Compliance services
Business Compliance Services South Africa
Replace fragmented reminders with an accountable view of recurring corporate, tax, payroll and record obligations.
Most compliance failures are not decisions. They are things that quietly fell due while everyone was busy, a CIPC annual return nobody diarised, a dormant VAT registration still generating obligations, an assessment that went unobjected to until the window closed.
We map every obligation the business actually has across SARS, CIPC and the labour authorities, bring the outstanding ones up to date, and maintain the calendar so the next one is met rather than discovered.
Who this is for
Built around your operating reality
- Owner-managed companies
- Foreign subsidiaries
- Multi-entity groups
- Businesses preparing for funding
What we deliver
A controlled, documented service
- Entity compliance inventory
- CIPC and annual-return coordination
- Beneficial-ownership handoff
- Tax and payroll calendar
- Responsibility matrix
- Monthly exception reporting
Common situations
When to get this looked at
- You are not certain what the business is registered for
- A Tax Compliance Status request has failed
- Penalties are appearing for returns nobody knew were due
- Compliance is spread across several providers and nobody owns it
- A funder, tender or buyer has asked for proof of good standing
- The company has grown and nobody has revisited the obligations
Start with what you are actually registered for
The first question is rarely "are we compliant". It is "what are we supposed to be doing". Businesses accumulate registrations over years, and obligations continue for every one of them until it is formally deregistered.
A dormant PAYE registration from a period when you had staff, or a VAT registration for a business line you closed, keeps generating filing obligations and penalties. These are among the most common causes of an unexplained compliance failure.
Three authorities, three different clocks
The obligations do not share a calendar, which is the structural reason businesses fall behind despite paying attention.
SARS deadlines follow the tax year and your financial year end. CIPC annual returns follow your incorporation anniversary. Labour obligations follow their own annual cycle. Three start points, none of which align.
- SARS: EMP201, VAT201, provisional tax, ITR14, EMP501
- CIPC: annual return and beneficial ownership, on your anniversary
- Employment and Labour: UIF declarations and the Return of Earnings
- SETA: Workplace Skills Plan, where SDL is payable
Bringing the outstanding items up to date
Outstanding returns are prepared and filed in sequence, because later periods depend on earlier ones. Where penalties have accrued, remission is requested once the underlying returns are in, a request made while returns are still outstanding rarely succeeds.
Where a registration is genuinely no longer needed, deregistering it properly stops the obligation rather than leaving it to generate penalties indefinitely.
Then keep it that way
Catching up is the project; staying current is the service. We maintain the calendar per entity, prepare and file the recurring returns, and monitor the compliance status so a failure is caught before a customer or funder finds it.
The measurable outcome is that a Tax Compliance Status request works when you need it, rather than becoming a fire drill because a tender closes on Friday.
Clear steps and responsibilities
Confirm owners and evidence
Build the calendar
Resolve urgent gaps
Monitor recurring actions
Learn from other people’s mistakes
Where businesses get caught
Dormant registrations still running
A tax type you stopped using still has filing obligations until it is formally deregistered, and administrative penalties can accrue monthly against it.
Assuming an accountant covers everything
Many accounting engagements cover tax but not CIPC or labour. The gap is usually discovered when the annual return is already years overdue.
Missing the objection window
An incorrect assessment left unchallenged past the deadline becomes a settled debt, regardless of whether it was ever right.
Compliance split across providers
When three people each handle part of it, the gaps between them are where things fall. Someone has to own the whole map.
Getting started
What we review first
- Company registration details and CIPC filing history
- All SARS registrations and statements of account
- Recent returns filed across every tax type
- Payroll and labour registrations, including COIDA
- Any penalty notices, assessments or SARS correspondence
- Details of dormant entities or registrations no longer in use
Connected work
What usually goes with this
Frequently asked questions
What to know before you begin
If your situation is not covered here, ask, the answer usually turns on facts a page cannot know.
Does this replace legal advice? +
No. It coordinates administrative compliance and refers legal interpretation where required.
Can tax and CIPC status differ? +
Yes. They are administered separately and should both be checked.
Can several companies be included? +
Yes. Group compliance can be scoped by entity and obligation.
We do not know what we are behind on. Where do we start? +
That is the normal starting point. The review establishes what the business is registered for and what is outstanding against each, before anything is filed. You cannot fix a list you do not have.
Can penalties be removed? +
Remission can be requested where there are grounds, and it is materially easier once the outstanding returns are filed and the underlying non-compliance is fixed. It is a request, not an entitlement.
Do you handle CIPC as well as SARS? +
Yes. Splitting them is a common reason things fall through. The CIPC annual return runs on your incorporation anniversary and has nothing to do with your tax calendar.
Talk to M&J about compliance services
Tell us where you are and what is outstanding. We will come back with a scope and a clear next step rather than a generic quote.
- Entity compliance inventory
- CIPC and annual-return coordination
- Beneficial-ownership handoff
Prefer to talk? +27 87 078 2478
Request a consultation
An M&J consultant will come back to you with the next step.