Business premises vs registered seat in Czechia — the difference and what you need

When you set up a company in Czechia, right at the start you run into two terms that sound alike but mean something quite different: the registered seat and the business premises (in Czech provozovna). The seat is the company's official address entered in the commercial register. The premises are the concrete place where the trade or business activity is actually carried out. Confusing the two is a common source of needless worry — for instance the idea that without premises you are not allowed to do business, which is not true.

For many company directors the situation is in fact simple: they carry out no activity physically at any address. They advise, invoice and run the company from a laptop or at the client's site, and they have no need to visit any premises. For such a company a reliable registered seat is usually all that is needed. Premises concern those who have a concrete place where they serve customers or produce something.

The overview below sets out the difference in practical terms — what the seat is, what the premises are, when a company needs them, and how they are notified and marked.

The registered seat — the official address in the register

The seat is the address by which the company identifies itself externally and which is entered in the public (commercial) register. Under Section 429 of the Civil Code (Act No. 89/2012 Coll.), the seat of an entrepreneur is determined precisely by the address registered in the public register — official post is delivered there, and it also determines your locally competent tax and trade licensing office. The law does not require the director to sit physically at the address; what matters is that the company holds a valid legal title there (the owner's consent) and is reachable. That is exactly why a virtual registered seat is a fully legitimate solution.

You do not choose the address as a mere formality — it feeds into the picture a bank and a business partner form of the company. That is why RyeBase is a house for thirty companies only: the address is credible precisely because it is not crowded with hundreds of entities. You do not have to come in every day, but when someone checks your address, it holds up.

Business premises — where the activity actually takes place

Under Section 17 of the Trade Licensing Act (Act No. 455/1991 Coll.), the premises are "a space in which a trade is carried out". Unlike the seat, then, this is not an official address but a concrete place of operation — a shop, a workshop, a hair salon, a warehouse or a surgery. A single company may have several sets of premises, and they need not be at the same address as the seat.

For example: a hair salon run through an s.r.o. has its seat at a credible Prague address, but serves customers in a rented salon two streets away — that salon is the premises. By contrast, an IT consultant who works from a laptop at clients' sites usually has no premises at all; he has only a seat. The difference is therefore not "how big the company is", but whether there is a physical place where the activity really happens.

When a company needs premises — and when a seat is enough

The law does not require premises across the board. Whether you need them depends on the nature of the activity — in particular on whether you have a concrete place where contact with customers occurs or where the activity is physically carried out. Anyone who genuinely runs a shop, a workshop or a space open to the public notifies the premises. Anyone who provides services remotely, at the client's site or purely administratively gets by with a seat alone.

This is exactly where most directors fall — those who use the address as their official seat and have no need to visit any premises in person. We look at this question in more detail in our article on whether you need an office in Czechia. What matters is having the documents for your seat in order — the mere absence of premises is neither a shortcoming nor an obstacle to doing business.

How premises are notified and marked

If you do have premises, two obligations come with them. The first is notification: the start and later the end of the activity at the premises is notified in writing to the trade licensing office in whose district the premises lie. The notification states the company's identifying details, the address of the premises and the subject of business carried out there.

The second obligation is marking. The premises must be permanently and visibly marked from the outside — with the business name or the name and surname of the entrepreneur and their identification number (IČO). Premises intended for the sale of goods or the provision of services to consumers must additionally show the name of the person responsible for the premises and the sales or business hours. These obligations do not apply to the seat itself — the marking duty attaches to the premises, not to the company's official address.

Do not confuse it with the tax "permanent establishment"

Watch out for a linguistic trap: the term "provozovna" in the trade-licensing sense is not the same as a "permanent establishment" (Czech stálá provozovna) in income tax. The latter is a tax concept that decides where a company or entrepreneur becomes liable to tax its income — and it has no direct link to notifying or marking premises. We cover the difference and the conditions under which it arises in a separate article on the permanent establishment in Czechia.

Conclusion

The seat and the premises are not competing terms — they play different roles. The seat is the company's official address in the register, where official post arrives; the premises are the place where the activity is actually carried out, notified to the trade licensing office. For most companies with no physical shop or workshop, a reliable seat is entirely enough. The key is to know which term applies to you and to keep the documents for it in order.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a registered seat and business premises?

The seat is the company's official address in the commercial register — official post is delivered there and it determines the locally competent office. Business premises (provozovna) are the concrete place where the trade or business activity is actually carried out, such as a shop or a workshop. The seat and the premises may, but need not, be at the same address. A single company can have one seat and several sets of premises at the same time.

Does a company in Czechia have to have business premises?

No, the law does not require premises across the board. You need them only if you have a concrete place where contact with customers occurs or where the activity is physically carried out. Anyone who provides services remotely, at the client's site or purely administratively gets by with a seat alone. So most directors who never visit any premises in person simply do not have premises.

How are premises notified and do they have to be marked?

The start and end of the activity at the premises is notified in writing to the trade licensing office in whose district the premises lie. The premises must be permanently and visibly marked from the outside with the business name or the entrepreneur's name and surname and their identification number (IČO). If they serve the sale of goods or services to consumers, they must also show the name of the responsible person and the business hours. These obligations do not apply to the seat itself.