Registered & records office in BC
Every BC company must name a registered office and a records office in British Columbia, file an annual report every year, and keep its corporate records somewhere real. There are six ways people do it. Here is what each one costs and what you actually get.
Prices checked October 2026 · CAD, before tax · government fees extra for everyone| Option | Typical cost / year | Registered & records office | Annual report filed | Minute book | Year-end resolutions | Letter mail | Who runs it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Law firm | $285–$350 + disbursements | Yes | Usually | Paper binder at the firm | Sometimes, or billed hourly | Forwarding often $350–$450/yr extra | Lawyers |
| Online incorporation platform (maintenance plan) | $199–$599 | No — you still need one | Yes | Digital | Templated | No | Software company |
| Virtual office / mail service | $120–$600 | Address only — keeps no records | No | No | No | Yes, that's the product | Mail company |
| Filing agent | $99–$129 per filing | No | When you order it | No | No | No | Filing service (non-lawyer) |
| Your home address | $0 | Yes — your home, on the public register | You, if you remember | Usually none exists | No | Your mailbox | You |
| Minuted | $249 or $399 | Yes | Yes, every year, deadline tracked | Digital portal, opening book prepared | Yes, both plans | Scanned and emailed, included | Operated by a practicing BC lawyer |
Ranges are published fees of Metro Vancouver law firms, Canadian incorporation platforms, virtual-office providers and filing agents, read on their own websites on the date above. Individual providers vary; check the current price before you decide. Government fees at BC Registries: annual report $43.39, change of office $21.50.
$285–$350/yr + disbursements, mail forwarding usually extra
The traditional answer, and a sound one: the firm is a proper records office, files the annual report, and there is a lawyer down the hall when something legal comes up. The trade-offs are the binder (your records live in their cabinet, not on your screen), extras that bill by the hour, and mail forwarding priced as a separate service. If you already have a firm relationship you value, staying is reasonable. If you're paying $300 a year for a binder you've never seen, you're paying for the relationship, not the records.
$199–$599/yr
Good software: a digital minute book, templated resolutions, the annual filing done. The catch most owners discover later is that these plans do not provide a registered and records office. The platform asks you for an address at incorporation, and that address is usually your home — which is then on the public register and is where anyone serving documents on the company will go. If you incorporated this way, Minuted imports your minute book free and becomes the office the platform never was.
$120–$600/yr
Excellent for mail, and that's all it is. A records office has to keep the company's statutory records and make them available for inspection during statutory business hours; a mail drop keeps nothing, files nothing and prepares nothing. Use one if what you need is a mailing address — but it doesn't replace the records office, so you end up paying for both.
$99–$129 per filing
Fine when you know exactly which filing you need and you remember to order it. It is a transaction, not a service: nobody is tracking your anniversary, nobody holds your records. Cheapest if you file once and never need anything else.
$0, plus your time
Legal, common, and free until it isn't. Your home goes on the public register for anyone to look up. Legal documents and the Registrar's notices arrive there — including the dissolution notices that come when annual reports are missed, which is how companies end up struck off without their owners noticing. Move house and the office must be changed on the register too. It works for owners who are meticulous about deadlines and comfortable with the exposure.
$249/yr (Records Office) or $399/yr (Records Office Plus)
A registered and records office in Metro Vancouver, the annual report tracked and filed every year, your opening minute book prepared, a transparency register kept current, letter mail scanned and emailed to you, and a portal where your minute book actually lives. Federal companies get both annual filings on either plan. Both plans include your annual resolutions. Records Office Plus adds up to 10 more resolutions a year for dividends and changes, the register updates that go with them, two certified copies, and for federal companies the BC registration. It's operated by a practicing BC lawyer, and flat-priced because the plans run on established templates — anything beyond the plan is quoted separately and plainly.
Records Office keeps your company in order. Records Office Plus also handles what changes during the year: dividends, directors, shareholders.
Your registered office and minute book, kept in order.
Everything in Records Office, plus the changes during the year.
All prices in Canadian dollars, before GST and PST. Government fees are charged at cost. Switching is free, and we bring your minute book over at no charge. Records Office keeps your records from signup forward; catching up past years is Minute Book Rescue ($299), included on Records Office Plus.
Published law-firm fees we read in September 2026 ran $285 to $350 a year plus disbursements, usually including the annual report and sometimes year-end resolutions, with mail forwarding commonly $350 to $450 a year extra. Minuted is $249 with the annual report, annual resolutions, digital minute book and mail scanning included, or $399 with dividends and changes covered too. Government fees are extra everywhere.
It can receive your mail, but a BC company also needs a records office where its statutory records are kept and available for inspection during statutory business hours. A mail drop keeps no records, files nothing and prepares nothing, so on its own it doesn't do the job.
Their maintenance plans generally provide a digital minute book, resolutions and annual filings, not an office address. The company still has to name one, which is usually the owner's home.
Both are required and they are usually the same place. The registered office is where legal documents are served and the Registrar's notices go. The records office is where the company's statutory records are kept and available for inspection. Both must be in BC and accessible to the public during statutory business hours.
Yes, apart from the $21.50 government fee for the change-of-office filing. We prepare it, you approve it, we file it, and we collect your minute book from the previous provider at no charge.
We become your registered & records office, import whatever records exist, and file every year. Nothing is filed until you approve the switch.
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