How do I de-register my company?
If you bought from us, you probably only paid R475 to register your company (R300 for us and R175 for CIPC). Not a big deal. But then the business doesn’t get off the ground and you want the company de-registered. Now what?
Now we have a very different story.
This is the sequence (and our current fees)
- All tax returns must be filed (presumably Nils) R2 020 for each tax year.
- All CIPC returns must be filed R1 120 for each 12 months following registration.
- De-registration at CIPC R4 500
- De-registration at SARS R3 500
That’s a whopping 11 140 minimum!
Plus there may well be Administrative Penalties of R250 per month for every outstanding income Tax Return at SARS.
Is there an alternative? Yes, but you need to have confidence in your legal position.
SARS cannot attack you as the Shareholder, the Director, the Representative or the Public officer of the company. They can only attack the company, and they’ll be wasting their time, because it doesn’t have any money to attack. Also they will not prejudice you if you form another company and register it as a taxpayer.
So, here’s the alternative sequence
- Stop submitting CIPC annual returns.
- Ignore all communications from SARS regarding the company.
- CIPC will eventually (maybe years later) de-register the company.
- SARS will eventually give up, or not, but who cares?
That’s it. You choose.
2 comments
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I read this somewhere:
Representative taxpayers are people who are “responsible for paying the tax liability of another person as an agent …”, according to sections 153 to 155 of the TAA.
Is this open to interpretation that the representative will not be legally liable for outstanding taxes or penalties?
Hi Regine,
“as an agent”, means “acting on behalf of”. The Representative is not personally liable, and failure by the Representative to act does not relieve the Taxpayer of their liabilities. s153(3)