South Africa
Corporate Guide

Are there any annual compliance requirements that a company must meet in South Africa?

All companies (including external companies) and close corporations are required by law to lodge their annual returns with the CIPC within 30 days of the anniversary of their registration every year. 

A company (other than an external company) must file the following with its annual return: its securities register; and its latest annual financial statements, if it is required to be audited by the Act. It should be noted that the Companies Amendment Bill clarifies that the latest annual financial statements approved by the board must only be filed for a public company, a state-owned company, or any other profit or non-profit company with a particular public interest score. If annual returns are not filed for two or more years in succession, the CIPC may start the deregistration process. In addition to annual returns, companies are also required to complete a compliance checklist annually with the CIPC, which is a series of questions measuring compliance by the company with various provisions of the Act. 

Annual returns vs. tax returns

A clear distinction must be made between an annual return and a tax return. An annual return is a summary of the most relevant information regarding the company or close corporation and is filed with the CIPC, while a tax return focuses on taxable income of a company or close corporation in order to determine its tax liability to the state and is filed with SARS.