Tax Tuesday: Tax Clearance Certificates

A Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC) may be required for various purposes, such as:

Moving funds offshore as part of your Foreign Investment Allowance;
Compliance requirements such as tenders or good standing;
Sitting on a board of directors of certain companies; or
Tax emigration.

Each purpose requires a different type of TCC. The ordinary “good standing” certificate will, for example, not be sufficient for emigration. For emigration, you’ll require the “emigration tax clearance” certificate. Therefore, make sure you select the correct type of certificate when going through the process.

How to obtain your TCC

A new tax compliance system that came into effect on 15 April 2016 enables you to now obtain your TCC online through the SARS eFiling platform. Here’s how:

Go to www.sarsefiling.co.za and click LOGIN if you are a registered eFiler (this applies to both individuals and companies who are taxpayers).
If you are not registered for eFiling, click REGISTER and follow the steps. As part of the registration process, you need to ensure that you activate the tax compliance system on your profile. This can also be done at a later stage.
Once logged in, select TAX STATUS. Here you will be able to see your current status or activate the tax compliance system on your eFiling profile.
You can view the details of the compliance status by expanding the various sections. If the status is shown as non-compliant, you need to remedy the non-compliance before applying for your TCC.
If you’re comfortable with your current compliance status, you can now proceed to request your TCC. This is done by clicking TAX COMPLIANCE STATUS REQUEST. Simply select the TCC type you require (e.g. tender or good standing), hit the request button and follow the onscreen prompts.

It is advisable to use Internet Explorer as the forms used by SARS are then best displayed.

A lot of detail is required when completing the forms, so it is advisable to have a look at the form in the SARS guide to ensure you have all the relevant information available before you proceed. Find out what you’ll need from page 33 onwards of the SARS guide.

You can save your progress and continue at a later stage at any time during the process.

Once the request for a TCC has been submitted and approved, you can either SMS the TCC pin to your linked mobile number on print the TCC from your eFiling profile.

For more information, consult the SARS External Guide to the Tax Compliance Status Functionality on eFiling here.

Should enough requests be received from Fat Wallet listeners, we can consider doing an instructional video where we can better explain the entire process.

Being tax efficient is an important part of great financial management. In this blog, a group of South African tax experts share their tips and explanations on tax issues. Learn everything you need to know about tax, from deductions you never knew about to retirement savings and capital gains. The first Tuesday of every month is Tax Tuesday. Don’t miss it!