Money & Tax | South Africa

How to Appoint a SARS Registered Representative — And Why Your Company Can’t File Anything Without One

If nobody has been formally appointed as your company’s Registered Representative on eFiling, SARS won’t let you submit returns, register for tax types, or make changes — even if you’re the director.

Since 2021, SARS has required every company, trust, and other legal entity to have an active Registered Representative on file before eFiling will allow any returns, registrations, or changes to go through. It’s a step that trips up a surprising number of business owners — either because they never knew it existed, or because their original representative left the company and nobody updated the record. Here’s what the role actually involves and how to get it sorted.

What Is a SARS Registered Representative?

A Registered Representative is a natural person appointed with full rights to act on behalf of a legal entity — a company, close corporation, or trust — in all its dealings with SARS. A legal entity can only have one active Registered Representative at a time. It’s a distinct role from a Tax Practitioner or accountant: those professionals can have eFiling access to help you, but by default they cannot be appointed as the Registered Representative unless they also hold a qualifying capacity such as accounting officer. In practice, the representative is almost always a company director.

Who Can Be Appointed?

• Must be a natural person with their own SARS tax number and eFiling profile
• Must be an active, CIPC-listed director (or an equivalent authorised office-holder for the entity type)
• Must reside in South Africa
• Cannot simply be a tax practitioner or accountant acting alone in that capacity

How to Appoint or Update a Registered Representative

1. Log in to eFiling under the company’s Organisation profile.
2. Go to “Organisations” in the top menu, then select “SARS Registered Details” on the left.
3. Select “Registered Representative” and click “Activate New Registered Representative.”
4. Read and accept SARS’s declaration confirming you are the authorised representative for the entity.
5. Submit supporting documents when prompted — typically a certified ID, proof of residential address (not older than 3 months), and a signed letter of appointment confirming your capacity as representative.
6. Wait for verification. Your status will show as “Unconfirmed” or “Request Under Verification” until SARS approves the appointment — this can take one to three weeks depending on demand.

If you’d rather not use eFiling, the same request can be submitted through SARS’s Online Query System (SOQS), or in person at a SARS branch by appointment.

When You Need to Update It

If the current representative resigns as director, passes away, or otherwise stops being involved with the company, the appointment has to be updated straight away. The replacement must meet the same requirements — an active, CIPC-listed director with their own SARS tax number — and the process is identical to a first-time appointment. Leaving this outdated is one of the more common reasons a company suddenly finds it can’t file a return or apply for a tax clearance certificate when it needs one most.