A business address that earns your clients' trust

Professional services cover a wide range, and how you register depends on what you do:

• Commercial service providers (Gewerbe) – marketing, design, PR and recruitment agencies, IT services, management consultancies, coaches and most other commercial advisers register a trade with the local Gewerbeamt under § 14 GewO. You may owe trade tax (Gewerbesteuer) above the annual allowance.
• Liberal professions (Freiberufler) – the "catalogue" professions under § 18 EStG: lawyers, tax advisers, auditors, architects, engineers, doctors and similar advisory professions. You do not register a Gewerbe; you notify the Finanzamt of your activity (via the Fragebogen zur steuerlichen Erfassung on ELSTER) and pay no Gewerbesteuer.
• Incorporated and partnership firms – many professional firms operate as a GmbH (registered in the Handelsregister – see our For GmbH & UG Formation) or, for the liberal professions, as a Partnerschaftsgesellschaft (PartG / PartG mbB) registered in the Partnerschaftsregister. Both need a serviceable business address.

The Finanzamt has the final say on how your activity is classified – if you're unsure whether you're a Gewerbe or a Freiberufler, check with a tax adviser.

For a professional services firm, your address is both a compliance requirement and a marketing asset. The same Olea address works everywhere you need it:

• Client-facing materials – your proposals, invoices, contracts, email signature, business cards and website carry a credible business-district address instead of your home.
• Impressum – a commercial website needs a serviceable address in its Impressum (§ 5 DDG, which replaced § 5 TMG in May 2024; § 18 Abs. 2 MStV applies to journalistic-editorial content). Your Olea address keeps your home address off the public internet while ensuring official letters and cease-and-desist notices (Abmahnungen) still reach you.
• Registration – use it for your Gewerbeanmeldung at the Gewerbeamt (§ 14 GewO) if you run a trade, or give it to the Finanzamt when you register as a Freiberufler (§ 18 EStG). Acceptance of a virtual address for the Gewerbeanmeldung can vary by municipality – confirm with your local Gewerbeamt.
• Banks and platforms – open business bank and payment accounts and pass address-verification checks.

For tax, a business address is not automatically your place of management (Ort der Geschäftsleitung) or a permanent establishment (Betriebsstätte) – those depend on where you actually run your business and are determined by the Finanzamt.

Some professions must keep a real, physical practice seat, and a purely virtual address won't meet that requirement on its own:

• Lawyers (Rechtsanwälte) must establish and maintain a Kanzlei in their bar association's district (§ 27 BRAO). A 2025 Federal Court of Justice (BGH) decision confirmed that a purely virtual office, or an on-demand coworking / business-centre arrangement, does not satisfy this Kanzlei duty – a lawyer needs their own permanently available office space.
• Tax advisers (Steuerberater) must maintain a berufliche Niederlassung – their own practice from which they predominantly work (§ 34 StBerG).

This is something we can arrange on request. Rather than a virtual address alone, we can set you up with a dedicated, permanently available office that can serve as your professional practice seat – alongside the representative address, business mail and on-demand meeting rooms. The advantage of arranging it through us is that the office is set up specifically for this purpose: rather than taking on a general office lease and working out for yourself what satisfies the rules, you get a permanently available office configured to meet the practice-seat requirement – so you pay for exactly what your profession needs, and nothing more. If you're a regulated professional, get in touch and we'll arrange a compliant solution. As always, confirm the specifics with your professional chamber (Rechtsanwaltskammer, Steuerberaterkammer, Architektenkammer and so on) before you rely on any address.

1. 1Choose your address & location (≈5 minutes) – pick the city and location that will become your business address.
2. 2Checkout & compliance check (≈10–15 minutes) – complete our initial compliance check, a legal requirement under the German Anti-Money Laundering Act (GwG) for every business address, covering your ID and your business activity.
3. 3Get your consent-to-use letter – generate your Nutzungsüberlassungserklärung (your consent-to-use letter) from the Customer Portal to evidence your right to use the address.
4. 4Register your business – file your Gewerbeanmeldung with the local Gewerbeamt (§ 14 GewO) if you run a trade, or notify the Finanzamt via ELSTER if you're a Freiberufler; incorporated and partnership firms register in the Handelsregister or Partnerschaftsregister. Use your Olea address throughout.
5. 5Go live – publish your Impressum and put the address on your proposals, invoices, contracts and platform or bank verification. Your mail handling and digital mailbox are active and ready to receive your post.

The same address carries you straight into client work: handle Finanzamt correspondence and your Steuernummer, manage Gewerbeamt post where you run a trade, keep a compliant Impressum and use it to open business bank and payment accounts. Book meeting rooms and private offices whenever you host clients – across the network, not just your own location. Official post is received at your location and made available in your digital mailbox, forwarded, or held for collection.