Company legal and mailing addresses
Understand the differences between legal and mailing addresses for your business compliance needs.
Company legal address
The legal address, often referred to as the physical address or business location, is the actual, physical location where the business operates or is headquartered. This address cannot be a P.O. Box. It must be a street address where the business conducts its primary activities or where its main office is located.
The IRS uses this address to determine the business’s principal place of business for legal and tax jurisdiction purposes.
Company mailing address
The mailing address is where the IRS and other agencies send correspondence, notices, and official documents for the business. This address can be different from the physical address and may be a P.O. Box or another location where the business prefers to receive mail.
If a business wants IRS mail to go to a different address than its physical location, it should specify this mailing address on forms such as the SS-4 or by filing Form 8822-B to update the address.
Key IRS guidance
On IRS forms (such as SS-4), you provide both addresses if they are different. The physical address is for the business location; the mailing address is for correspondence. Changes to either address must be reported to the IRS using Form 8822-B.
The IRS will use the mailing address for all correspondence unless otherwise specified.
Address Validation
Check automatically validates any addresses that have been attached to any of our API objects (company, employee, contractor, workplace, etc). We also have an Address Validation API that you can use to validate addresses without creating any of these objects in the system. Alternatively, you can also create test companies or workplaces in Sandbox in order to check the validity of an address. For more information about address validation, please check out Address Validation guide.
Summary
The legal address (physical address) is where the business is actually located and must be a street address, while the mailing address is where the business wants to receive IRS mail and can be a P.O. Box or other location. Both are important for IRS records, but they serve different purposes
Address Type | Purpose/Definition | Can Be a P.O. Box? | Used For |
Legal/Physical | Actual location where business operates | No | Tax jurisdiction, legal matters |
Mailing | Where business receives IRS and official correspondence | Yes | Receiving mail, IRS notices, communications |
Last updated on April 17, 2025