Austria · Registers and office
Virtual Office and Registered Address
in Vienna
A Vienna address your company can be reached at, with both of the things the Firmenbuch records set correctly.
- The seat is a place, the address for service is a separate entry: FBG § 3 Abs. 1 Z 4
- The seat goes where the operation, the management or the administration is: GmbHG § 5 Abs. 2
- An address counts in law only if someone is regularly there: OGH 3 Ob 229/23g
- We promise no outcome at the register
What we do, and what nobody can promise you
We set up the address an Austrian company is reached at, file it, and keep the entry current: the register application, the entry the Firmenbuch carries for service, the amendment when anything moves, and the handling of what arrives.
What we do not do is tell you that a court, a bank or a tax office will treat that address as the company's real centre. No Austrian court publishes what it will accept, and nothing read for this page settles it. So the page states the test and the decided cases instead, and the arrangement can be judged before it is filed.
Two register fields, not one
Almost everything sold as a registered office in Vienna treats the register entry as a single thing. The Firmenbuch records two, and they answer to different rules.
The Sitz is a place. FBG § 3 Abs. 1 Z 4 ties it to the political municipality, so the seat is Vienna rather than a street, and GmbHG § 5 Abs. 2 fixes it where the company has an operation, its management or its administration, permitting a departure only for an important reason. The für Zustellungen maßgebliche Geschäftsanschrift is the street, and the register presumes so little about it that Z 4a exists to record that none is known. how to search the Austrian company register covers the rest of the file.
The seat belongs to the company, not to the address: a gmbh company austria is formed, and its beneficial owners are filed in the austrian beneficial owner register, whatever address appears for service.
| Sitz (registered seat) | Geschäftsanschrift für Zustellungen | Betriebsstätte / Standort | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | a place, stated as a municipality | a street address for service | a physical facility, or the location a trade is exercised at |
| What the law asks of it | the place of an operation, the management or the administration; departure only for an important reason | that it be the address decisive for service; no substantive test in the register statute | that it be a fixed local installation or a named location |
| Entered in the Firmenbuch | yes | yes, and its absence is recorded too | only branches are, with their own address |
| What turns on it | the register court, unlimited corporate tax, what goes on business letters | whether a document reaches you and when a deadline starts | the trade notification, the tax nexus |
| Provision | GmbHG § 5 Abs. 2, AktG § 5, FlexKapGG § 1 Abs. 2 | FBG § 3 Abs. 1 Z 4 and Z 4a | BAO § 29 Abs. 1, GewO 1994 § 339 Abs. 2 |
So the usual question, whether a virtual office works as the registered office, runs two fields together. Neither provision puts a substantive test on the address, and neither text contains the phrase.
Three concepts the market runs together. Each has its own provision, and only the first two are entered in the Firmenbuch.
What this service includes
The seat decision.
Which municipality the seat can honestly be fixed in, and whether GmbHG § 5 Abs. 2 is answered without needing an important reason.
The address for service.
A Vienna street address entered as the Geschäftsanschrift, with a nameplate and a person there on working days, because that is what the law measures.
The register filing.
The application, and the amendment later: FBG § 10 Abs. 1 requires a change to a registered fact to be filed without delay.
Post, with the limits stated first.
Mail and parcels received, notified, scanned or forwarded, and the RSa and RSb rules explained before you sign rather than after.
The provider consent.
The written Zustimmungserklärung the market issues for the filing. GmbHG § 9 Abs. 2 does not list it among the documents; we obtain it anyway.
The record.
What the entry says at any moment, what letting it go stale costs (FBG § 24 Abs. 1) and who carries that personally (GmbHG § 26 Abs. 2).
When an address counts as an address in law
The test is factual, not formal.
ZustG § 2 Z 4 lists the dwelling, the Betriebsstätte, the Sitz, the business room and the workplace. The Supreme Court adds the condition that decides cases: the recipient must be regularly present there in fact (3 Ob 229/23g, 31 January 2024, RS0134675).
A letterbox seat is displaced.
Where the commercial-law seat is a pure letterbox address, the place where the head administration is conducted takes its place for service (3 Ob 393/97h, reaffirmed 8 Ob 139/22g, 21 November 2022, RS0110127).
The register entry cures nothing.
Failing to notify a change of the Geschäftsanschrift does not make deposit at the stale registered address effective service of a document starting proceedings. The sanction is damages (RS0110249, most recently 2 Ob 16/26f, 19 May 2026).
And it shields nothing either.
The possible addresses stand in no ranking, so the claimant chooses. The Supreme Court has upheld service at a managing director's workplace differing from the company's seat (1 Ob 49/07y, RS0122390).
ZustG · when the address in the register carries a document
startA document is to be served on the company at the address in the register
Is the recipient, or a representative authorised to receive under ZustG § 13 Abs. 3, actually regularly present there?
- ↓
Substitute service on an adult present at the address
ZustG § 16
- ↓
If nobody takes it, the item is deposited
Held for a collection period of at least two weeks and served on the first day of it (§ 17 Abs. 3), whether or not you read it.
An item to be served zu eigenen Händen may not go to a substitute recipient at all (§ 21).
- ↓
The place where the head administration is conducted takes over
RS0110127, a pure letterbox seat being displaced.
- ↓
And the claimant may choose another address anyway
The possible addresses stand in no ranking: service at a managing director's workplace differing from the company's seat has been upheld (RS0122390).
across both branchesA register entry does not create an address for service, and failing to update one does not make service at the stale address effective. The sanction is damages (RS0110249).
How the address is set up and kept current
Facts first.
Where the managing directors actually work and where the work happens. GmbHG § 5 Abs. 2 is answered from that, not from a preference.
The municipality.
Fixing the seat fixes the register court: for a Vienna seat, the Handelsgericht Wien.
The address.
The Vienna street address is contracted, the nameplate goes up, and the provider issues its written consent.
The filing.
The application goes in with the two documents GmbHG § 9 Abs. 2 names: the articles in notarial copy and the appointment instruments, certified.
The post routine.
Who is told of what, and what happens to an item marked zu eigenen Handen, which nobody may accept for you (ZustG § 21).
Changes.
Every change of the address for service is filed without delay (GmbHG § 26 Abs. 1). We do not wait for the court to ask.
Want the seat tested before you file?
Send us where the management sits and what you intend to register. You get the GmbHG § 5 Abs. 2 reading, the position on service, and what we would file.
What you send us, and what the seat pulls in behind it
- The company, or the form you intend to use.
- Where each managing director actually works, and in which country.
- Whether any work is done in Austria, and by whom.
- The articles or the draft, with their date.
- Who will sign the register application.
- Whether a trade licence is planned, and for which activity.
- How registered post is to be handled while nobody is in Vienna.
- Any existing Austrian register entry the filing has to replace.
Fixing the seat is not an administrative detail: six other rules take their answer from it, and one decides whether Austria taxes the company at all.
| What turns on the seat | The rule | Provision |
|---|---|---|
| Which court keeps the file | the Landesgericht for the district of the seat; for a Vienna seat, the Handelsgericht Wien | FBG § 3 Abs. 1 Z 4 |
| Austrian corporate income tax | unlimited liability on all domestic and foreign income where the management or the seat is in Austria | KStG § 1 Abs. 2 |
| Where the management is taken to be | the centre of commercial top management; for tax the seat is the place the articles fix | BAO § 27 Abs. 1 and Abs. 2 |
| Business letters, order forms and the website | firm, legal form, Sitz, Firmenbuch number and Firmenbuch court, on pain of a court penalty | UGB § 14 Abs. 1 and Abs. 5 |
| The trade notification | to the district authority of the Standort, naming the Standort intended for the activity | GewO 1994 § 339 Abs. 1 and Abs. 2 |
| Keeping the entry current | every change filed without delay; coercive penalties up to EUR 3,600, repeatable, trebled for a medium and sixfolded for a large company | FBG § 10 Abs. 1 and § 24 Abs. 1, Abs. 2, Abs. 5 |
What the registered seat decides, with the provision that decides it. The only amount anywhere on this page is a penalty the register court may impose, and a statute fixes it, not us.
Where a registered address stops working
When the business needs premises.
GewO 1994 § 74 Abs. 1 measures an installation intended to serve a trade other than temporarily, and an address is not an installation. business license austria sets out which trades ask for what.
When nobody is there.
If no one is regularly at the address it is not an Abgabestelle, and what replaces it is the place your administration actually runs from, wherever in the world that is.
When it is meant to hide something.
It does not. A claimant may serve at a managing director's workplace, and the beneficial-owner filing is a separate duty. Austria's Scheinunternehmen regime (SBBG § 8 Abs. 1) targets payroll fraud rather than service addresses, but a finding under it is entered in the register (FBG § 3 Abs. 1 Z 15a).
When the company is bought rather than formed.
A shelf company arrives with an entry already in it, so both fields have to be moved deliberately: what a shelf company in Austria does and does not include.
Not sure the arrangement will hold?
Tell us what is registered today and where the company is really run from. We will say what holds and what has to be filed.
Related pages
Company Registration Austria: Nominee Director in Austria What a nominee may lawfully do here, and what the beneficial-owner register makes reportable.
Company Registration Austria: Business Bank Account in Austria The capital deposit the register needs, and what a bank must establish before it may open an account.
How this page is kept accurate
Every rule here names its paragraph, and every court holding its RIS-Justiz Rechtssatz number and the most recent decision in the chain. Where the sources do not answer, the page says so rather than filling the gap: no register outcome is promised, no processing time given, and no figure appears that is not fixed by an Austrian statute. Updated 17 September 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Is a virtual office address legal for registering a company in Austria?
Austrian law does not use the term. It regulates two separate things: the Sitz, which GmbHG § 5 Abs. 2 fixes at the place where the company has an operation, its management or its administration, and the business address for service, which FBG § 3 Abs. 1 Z 4 records as a different field. Neither permits a service address and neither forbids one.
What is the difference between the Sitz and the business address for service?
The Sitz is a place, not a street: FBG § 3 Abs. 1 Z 4 ties it to the political municipality, and where the two names differ the municipality is entered as well. The für Zustellungen maßgebliche Geschäftsanschrift is the street address at which the company is served. They are separate entries, and Z 4a exists to record that no such address is known.
Can the registered seat be an address where nobody works?
GmbHG § 5 Abs. 2 asks where the operation, the management or the administration is, and allows a departure only for an important reason. The address for service is a separate field with no test of its own. But the Supreme Court holds that where the seat is a pure letterbox address, the place of head administration takes its place for service (3 Ob 393/97h and 8 Ob 139/22g, RS0110127).
Will the register court accept an address provided by a service company?
We do not know, and we promise nothing. No Austrian court publishes acceptance criteria, and no decision read for this page settles it either way. What is settled is what the application carries: GmbHG § 9 Abs. 2 lists two attachments, the articles in notarial copy and the appointment instruments in certified form. A provider's written consent is market practice, not a statutory attachment.
Do banks accept virtual addresses?
That is the bank's decision and not the register's, and nothing read for this page predicts it. FM-GwG § 6 Abs. 2 Z 2 requires the institution to establish the company's name, legal form, power of representation and seat from documents. What it is testing is the fact behind the entry, not the entry.
What happens to a registered letter sent to the address?
It depends on the marking. An RSb item may be handed to an adult present at the address (ZustG § 16). An RSa item, to be served zu eigenen Handen, may not go to a substitute recipient at all (§ 21). If nobody takes it, the item is deposited and counts as served on the first day of a collection period of at least two weeks (§ 17 Abs. 3).
Is a post-office box enough?
No. The Supreme Court holds that a Postfach is not an Abgabestelle within the Zustellgesetz (2 Ob 190/98z, RS0110392), and the Oberlandesgericht Innsbruck holds the same of a post office itself, so its address is not suitable for proper official service (25 Rs 49/18v, RI0100060).
How are addresses written in Austria, and can you give me a sample Austrian address?
The format is the recipient, then the street and house number, then the four-digit postcode and the town on one line, then the country. We print no specimen. Every well-formed Austrian address belongs to somebody, and this site publishes no real Austrian address anywhere, its own included.
Does a Vienna address make my company taxable in Austria?
The seat does, on its own. KStG § 1 Abs. 2 makes a body corporate unlimitedly liable to Austrian corporate income tax where it has its management or its seat in Austria, and that liability reaches all domestic and foreign income. BAO § 27 Abs. 2 puts the place of management where the centre of commercial top management is.
Can I use the address for my trade licence?
The trade is a separate filing with a concept of its own. GewO 1994 § 339 Abs. 1 and Abs. 2 send the notification to the district authority of the Standort and require the Standort intended for the activity to be named. Where a trade needs premises, § 74 Abs. 1 measures a fixed installation intended to serve it other than temporarily, which an address is not.
What must I put on my invoices and my website?
UGB § 14 Abs. 1 requires a registered entrepreneur to state the firm, the legal form, the Sitz, the Firmenbuch number and the Firmenbuch court on every business letter and order form addressed to a particular recipient, and on the website. It is the seat that goes there, not the address for service. Abs. 5 backs it with a court penalty.
What happens if I stop using the address?
The entry has to change. FBG § 10 Abs. 1 requires a change to a registered fact to be filed without delay, and GmbHG § 26 Abs. 1 puts that duty on the managing directors for every change of the address for service. Abs. 2 makes them jointly liable for a false or delayed filing, and FBG § 24 Abs. 1 backs it with penalties of up to EUR 3,600.
How much does a registered address in Vienna cost?
Pricing is on request. What moves it is the work behind the address rather than the address itself: whether the company exists yet, which form it takes, whether we file the register application and the later amendments, how registered post is to be handled, and how many changes the entry is likely to need.
Start with the seat, not the street
The street is the easy half. The seat decides which court holds your file, whether Austria taxes the company and whether a letter left at the door binds you. Send us the facts and we will read both.