Domicile, Residence
The notions of domicile and residence apply to individuals as well as to companies and partnerships.
An individual is domiciled in the place where his personal rights and interests have their centre — this is, as a rule, the place where his name is registered on the census or poll lists. It is also the place where he declares himself domiciled when executing a deed before a notary.
Residence, on the other hand, is the place where a person has the habit to live actually; it is a material situation which results from a stay of some duration. In most cases, domicile and residence are identical.
Companies and partnerships are domiciled in the place of their head office or principal establishment.3 The principal establishment is the establishment where the legal entity is centred, where the business is directed and controlled, the profits collected and meetings of shareholders held. In most cases this is also the head office and, when the statutes fix another head office, the latter is sometimes more apparent than real. In this case, the principal establishment is the place containing the chief factors of management or administration — i.e., the offices, especially the managing offices proper, the commercial services and the central accountancy.
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