Florida's LLC forms ask for three addresses, and the labels sound almost interchangeable. Principal office. Mailing address. Registered agent. Get one wrong and you might not notice for months, until a notice from the state lands at an apartment you moved out of last spring, or a process server (the person who hand-delivers lawsuit papers) shows up somewhere nobody's home.
Each one has its own job, its own rules and its own spot on the public record. Below is how they differ, where each one shows up and how to change them later. You'll see Sunbiz mentioned a lot. It's the Florida state website where LLCs are registered and where anyone can look them up. And this is general information, not legal or tax advice, so run anything specific to your company past a Florida attorney or CPA (a licensed US accountant).
The short version
- Principal office address: where the business is actually directed from. Must be a street address. Can be outside Florida. Public on Sunbiz.
- Mailing address: where the state sends your LLC's mail. Can be a P.O. box (a rented box at the post office), a commercial mailbox address or a foreign address. Public on Sunbiz.
- Registered agent address: where legal papers are served. Must be a Florida street address with a person there during business hours. Never a P.O. box. Public on Sunbiz.
Notice the last word on every line. We'll come back to that.
Principal office address
Florida law requires the articles of organization (the document that creates your LLC) to give "the street and mailing addresses of the company's principal office" (s. 605.0201). The principal office is the principal executive office, the place the business is really run from, and current law defines it "regardless of whether the office is located in this state" (Senate staff analysis). A 2026 bill that would have changed that definition died in committee in March, so nothing moved.
That wording doesn't limit the office to the US either. So if you're a German GmbH owner running a Florida LLC from Hamburg, the Hamburg office is a natural fit for this line, even though no form instruction spells out foreign addresses in so many words.
The Sunbiz instructions are blunt about one thing: "Principal office address MUST BE A STREET ADDRESS." No P.O. boxes. What they don't say is whether a commercial mailbox address, the kind with a "#" or "PMB" and a box number, counts as a street address here. We haven't found an official answer, and we'd rather tell you that than pretend. Our guide on using a virtual office as your LLC's address goes into how founders handle it.
Mailing address
This is the easy one. It's where the Division of Corporations, the state office that runs Sunbiz, sends your LLC's mail, and it can be a P.O. box. A commercial mailbox address that follows the rules of USPS, the US Postal Service, with "#" or "PMB" (private mailbox) and your box number (USPS mail manual, 508.1.8), works here, and so does a foreign address.
Plenty of LLCs use the same address for the principal office and the mailing address. That's fine when it fits. But a separate mailing address is useful when your principal office is somewhere mail is unreliable or slow, or when you'd rather have state letters land with a team that photographs every envelope than in a mailbox you check twice a month. Keep in mind that splitting the two doesn't hide the principal office. Both lines are public.
Registered agent address
The registered agent is the person or company that accepts lawsuits and official legal notices for your LLC. This line is the strictest of the three.
Florida requires a registered office and agent in Florida, at a Florida street address (s. 605.0113). The registered office must be open at least from 10 a.m. to noon on business days, with someone there to accept service of process, which is the formal hand delivery of a lawsuit (s. 48.091). The Division's guidance rules out P.O. boxes. A 2026 version of the statute may extend the required hours into the afternoon, but we couldn't confirm that, so check the current text if it matters to you.
Prima isn't a registered agent and doesn't offer that service. You'll need a separate Florida registered agent for this line.
What's public on Sunbiz
All three. Type your company name into the free Sunbiz search and the record comes up with the principal address, the mailing address, the registered agent and the managers, along with images of the documents you filed. Florida also treats email addresses given to the state as public records (Division of Corporations).
That's the "public" at the end of every line in the short version. If you'd rather your home address not be one search away from anyone curious, decide that before you file, because the images of what you already filed stay on the record.
Where each address appears
Articles of organization
This is where all three first show up. Filing costs $125 as of October 2026: $100 to file plus $25 for the registered agent designation. The $160 total you may see on the Division's instructions page includes two optional extras, a certified copy ($30) and a certificate of status ($5).
Annual report
Every year, the annual report repeats the principal office and mailing addresses as they stand on the day you file (s. 605.0212). It's due between January 1 and May 1. The fee is $138.75 as of October 2026 (confirm it on Sunbiz when you file). File after May 1 and there's a $400 late fee, which the Division says it cannot waive. And an LLC that still hasn't filed by the third Friday of September is administratively dissolved on the fourth Friday, meaning the state shuts the company down on paper. That's a painful way to learn your mailing address was out of date. Our Florida LLC annual report guide has the dates and a step-by-step for filing.
IRS Form SS-4
An EIN is your company's federal tax ID number, issued by the IRS, the US tax agency. You apply for it on Form SS-4, and that form asks for two addresses of its own. Line 4a is the mailing address, and the form says it can be a street address or a P.O. box. Line 5a is the street address, if different, with the note "Don't enter a P.O. box." A foreign mailing address is allowed, with the country written out in full.
We haven't found any IRS guidance on whether a PMB-style address (one with "#" or "PMB" and a box number) is acceptable. The form's structure suggests it can work as a mailing address on line 4a. Whether it can be the street address on line 5a, the IRS simply doesn't say.
How to change each one
- Principal office or mailing address: update it online on Sunbiz at any time, or as part of your annual report (Sunbiz address change).
- Registered agent or registered office: this uses a separate form and its own fee, not the simple address update.
- IRS: file Form 8822-B to report a new mailing address, business location or responsible party (the person who ultimately owns or controls the LLC).
Treat the state and the IRS as two separate jobs. It's easy to update Sunbiz, feel done, and leave the IRS sending letters to your old address for another year.
Banks and Stripe look for something else
Banks and payment companies don't really care what's on your Sunbiz mailing line. They want a physical address where the business operates. Mercury, an online business banking service, doesn't accept virtual addresses, commercial mail receiving agencies or registered agent addresses as a company address, though it does accept a verifiable residential or international address (Mercury's address requirements). Stripe, the online payments company, asks for the place where most of your business activity happens for payments, and its Issuing, Treasury, Opal and Corporate Card products block mailbox and virtual addresses entirely (Stripe's address validation rules). Plan for that before you fill in an application.
Where Prima fits
Prima is a good home for the mailing address line, and for the letters that follow it: annual report reminders, IRS notices, bank cards. Your address is "2125 Biscayne Blvd, Suite 300 #" plus your mailbox number, our team logs every envelope in the building, and the PS Form 1583 that USPS requires (a short form that authorizes us to receive your mail) is notarized online as part of signup, on a quick video call. Plans start at $39 a month. You can see the plans or read about how a virtual office compares with a virtual mailbox. For the registered agent line, you'll need a separate provider.