How to Register Your South African Company for Tax with SARS

When you register a company with CIPC through BizPortal, SARS is automatically notified and creates an Income Tax reference number for your company in the background. You do not apply for it. You do not get a letter about it. It just gets created, and many business owners do not know it exists for months or years after registration.

This matters because the clock on certain tax obligations starts from when your company was registered, not from when you found out about your tax number. The most practical first step after registering your company is to log into SARS eFiling and confirm your company tax number is there and linked to your profile.

What auto-registration does and does not do

Your company tax number is completely separate from your personal income tax number. Everything you do for your company's tax — filing returns, making payments, registering for VAT or PAYE — all happens under the company's tax number on eFiling.

How to activate SARS eFiling for your company

SARS eFiling at secure.sarsefiling.co.za is where you file all your company tax returns, make tax payments, and manage every aspect of your relationship with SARS. There is no way around it — eFiling is how everything gets done.

The setup process has five steps. First, register as an individual on eFiling using your personal ID number — this creates your personal eFiling login. Once logged in, go to the Organisations section and click Add Organisation. Enter your company's Income Tax reference number and registration number. SARS sends an authorisation PIN to your registered contact details. Enter that PIN to link your company. After that, your company's returns will appear on your dashboard when they are due.

What happens if your company is not linked

If you have a personal eFiling profile but your company is not linked to it, your company's tax obligations are completely invisible to you in the system — even though SARS can still see them and will charge penalties for missed deadlines. The system does not alert you to outstanding obligations on unlinked companies. Getting your company linked is important and should be one of the first things you do after registration.