Make your tax registration changes online | Finance | Small Business Connect

Sharon Smulders of the South African Institute of Tax Practitioners

Business owners can now amend details and register for various types of tax with the help of just a single form – the Registration, Amendments and Verifications (RAV01) form.

This follows the implementation of a single registration process last month by the South African Revenue Service (Sars).

The aim of the process is to consolidate the registration and profile for various tax products into one single profile that can be viewed on the registrant’s eFiling account.

Sharon Smulders, head of tax technical policy and research at the South African Institute of Tax Practitioners (Sait), says the first thing business owners who are already registered need to do is check that all their details are correct.

“Small business owners, who own close corporations (CC) or companies, need to ensure that their Public Officer (PO) has completed the form or if they are already registered, that the details are correct,” says Smulders.

A PO is the representative taxpayer for a company or CC and is therefore the face of that entity for tax purposes.

This can all be done online, she says. However, if the supporting documents have not yet been provided, this will need to be submitted to Sars.

“If any verification, such as bank details is needed then that will require a visit to a Sars branch and cannot be completed online,” says Smulders.

The only details that the system will not allow one to change are the taxpayer’s registration number and identity number.

The registration function on eFiling allows taxpayers to:

  •  Maintain details registered with Sars by viewing or editing specific information.
  •  Activate the registered representative, referred to above as the PO for the business.
  •  View the registered representative details
  •  Indicate forms and details saved for the business.
  •  View a history of forms submitted for the business.

It is important to note that the Sars call centre will not be permitted to update or change any of a business’s information. All changes will have to be done via eFiling or a Sars branch.

  •  Visit www.sars.gov.za for more information on the RAV01 form.