What is the registered office?
The registered office is your company's legal and administrative address. It appears in the articles of association, is recorded in the CBE and published in the Belgian Official Gazette. It is the legal entity's official address: correspondence from the administration, tax authorities, courts and invoices are linked to it. A legal entity has only one registered office at a time.
What is an establishment unit?
The establishment unit (EU) is a geographically identifiable place where the company carries out an activity: a shop, office, workshop, warehouse, practice… Each unit receives a 10-digit establishment unit number (starting with 2), separate from the enterprise number. A single company can have several establishment units, or none if it has no physical place of activity.
The key differences
In short, the registered office concerns the company's legal identity, while the establishment unit concerns its concrete places of activity. Both can share the same address, but follow different logics.
- Role: registered office = legal address; establishment unit = place of activity
- Number: enterprise number (CBE) vs establishment unit number (10 digits, starts with 2)
- Quantity: a single registered office, but zero, one or several establishment units
- Publicity: the registered office is published in the Belgian Gazette; the establishment unit is recorded in the CBE
Registered office and domiciliation address
Many entrepreneurs choose a domiciliation address as their registered office without carrying out physical activity there: this is perfectly legal and common. If you later run an activity in a specific location (shop, office), it must be declared as an establishment unit. A domiciliation address can therefore serve as the registered office while keeping your places of activity separate.
Official sources
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