Choose the canton on tax and substance, provide the address with genuine presence, and integrate it with the wider administration.
- Step 1
Choose the canton
Advising on the canton of seat in light of both the tax rate and where genuine presence sits.
- Step 2
Provide the address
Establishing the registered-office address and recording the seat in the commercial register.
- Step 3
Stand up presence
Handling post and official communications and making the company genuinely reachable at its seat.
- Step 4
Integrate the back office
Combining the office with bookkeeping, governance and a director where the structure needs them.
- Ongoing
Maintain & move
Running the office and handling any change of seat between cantons as a managed process.
Budget
What it costs
A registered office with genuine presence is more than a bare address service and priced accordingly, and it is usually combined with the wider administration the structure needs. The cost is modest against what is at stake: a defensible seat protects the tax and treaty position that an empty letterbox would lose.
We scope and quote against the company’s needs. Pricing is on request.
Discuss your registered office What it takes
What a defensible seat requires
A registered office that stands up rests on:
- genuine administrative presence behind the address;
- real reachability at the seat;
- post and official communications properly handled;
- a canton chosen on tax and substance together;
- integration with the wider substance the structure needs.
An address is not substance — don’t treat it as one
Two mistakes bracket this service. One is the bare letterbox: an empty address behind a structure claiming Swiss benefits, which fails under challenge. The other is the opposite over-reliance: treating a genuine registered office as if it were full substance, when for a structure leaning on meaningful tax or treaty benefits the authorities will look beyond the address for decision-making, people and activity too. The registered office is the necessary foundation, not the whole building. We provide a real, defensible office and are clear about where it ends and where the rest of the substance package must begin.
Why Goldblum
The office: the work behind it
Providing a registered office backed by genuine presence, in the right canton, integrated with the substance the structure needs, is the work this firm does.
Real
Presence behind the address
Post, official communications and reachability handled: a seat the company is genuinely present at, not a nameplate.
Placed
The right canton
The seat chosen on tax rate and genuine substance together, so it is coherent rather than picked for a headline figure.
Integrated
Foundation of substance
The office built into the wider back office, so it is the base of real presence rather than a liability standing alone.
Related
Around the office
Flagship
SPV administration
The full back office the registered office is most defensible inside.
SPV administrationThe board
Directorship services
A resident director to pair with the seat, so presence and representation are both genuine.
Directorship services FAQ
Registered office & domicile: FAQ
01What is a registered office in Switzerland?
Every Swiss company must have a statutory seat in a specific Swiss municipality, recorded in the commercial register, and a registered-office address there where the company can be reached. The seat determines the canton of incorporation, the competent commercial register and tax authority, and the courts that have jurisdiction. A domiciliation service provides that address and the administrative presence behind it for a company that does not have its own premises. The seat is not a trivial formality: it fixes where the company is registered, taxed and reachable, so where it sits and how genuinely it is present there both matter.
02What is the difference between a registered office and a letterbox?
A letterbox is an address and a nameplate with nothing behind it; a proper registered office is an address backed by genuine administrative presence: somewhere the company is actually reachable, where its post is handled, where it can receive official communications and, ideally, where some of its administration genuinely takes place. The distinction has become decisive: a bare letterbox behind a company that claims a Swiss tax or treaty position is exactly what authorities now challenge, while a registered office with real administrative substance behind it is defensible. We provide the latter, because the former is a liability dressed up as a saving.
03Can a domiciliation address be challenged?
Yes, if there is nothing behind it. Tax authorities and treaty partners test whether a company is genuinely present where it claims to be, and a registered office that is purely a nameplate (no administration, no reachability, no activity) invites the conclusion that the company is not really seated there, with the loss of the tax or treaty position that follows. A domiciliation backed by genuine administrative presence, where the company is truly reachable and some of its affairs are actually handled, stands up to that test. The challenge is not to having a domiciliation provider; it is to having an empty one. We provide presence, not a nameplate.
04Does the canton of the registered office matter?
It can matter a great deal. The canton of seat fixes the cantonal tax rate the company faces, the commercial register and authority it deals with, and the local court jurisdiction, and cantonal tax rates vary widely across Switzerland. For a company with a genuine choice of where to seat itself, the canton is part of the planning, balanced against where the company's real activity and people are, because the seat should reflect genuine presence rather than just a rate. We advise on the canton in light of both the tax position and the substance, so the seat is chosen coherently rather than for a headline rate alone.
05What does the domiciliation service include?
A registered-office address in the chosen canton of seat; handling of the company's post and official communications, including the statutory and tax correspondence; reachability so the company can genuinely be contacted at its seat; and the administrative presence that makes the domiciliation more than a nameplate. It is usually combined with the wider administration (bookkeeping, governance, a resident director, filings) because a registered office is most defensible when it sits within real administrative substance rather than standing alone. We provide the office as part of, or alongside, that broader back office, so the presence behind the address is genuine.
06Is a registered office enough substance on its own?
Usually not, and it is important to be clear about this. A registered office with genuine administrative presence is a necessary element of Swiss presence, but for a structure that relies on Switzerland for meaningful tax or treaty benefits, the address alone is rarely sufficient; the authorities will look for decision-making, people and activity as well. The registered office is one part of a substance package, not a substitute for it. Treating an address as if it were full substance is a common and costly mistake. We provide the registered office as the foundation, and build the additional substance the structure needs on top, sized to what it relies on Switzerland for.
07Can you change a company's registered office?
Yes. A company can move its registered office, whether to a different address within the same municipality or to a different canton, through the appropriate commercial-register changes and, for a cross-cantonal move, the steps that involves. A change of canton can have tax consequences, since it changes the cantonal authority and rate, so it is planned rather than done casually. We handle the registered-office change in full (the register filings, the address, the notifications) and advise on the implications where the move crosses cantons or affects the company's tax position. Moving the seat is a managed process, not a simple address update.
08Can I use my own address as the registered office instead?
If the company has genuine premises of its own in Switzerland, that address can and usually should be its registered office. A domiciliation service is for companies that do not have their own real presence at the seat. What does not work is using an address with nothing behind it, whether it is a provider's nameplate or a borrowed address where the company is not genuinely reachable or active. The question is never whose address it is but whether there is real administrative presence behind it. Where a company has its own substance, we help it use its own seat correctly; where it does not, we provide a registered office that supplies the presence the address needs.
09What happens to mail and official correspondence?
Handling the company's post and official communications is a core part of the service, not an add-on. Official correspondence (from the tax authority, the commercial register, courts, banks and counterparties) arrives at the registered office, and it has to be received, recognised for what it is, and acted on or passed to the right person promptly, because some of it carries deadlines. A registered office where post piles up unread is as much a liability as a bare nameplate. We receive, triage and forward or action the correspondence as part of keeping the company genuinely reachable at its seat, so nothing time-sensitive is missed.
10Can Goldblum provide the registered office?
Yes. We provide a Swiss registered office in the canton of seat, backed by genuine administrative presence: post and official-communication handling, reachability, and the administration that makes the domiciliation real rather than a nameplate. We advise on the canton in light of both tax and substance, combine the office with the wider back office where the structure needs it, and handle any change of seat. Because we build presence rather than letterboxes, the registered office is defensible against the substance challenges that empty addresses now attract. The aim is a seat that genuinely reflects where the company is present.
The client's stories
What clients say
Rated 5.0 / 5 from 38 reviews on Google. Read them on Google →
“Perfekter Service! Wir wollten eine AG in der Schweiz übernehmen und hatten kaum Zeit – innerhalb weniger Tage war alles organisiert, inklusive Notar, Handelsregister und Bank.”
“We consulted Goldblum and Partners for structuring our crypto project under Swiss law. Their team was clear about the threshold between non-custodial and financial-intermediary status.”
“Équipe sérieuse. La documentation AML fournie était claire et adaptée à notre activité crypto. Je recommande.”
“Professionisti veri. Conoscono bene la legge svizzera e si sono occupati di ogni aspetto del passaggio azionario.”
Need a defensible registered office?
Tell us the company and what it relies on Switzerland for. A partner provides a registered office backed by genuine presence, in the right canton.
