Q: Hello. Will using the registered agent's address as the business address allow possible piercing of the corporate veil?
A registered agent company told me that if I availed their service as the registered agent, I could use their address as the business address, too. But I read somewhere that this could result in losing the legal protection an LLC offers; i.e., piercing the corporate veil.
A:
Generally speaking, for piercing the corporate veil in Connecticut, courts look at whether the owner exercised complete control over the business and its practices so that the business is a mere “instrumentality” of the owner, or if the business and the owner effectively share the same identity given the owner's failure to keep treat the business with its own separate legal identity.
As for business addresses, it would be advisable to maintain a separate address for the business. Although convenient, it may also make sense to not use the address of the registered agent that formed the entity as the primary business address on a long-term basis, as a court could consider this a factor in failing to keep a separate legal entity.
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