In a recent test, Ribbon sent 190 letters to newly incorporated federal corporations in the Atlantic provinces (New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island), revealing a surprisingly high 10.5% return-to-sender rate due to issues with the registered mailing addresses.
The mail was returned for a variety of reasons, including incomplete addresses, invalid addresses, addressee relocations, and post office addresses with missing PO box numbers. The absence of PO box numbers was particularly surprising, considering that federal corporations are not permitted to be registered with PO boxes in Canada.
It is likely that existing corporations would have a higher occurrence of invalid addresses due to neglecting to notify Corporations Canada about the relocation of their corporate headquarters. Updating a corporate headquarters with Corporations Canada is straightforward and involves submitting a form to the Online Filing Centre or using a service like Ribbon.
The consequences of such a high rate of invalid addresses are significant, especially considering that these businesses could be missing crucial documents from government entities like the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). The potential fallout includes financial penalties and even potential personal liability for the corporation’s directors.
The findings underscore the importance of businesses maintaining accurate and up-to-date addresses. Ribbon offers a competitively priced business address service that allows business owners to establish themselves with a prestigious downtown Toronto business address. All mail is scanned and hosted on an online portal.