also called statutory agent · resident agent
A person or firm designated to receive legal and official mail for a company in its registration jurisdiction.
A person or firm officially appointed to receive legal and government mail for a company in the place it is registered. A company registered somewhere you do not live usually must have one, and it is an ongoing cost of keeping an offshore or US LLC alive. It is not a virtual mailbox, a general mail-scanning service; a registered agent is a legal requirement with a specific role in the company's registration.
Someone runs a US LLC from abroad and forgets that the state requires a registered agent to receive official notices. The agent's annual fee lapses, the company falls out of good standing, and legal mail they never saw piles up, all because the required local point of contact went unpaid.
A foreign-registered company usually must have one, an ongoing cost of keeping an offshore or US LLC alive.
The difference is the whole point, so here is each one in a line.
The first split is whether you are an employee, where the company withholds your tax and owes you protections, or an independent contractor, who invoices and handles their own tax; misclassification is treating one as the other, and IR35 and umbrella companies are the UK machinery for policing that line.
The rest are the business you might trade through: a sole proprietorship is just you, a limited liability company walls off your personal assets, a US LLC for non-residents and an offshore company are versions registered where you do not live, and a nominee director or registered agent are the local stand-ins those setups require on paper.
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