Changing the Address of a Canadian Corporation

One of the most common changes in the life of a corporation is an address change. Corporations change their address for a whole host of reasons; for example, when they’re growing, and they lease a new space, when there is a change in ownership, or when there is a change in business activity.

Changing the registered office address of your corporation can become a headache if you don’t approach it in the right way. This article aims to help Canadian corporations, i.e., corporations incorporated federally under the Canada Business Corporations Act, understand what is involved in changing their registered office address. In the process, we’ll let you know the best way to easily take care of changing the registered office address of your corporation. 

In a hurry and want it done right? Tobuso can take care of your corporate address change from start to finish.

The process for changing the registered office address of your federal corporation will depend on the answer to this question: Is the new address of your Canadian corporation in a new province? If the answer is: “No, the new address is in the same province as the old address,” then the process is inexpensive and straightforward. If the answer is “Yes, the new address is in a different province than the old address,” then the process will involve more steps and will be more costly. 

We will first provide some general information about registered office addresses and then describe exactly what needs to be done in both of the situations described above.

What is a “registered office address”?

Each Canadian corporation is required to have a registered office address. 

The term “registered” means that the corporation filed paperwork with Corporations Canada stating that this specific address would be the main address—or registered office address—of the Corporation.

The registered office address is a physical location (no P.O. boxes allowed!) where the corporation can receive mail. A physical address is required in part so that the corporation can receive “personal service” of documents (i.e. physical delivery directly to an individual), such as statements of claim starting a lawsuit. 

If a corporation has more than one physical location—for example, a warehouse site, a head office, and multiple retail outlets—only one will be the registered office address for the corporation. Usually, it would be the head office location. If you need help determining your corporation’s registered office address, just message us at contact@tobuso.ca, and we will let you know.

Where does the registered office address need to be?

The registered office address needs to be somewhere in Canada. One of the benefits of a federal corporation is that the address can be anywhere in Canada (as opposed to corporations that are incorporated under the laws of a province or territory—those corporations need a registered office address in that specific province or territory). 

However, your federal corporation also needs to extra-provincially register in the province or territory where its registered office is located (which some might see as a drawback of having a federal Canadian corporation). 

1. Changing the registered office of a Canadian corporation within the same province

To change the registered office of a Canadian corporation (within the same province as the current registered office address), the following steps need to be taken:

1. Board resolution authorizing the address change (unless a shareholders agreement or the bylaws require that the shareholders make such a decision);
2. Notice of Change filed with Corporations Canada;
3. Minute Book updated; 
4. Address updated with Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) (which is crucial for receiving reminders and staying on top of CRA accounts); and
5. Update everyone else, for example:
   • Banks;
   • Workplace safety insurers;
   • Insurance providers;
   • Domain name providers;
   • Mobile phone providers; and
   • People that the corporation contracts with (like service providers and customers).

For business owners who want their address changed quickly and effectively, Tobuso offers an affordable full-service package that takes care of items 1 through 4 (and we provide you with a standard letter for item 5 as well). If you’re looking for peace of mind then you can easily hand it off to us, it’ll just take you a couple of minutes and we handle the rest.

2. Changing the registered office of a Canadian corporation, moving to a new province

There are additional steps to change the registered office of a Canadian corporation to a new province. The biggest difference is that the articles of the corporation need to be amended, and a new extra-provincial registration needs to be filed. Here are the steps required:

1. Prepare Articles of Amendment;
2. Shareholder resolution authorizing Articles of Amendment;
3. Board resolution (i) authorizing the address change (unless a shareholders agreement or the bylaws require that the shareholders make such a decision) and (ii) approving of the articles of amendment;
4. File Articles of Amendment with Corporations Canada;
5. File an extra-provincial registration in the new province;
6. Minute Book updated;
7. Address updated with Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) (which is crucial for receiving reminders and staying on top of CRA accounts); and
8. Update everyone else, for example:
   • Banks;
   • Workplace safety insurers;
   • Insurance providers;
   • Domain name providers;
   • Mobile phone providers; and
   • People that the corporation contracts with (like service providers and customers).

As you can tell, moving to a new province is more involved, but Tobuso has you covered. We offer an affordable full-service package that takes care of items 1 through 7 (and we provide you with a standard letter for item 8 as well). If you’re looking for someone who has done this before and who can get it done quickly and effectively then you’ve come to the right place; it’ll just take you a couple of minutes to provide us the information that we need and we’ll handle the rest.

And here’s some good news that’s changed in your favour: Corporations Canada no longer charges a fee to amend the articles when the change is to the province of your registered office, as long as you file online. 

There are still fees for extra-provincial registration, which vary from province to province. They can be as low as $0 (for example, a federal corporation registering in Ontario) and run up to several hundred dollars in some provinces, such as Newfoundland. 

To get the exact pricing, just start the address change process on our site and after you answer some basic questions we’ll give you the exact pricing. There’s no commitment on your part and we always show our pricing up front so that there are no surprises for our customers. 

How do I change the registered office address of my Canadian corporation?

We have made it easy for you to change the address of your Canadian corporation, whether the new address is in the same province or whether you are moving provinces.

Just visit our address change page and follow the prompts. By using the Tobuso platform, you can rest easy knowing that the correct documents will be generated and circulated for e-signature, proper filings will be made with government registries, and your minute book will automatically be updated.

We hope this article gives you a better understanding of how to change the address of your federal corporation in Canada. If you want to learn more about Tobuso, just visit our site or go ahead and set up a free account today!

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