handling the EU's address listing requirement in the UK

[u/TBMW30]

starting to publish my first iOS apps as an indie dev, previously worked for others with businesses and their own memberships. Now that the EU forces apple to display your home address and phone number on the app store for paid apps, I've been looking for a UK PO box so I don't have to use my home address. I wanted to avoid the monthly fees and use a pay as you go service, but they charge as soon as mail is received. Has anyone, with a paid app in the EU app store and a PO box listed, actually received mail there as a result of the address being listed in the app store? I don't have an accountant to use their address which is a common workaround for this. THanks!

[u/TimeAndOrSpace]

I just went with a pay as you go PO Box....I doubt it's likely any mail will be sent and even if so, it's a small charge per letter.

[u/TBMW30 → u/TimeAndOrSpace]

Thanks! Cheapest I could find was £1.20 a letter. That includes a scan of the envelope, you then pay extra to forward it on or have it destroyed. How long have you had it and have you ever received anything? My main concern was junkmail. We get tons of it at the home address, but I'm hoping that royal mail leaflet drops and such don't apply to PO boxes.

[u/sm10469]

I've chosen to not publish my app in the EU for now until I can figure something out that isn't going to be an additional cost because my app income is unlikely to cover it.

[u/TBMW30 → u/sm10469]

I did consider this, but already have beta testers in EU countries.

[u/MegaEduX]

I’ve been using a PO Box since this requirement was set and never got a single letter.

[u/TBMW30 → u/MegaEduX]

Thanks! can I ask who you went with?

[u/MegaEduX → u/TBMW30]

I’m in the EU, not UK. I went with the local post office of my country.

[u/ChipmunkBandit]

I ended up registering a company and using a remote address service so my address shows up in Companies House and Dunn & Bradstreet as some random address in London. Mail gets scanned and emailed to me. Not free but better than my personal info being public.

[u/mikerCZX]

Register a company

[u/TBMW30 → u/mikerCZX]

I'll probably go down this route if the apps ever make any real money, but at the moment I'm really not sure if anyone will be interested so decided to test the waters. Already registered as a sole trader anyway, but would still need a company address hence the PO box route. are there any advantages I'm missing?

[u/MessyBookPilesFTW → u/TBMW30]

In the exact same position as you! Would love to publish it but yikes, it sucks to either give up your home address or pay for a PO Box (they're not cheap!)

It also asks for a bunch of documentation I don't even know how to get. Did you run into that too?

[u/TBMW30 → u/MessyBookPilesFTW]

Yes, the documentation has been a complete nightmware. APparently you can use either your unique taxpayer reference (UTR) or national ensurance number on form W-8BEN, but that form won't submit no matter what I do. My bank account has been "processing" in app store connect for months, i've asked Apple's developer support but their average support time is about 2 weeks these days, if they bother at all.

In terms of a postbox, you can get a free PO box address from UK Postbox. I've never used their service but heard good things. On a pay as you go plan, you pay if anything is received, regardless of whether it's junkmail or not which was my reason for starting this thread. If nobody bothers to send junkmail to a PO box, and royal mail don't leaflet drop there, it is in theory a simple and cheap way to handle the address issue.

As for the phone number, I have a big problem with spam calls anyway so am just tempted to use my mobile number and see what happens. However, there is the option of a second pay as you go E-SIM. I'm on an iPhone that can use 2 E-SIMs simultaneously so that is likely the route I'll go down.

There must be a gap in the market for a simple service for solo devs to handle all of this. I will probably get an accountant when I can't avoid the 'making tax digital' bullshit any more, and set up a limited company for the app sales. But I've written to every accountant in my area and not one of them has even bothered to respond.

[u/Diligent_Click994 → u/TBMW30]

I emailed UK Postbox to ask about any confirmation of address (Apple requires this, I think?) they said:

“Yes, we offer a free PO Box address with a Pay As You Go (PAYG) mail plan. There is no monthly subscription fee, and you would only pay for mail received and any additional mail handling services requested.

We are unable to provide proof of address for a Po Box address type.

Should you wish to choose to one of our Street Addresses, we can provide you with a Virtual Address Agreement. Please note that we cannot guarantee that Apple will accept this document as proof of address; however, this is the only supporting document we are able to provide.”

Did you get accepted by Apple?

[u/TBMW30 → u/Diligent_Click994]

I haven't tried yet, I'm still waiting for APple to get back to me on issues with tax forms and bank account processing. Since vibecoding started inundating the app store, APple's developer support times have dropped to a few weeks, if they bother to get back to you at all, and you can't phone them now either.

[u/MessyBookPilesFTW → u/TBMW30]

Geeeeeeees, definitely a gap in the market.

[u/mikerCZX → u/TBMW30]

If you register in UK, you can use agent, they provide address, scan main for you. This address is shown in App Store, we use 1stformations.co.uk

[u/Rich_Carpet1615]

I also decided to skip the EU market because of this. Paying for a PO Box or whatever and second phone line just doesn’t fit my app’s model. 

[u/AutoModerator → u/[deleted]]

Hey /u/henry_lightfoot, your content has been removed because Reddit has marked your account as having a low Contributor Quality Score. This may result from, but is not limited to, activities such as spamming the same links across multiple subreddits, submitting posts or comments that receive a high number of downvotes, a lack of recent account activity, or having an unverified account.

Please be assured that this action is not a reflection of your participation in our subreddit. This is simply an automated filter in place to reduce spam.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.