Address for service in Germany (ladungsfähige Anschrift)

Forms, contracts and website imprints keep asking for a ladungsfähige Anschrift – an address for service. It means an address where you can actually be reached and where courts, tax offices and other authorities can validly serve documents. It also identifies you clearly.

When do the self-employed need one?

• Website imprint: under § 5 DDG a business website must state the address where you are established.
• Court proceedings: a statement of claim must name the parties with an address for service (§ 253 ZPO) – also when you have to sue a client after an unsuccessful payment reminder.
• Authorities: trade office, tax office and health insurer need an address for their notices.
• Invoices and contracts: every invoice shows your full address.

What does not qualify?

• A PO box: documents cannot be validly served in person there.
• The address of a mere postal service provider: the Federal Court of Justice ruled that this is not a party’s address for service (BGH, 7 July 2023, V ZR 210/22).
• A bare c/o address: usually not enough if you are not reachable there and post is not reliably accepted.

Why our business addresses qualify

Our business address is not an anonymous mailbox. You register your trade there, and we are on site for your post:

• We accept post for you – including letters from tax offices, courts and other authorities and formal service of documents.
• We scan incoming letters and forward them to you digitally, so you can read them anywhere.
• We keep important official letters for you in the original.

So you are genuinely reachable at your business address – even while you are in your home country. More in our office service.

Watch the deadlines

A notice posted by the tax office to a German address is deemed delivered on the fourth day after posting (§ 122(2) AO). From then on, for example, the one-month objection period runs. Read forwarded letters promptly. Which tax office writes to you is explained in our article on tax office responsibility.

Business address is not a permanent establishment

An address for service says nothing about whether there is a permanent establishment for tax purposes. See permanent establishment in trade and tax law.