Holding and Several GmbHs at One Address in Germany

If you run a holding with one or more subsidiaries, you rarely want to manage each company from a different place. This is especially true if you live outside Germany. The good news: German law lets several companies share one registered address. A few rules apply, and they are different from what many foreign founders expect. Here is what you need to know.

Can a holding and its subsidiaries share one business address?

Yes. No German law prohibits two or more companies from being registered at the same address. Office buildings often house many companies under one street number. What the law requires is that every GmbH registers a domestic business address, the “Geschäftsanschrift”, with the commercial register (Section 8 (4) No. 1 and Section 10 (1) GmbHG). Whether other companies use the same address does not matter.

What does matter is that the address works for each company on its own. Courts, authorities and business partners must be able to serve documents on every company there. That only works if it is clear which companies can be reached at the address and if someone accepts mail for each of them.

Two terms are often mixed up. The registered seat, the “Satzungssitz”, is the municipality named in the articles of association, for example Berlin (Section 4a GmbHG). The business address is the exact street and house number. Several companies can share both. More background is in our article on the registered business address.

What German law requires: a registered address for every company

Every GmbH and UG needs a German business address. It is entered in the public commercial register and is where official letters, court documents and tax notices are delivered. A P.O. box is not enough. The address does not have to be where the managing director lives, and the managing director does not have to live in Germany at all.

Registered address is not the place of management

For tax purposes, a different concept counts: the place of management, the “Ort der Geschäftsleitung” (Section 10 AO). It is where the important decisions of the company are actually made. A GmbH with its registered seat in Germany is always fully taxable in Germany (Section 1 KStG). If you run it from abroad, your country of residence may also treat it as tax resident. Tax treaties then usually decide by the place of effective management.

A rented business address does not create a place of management and does not move it. It is the official address for the register, mail and service. If you manage your companies from abroad, have your structure checked by a tax advisor. Our guide to starting a business in Germany without residency explains the other steps for founders outside Germany.

How it works in the Handelsregister and Impressum

In the commercial register, the “Handelsregister”, each company has its own entry and its own registration number. The shared address simply appears in several entries. This has three practical consequences:

The same principle applies to the Impressum, the legal notice every German website needs. Under Section 5 DDG, a website names the address of the company that operates it. If your subsidiary runs the online shop, the Impressum names the subsidiary with its own registration number, even if the address is the same as the holding's. More on this in our article on the business address in your Impressum.

When founders put several GmbHs at one address

Several companies at one address are not an exception. They are the norm for certain structures:

Holding with operating subsidiaries

The holding owns the shares, the subsidiaries run the business. Dividends from a subsidiary to a holding with a stake of at least 10 % for corporate tax, and 15 % for trade tax, are 95 % tax free in Germany (Section 8b KStG, Section 9 No. 2a GewStG). Because the shareholders are usually the same people and the holding needs no office of its own, a shared business address is the obvious choice.

Asset- and property-holding structures

One company holds assets such as real estate, a securities portfolio, machinery or trademarks. Another company uses them for its operating business, or the asset company simply invests its capital. Separating the two is meant to protect the assets from the risks of the business. A GmbH & Co. KG with its general partner GmbH, the “Komplementär-GmbH”, is another typical pair registered at the same address.

Structures like these also have their registered address with us.

One German tax term comes up often here: “Betriebsaufspaltung”, a split into an asset company and an operating company that makes the asset company's rental income subject to trade tax. A shared address does not trigger it. It requires that the same people control both companies and that one company lets the other use an asset essential to its business, typically a building. An address rented from a third party like Teeberg is not such an asset, however many of your companies use it.

One registered address per company: what you need

A shared address does not mean shared handling. For each company to be reachable on its own, the following should be in place:

Each company also reports its beneficial owners to the Transparenzregister separately. And if a subsidiary does not exist yet, you need the address before it does, because the notary asks for it at incorporation.

The Postal Address package from €35 cannot be used for the commercial register and is not an option for companies.

Setting up several registered offices with Teeberg

At Teeberg, every company gets a registered business address in our Virtual Office in Berlin, and we set it up properly for each one. This is how it works:

Prices per company, plus VAT, as of September 2026. Monthly plans can be cancelled any month, no minimum term. Discounts for several companies on request.

Frequently asked questions: holding and several GmbHs at one address