Virtual Office and Registered Address in Bangladesh
A virtual office is a registered business address you can use without renting the floor space behind it. PayrollBD operates one at House 47, Ravindra Sarani (Road 15), Sector 3, 8th Floor, Uttara, Dhaka 1230, receives your statutory correspondence there, and issues the documents you need to name it as your registered office.
For a company incorporated in Bangladesh the registered address is not a convenience. The Companies Act, 1994 fixes when you must have one, when the Registrar must be told, and what has to be displayed at the address itself. This page sets out each of those duties, quotes the section that creates it, and states which part PayrollBD carries and which part stays with you.
What is a virtual office in Bangladesh?
A virtual office is an address service. You get a business address that can receive post and statutory notices, a place to hold a meeting when one is needed, and the paperwork that lets you name the address on a filing. You do not get a leased desk or a permanent room. The distinction matters because the Companies Act attaches duties to the registered address itself, not to how much floor space sits behind it.
What the address service covers
The address carries your correspondence and your statutory notices. Post is received and notified on arrival, parcels are received and handed over, and a staffed reception covers working hours. A local telephone line comes with it, along with the documentation you need when the address is named on a filing. Each item is confirmed in writing before the engagement starts, so nothing on this list is assumed.
What the physical facilities add
Where you need to be present rather than only reachable, the same location provides a furnished room, a meeting room, wired and wireless connectivity, utilities, and seating. These are booked against the agreement rather than held permanently. Companies that need a fixed room every working day are better served by a serviced office arrangement, which is a different agreement and is described further down this page.
What does the Companies Act, 1994 require of a registered office?
Seven provisions decide whether an address works as a registered office, and each is quoted below from the Bengali text published by the Ministry of Law. Two fix deadlines, two impose a daily fine, two govern what must be displayed, and one closes the loophole of relying on the annual return. A provider that cannot help you satisfy all seven is selling a mailbox rather than a registered address.
| Duty | Section | Deadline or limit | What it means for the address |
|---|---|---|---|
| A registered office must exist | s. 77(1) | Earlier of the first day of business or day 28 | It must be able to receive all correspondence and notices |
| Notice to the Registrar | s. 77(2) | Within 28 days of incorporation or of a change | The address is named on the notice the Registrar records |
| The annual return is no substitute | s. 77(3) | No relief | A separate notice is still required for a change |
| Operating without compliance | s. 77(4) | Up to 200 taka for each day | The fine runs for every day the company trades |
| Name and address on display | s. 78(a) | Continuous | Your company name must be readable at that location |
| Name and address on company paper | s. 78(c) | Continuous | Letterheads, invoices, cheques and receipts carry it |
| Failure to display the name | s. 79(1) | Up to 500 taka for each day | It falls on the company and on its officers |
Section 77(2) is the one that fixes the clock. It requires the company to give notice of the situation of the registered office, and of any change, “আটাশ দিনের মধ্যে, রেজিষ্ট্রারের নিকট নোটিশ প্রদান করিবে”, that is, within twenty-eight days, to the Registrar, who records it. Section 77(3) then removes the obvious shortcut: listing the change in the annual return “শাল না” will not do, because the duty under this section is not treated as discharged by it.
Section 78(a) is the provision most virtual-office buyers have never read. It requires the company name and the registered office address to be painted or fixed on a board. That board must be conspicuous and in legible Bengali or English characters, outside every office and every place where the company carries on business. Section 79(1) makes failure a daily offence. An address you cannot put a board on is therefore not a registered office you can safely use.
Sections quoted from the Companies Act, 1994 (Act No. 18 of 1994, dated 12 September 1994) as published by the Ministry of Law at bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd, read in full for this page. The Act was enacted in Bengali and that site publishes no English text for it, so the Bengali wording above is the authentic one and the English beside it is an unofficial rendering. Confirm the operative text on the date you file. — Reviewed by Eicra Binte Islam
Which authority has to accept the address?
An address is only useful if the body you are filing with accepts it. Five different authorities look at a Bangladeshi company address for five different reasons, and each sets its own condition. Only the first row below rests on a statute we have quoted; the rest name the body that decides, because acceptance is set by that body rather than by the provider. Confirm each one in writing before you rely on it.
| Authority | Why it looks at the address | What it needs | Who confirms acceptance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms | Incorporation and any change of registered office | Notice under s. 77(2) within 28 days | The Registrar records the notice |
| City Corporation | Trade licence for the place of business | Evidence of the right to occupy the address | The issuing City Corporation |
| National Board of Revenue | VAT registration and the business identification number | A declared place of business | The National Board of Revenue |
| Bangladesh Investment Development Authority | Registration of a foreign investment | A local office address for the venture | The Authority |
| Your scheduled bank | Opening the company account | An address consistent with the Registrar record | The bank, under its own policy |
Only the first row is settled by a statute quoted on this page. For the other four the deciding body sets its own condition, and those conditions change. PayrollBD confirms in writing which documents it will issue for your address before the engagement begins, and names the ones it will not issue. Where a body asks for something we do not hold, we say so rather than producing a substitute.
How does PayrollBD set up your registered address?
In four stages, each ending in a document rather than a status update. Nothing is promised before the filing you intend to make is known, because the filing decides which documents the address has to support. At any point you can see which stage you are in, which document has been issued, and which authority it was prepared for.
Step 1 · Name the filing
We establish which filing the address is for: incorporation, a change of registered office, a trade licence, a VAT registration or a bank account. That answer decides the document set, so it is agreed in writing before anything is issued. You leave this stage knowing which of the five authorities will examine the address and what each of them will ask you to produce.
Step 2 · Issue the address documents
We issue the documents the named filing needs and confirm the exact address string that will appear on it, character for character, so the Registrar record and the trade licence do not diverge later. Anything a body requires that PayrollBD does not hold is named at this point in writing rather than left for you to discover at the counter.
Step 3 · Support the filing
We hand over the document set in the form the authority expects. The address stays reachable while the filing is examined, so a notice sent during the process is received and passed to you. Where the Companies Act sets a twenty-eight day window, the handover is scheduled against that window rather than against our own convenience.
Step 4 · Run the address
Once the filing is recorded we receive your post and statutory notices, notify you on arrival, hand over parcels, and keep the signboard position available so the display duty under section 78(a) can be met. Any change of address is handled as a fresh notice to the Registrar rather than as an internal update. The address file is kept alongside your compliance record set so a later inspection finds one consistent set.
What do foreign companies ask before choosing an address?
These four questions come up in almost every first conversation about a registered address in Bangladesh. Each answer states the position first and the section it rests on second. Where a duty stays with your company rather than moving to PayrollBD, the answer says so instead of leaving it implied.
Questions asked before the address is named on a filing
The first answer covers whether the address is usable as a registered office at all. The second sets out what the service includes. The third names who uses it and why. The fourth explains what happens when the registered address changes, which is the point at which most companies discover the twenty-eight day window.
It can, provided it satisfies what the Companies Act, 1994 asks of a registered office. Section 77(1) requires an address at which all correspondence and notices can be received. Section 77(2) requires notice of that address to reach the Registrar within twenty-eight days. Section 78(a) requires the company name and address to be displayed at the location. An address service that cannot support all three is not usable for the purpose, whatever it is called.
The address itself, with correspondence and statutory notices received there. Post is notified on arrival and parcels are handed over. Reception covers working hours, and a local telephone line is available. The documents an authority asks for when the address is named on a filing are issued as part of the service. Meeting space and a furnished room sit at the same location and are booked against the agreement rather than held permanently.
Foreign parents opening a first presence, ventures between premises, and businesses whose team already works remotely but which still need a registrable address. Freelancers and early stage companies use the same service for the same reason. What the users have in common is a legal need to be reachable at a fixed address in Bangladesh without a commercial reason to hold floor space behind it.
A change is a fresh notice to the Registrar, not an internal update. Section 77(2) gives twenty-eight days from the date of the change, and section 77(3) states that recording the change in the annual return does not discharge the duty. Section 77(4) makes trading without compliance a daily offence. We prepare the document set for the new address and schedule the handover against that window.
Need a registered address in Bangladesh?
Tell us which filing the address is for and which authority will examine it. We will confirm which documents PayrollBD issues, name the ones it does not, and set out the address string that will appear on your filing before anything is submitted.