Registering a business on SARS eFiling
What a South African business needs to register on SARS eFiling, why the login holder answers for everything done under it, and why saved is not filed.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Running a business businesses in South Africa
For most South African businesses, eFiling is where the relationship with SARS actually lives. Returns are submitted there, statements are read there, and payments are often made from there. Registering looks like an admin chore that takes an afternoon.
It is also the moment you decide who holds the keys. The person whose login is used is, in SARS's eyes, the person who did whatever was done with it. That makes the questions of who registers, whose cellphone receives the one-time PINs and who else gets access worth settling before anyone clicks "register". This article covers what SARS asks for, the identity checks along the way, the rules that attach to the login, and how that fits with software that prepares your returns.
The contact details SARS relies on
SARS's guide to registering for eFiling says a valid e-mail address and cellphone number are required to use eFiling. They are not just for correspondence: they serve as the security contact details to which one-time PINs are sent.
That has a practical consequence for a business. If the registered cellphone belongs to a bookkeeper who later leaves, the business's security PINs leave with them. Before registering, agree:
- whose cellphone and e-mail address will be the security contacts;
- what happens to those details when that person changes role or leaves;
- who is allowed to ask for them to be changed.
A shared mailbox that the owner can always reach is usually safer than a junior staff member's personal address, though the cellphone will still belong to a person.
Biometric checks and the upload window
Registration is tied to a real person. SARS's guide says individuals registering with a South African ID may have to pass biometric facial recognition. Where that check fails, they have 21 business days to upload the required documents, or must book an appointment with SARS.
Plan for the possibility rather than being surprised by it. Have clear copies of the documents ready, and diarise the 21-business-day window the moment a check fails. If the window passes, the next step is an appointment, which takes longer to arrange than an upload.
SARS's guide to registering for eFiling and managing your user profile walks through the registration steps, the security contact details and how to manage the users and tax types linked to a profile.
The login holder answers for what is done with it
This is the part most often skipped. SARS's Electronic Communications Guide (issue 1, dated February 2015) says a registered eFiling user is liable for all activities and transactions performed using their user ID and access code.
Read that from the owner's point of view. If a staff member submits a wrong return using the owner's login, SARS does not see a staff member; it sees the owner. The same guide quotes rule 6 of SARS's electronic communications rules, which requires an eFiling user to access eFiling only with their own user ID and access code, and never to share the access code with anyone, including a SARS official.
So the habit of handing one login around the office is not just risky; it runs against the rule. Where several people need to work on the business's tax affairs, each should have their own access, so that the record shows who did what. Anyone who phones claiming to be from SARS and asks for the access code is asking for something the rule says even a SARS official must not be given.
Saved is not submitted
The same guide makes a point that catches people at deadlines: saving a return on eFiling does not deliver it to SARS. Only submitting it achieves delivery.
A return that has been completed, checked and saved, but not submitted, has not been filed. Build the final click into whoever owns the deadline:
- Complete the return.
- Have a second person check it where possible.
- Submit it.
- Keep the submission confirmation and note the date.
If a return shows as saved the day after the deadline, the business has missed the deadline.
What Achekam prepares and what you submit
Achekam sits on the preparation side of this line, not the filing side. Achekam does not file any payroll return with SARS, and does not pay SARS. It prepares the documents and records what a person filed and paid. That is a current limitation: there is no direct e-filing or payment link.
For payroll, Achekam prepares the IRP5, IT3(a) and EMP201, and produces the e@syFile import file for the EMP501. It submits nothing to SARS. A person files, and then records in Achekam the reference SARS gave. A certificate with missing data, for example no income tax reference, can be produced for checking but cannot be issued, which stops an incomplete certificate going out by accident.
That split suits the eFiling rules well. The person submitting on eFiling does so with their own login, under their own responsibility, and the reference they record in Achekam shows later who filed what and when. A fuller list of what stays with you is in what you still file with SARS yourself, and paying what the returns show is covered in paying SARS by EFT with the right reference.
Who should hold the login
| Decision | Question to settle | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Security cellphone and e-mail | Will the business still control them in a few years? | One-time PINs go there |
| Main login | Who registers, and are they senior enough to answer for it? | That person is liable for what is done under it |
| Other people's access | Does each person who works on the profile have their own? | The access code may never be shared |
| Submitting each return | Who presses submit, per tax type? | Saving is not submitting |
Getting started
Set up eFiling as you would a bank account: decide whose name is on it, who else may use it and how access is removed when people leave. Register with contact details the business will still control in a few years, keep the upload window in mind if the facial check fails, and make sure everyone who works on the profile has their own login. The software can prepare the returns; the submission, and the responsibility that comes with it, stays with the person who logs in.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
