Q: How to deregister a company

Estimated Reading Time: 2min Deregistering a company is a significant step that demands careful attention to detail and adherence to specific protocols. In this guide, we'll walk you through the essential steps to ensure a smooth deregistration process. Whether your company is facing automatic deregistration due to non-compliance or you've decided to voluntarily deregister, understanding the steps involved is crucial. Automatic deregistration: know the triggers: If your company fails to file two or more consecutive annual returns, the Companies and Intellectual Properties Commission <a href="https://support.infodocs.co.za/en/article/what-is-the-cipc-15hhjq8/">(the CIPC)</a> will initiate the deregistration process. After five or more missed annual returns, the company will be moved into "AR Final Deregistration," ceasing to exist as a legal entity. Additionally, anyone can manually refer a company for deregistration, provided it has ceased operations and has no assets or insufficient assets for liquidation, supported by proof. Step-by-step guide for voluntary deregistration: <ul> <li>Step 1: Ensure tax and annual returns compliance: Before proceeding, ensure your company is listed on <a href="https://secure.sarsefiling.co.za/landing">SARS eFiling</a>, allowing you to request essential tax certificates. It's vital to be tax-compliant with SARS and up-to-date with CIPC annual returns, even if your company has been dormant. This safeguards against unnecessary penalties.</li> <li>Step 2: Gath</li> </ul>

Q: What’s the difference between AFS & FAS?

Estimated reading time: 1 minute ||| The final step of submitting your annual return requires that you either submit a Financial Accountability Supplement (“FAS”) or Annual Financial Statements (“AFS”). This selection will depend on whether your company requires a financial audit or not. An entity must submit AFS to CIPC in iXBRL format only if any one of the below-mentioned criteria applies: <ul> <li>If an audit is required as per the MOI (Memorandum of Incorporation)</li> <li>If the PI score of the entity is 350 or more</li> <li>If the PI score of the entity is 100 or more and the financials are internally compiled</li> <li>If the entity holds any kind of assets in a fiduciary capacity for persons who are a part of the entity, and the aggregated value of such assets exceeds R5 Million at any given time during the financial year.</li> </ul> The entities who are required to file AFS must do it in the iXBRL format. If your entity doesn’t fall under any of the categories mentioned above, you are required to prepare FAS and submit to CIPC. iXBRL format is also available for those who wish to audit their financial statements voluntarily. They can choose to file AFS in iXBRL or FAS. And those companies that don’t fall under any of the aforementioned categories need to submit FAS with CIPC.

Question 1

How to deregister a company

Accepted Answer

Estimated Reading Time: 2min

Deregistering a company is a significant step that demands careful attention to detail and adherence to specific protocols. In this guide, we'll walk you through the essential steps to ensure a smooth deregistration process. Whether your company is facing automatic deregistration due to non-compliance or you've decided to voluntarily deregister, understanding the steps involved is crucial.

Automatic deregistration: know the triggers:

If your company fails to file two or more consecutive annual returns, the Companies and Intellectual Properties Commission (the CIPC) will initiate the deregistration process. After five or more missed annual returns, the company will be moved into "AR Final Deregistration," ceasing to exist as a legal entity. Additionally, anyone can manually refer a company for deregistration, provided it has ceased operations and has no assets or insufficient assets for liquidation, supported by proof.

Step-by-step guide for voluntary deregistration:

Step 1: Ensure tax and annual returns compliance: Before proceeding, ensure your company is listed on SARS eFiling, allowing you to request essential tax certificates. It's vital to be tax-compliant with SARS and up-to-date with CIPC annual returns, even if your company has been dormant. This safeguards against unnecessary penalties.
Step 2: Gath

Question 2

How to create a share certificate

Accepted Answer

Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

||| Once you have registered your company with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (“CIPC”), InfoDocs can help you to create your shareholder records in just 10 mins.

Log in to your InfoDocs account here. If you don’t already have an account, register for a free trial.

${youtube}How to create a share certificate

Add Company

Step 1: When you have successfully logged into your portfolio, select Add Company and enter the company name or registration number as per your registration certificate.

Step 2: Once you select your company, InfoDocs will automatically pull through all of the information from CIPC. This includes addresses, director details, and registration numbers.

Now that your company is loaded on your portfolio you can navigate to various different sections of the records you would like to maintain.

Create a share certificate

Step 1: Select Create New Shareholder to begin the process to create a share certificate.

![](https://storage.crisp.chat/users/helpde

Question 3

What’s the difference between AFS & FAS?

Accepted Answer

Estimated reading time: 1 minute

||| The final step of submitting your annual return requires that you either submit a Financial Accountability Supplement (“FAS”) or Annual Financial Statements (“AFS”). This selection will depend on whether your company requires a financial audit or not.

An entity must submit AFS to CIPC in iXBRL format only if any one of the below-mentioned criteria applies:

If an audit is required as per the MOI (Memorandum of Incorporation)
If the PI score of the entity is 350 or more
If the PI score of the entity is 100 or more and the financials are internally compiled
If the entity holds any kind of assets in a fiduciary capacity for persons who are a part of the entity, and the aggregated value of such assets exceeds R5 Million at any given time during the financial year.

The entities who are required to file AFS must do it in the iXBRL format.

If your entity doesn’t fall under any of the categories mentioned above, you are required to prepare FAS and submit to CIPC. iXBRL format is also available for those who wish to audit their financial statements voluntarily. They can choose to file AFS in iXBRL or FAS. And those companies that don’t fall under any of the aforementioned categories need to submit FAS with CIPC.

Question 4

How to create a share register

Accepted Answer

||| Once you've registered a company with CIPC, InfoDocs can help you to create a share register (incl. share certificates) for free.

Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

[Log in](https://secure.infodocs.co.za/account/login?utmsource=infodocs&utmmedium=article&utm_campaign=How to create a share register) to your InfoDocs account. If you don’t already have an account, sign up for free.

Share Allotments

${youtube}How to allot new shares

Step 1: Add or select the company on your portfolio to start creating their shareholder records on InfoDocs. To add your shareholders, click Create New Shareholder on the Shareholders tab.

Step 2: A window will prompt you to create a share class based on the “authorised share capital” that is reflected in your company registration document (Cor15.1A).

Step 3: Select Create New Share Class and enter all of the details pertaining to the share class that you would like to “issue” or “allot” to your shareholders.

Step 4: You will now be able to add your shareholders by

Question 5

Everything you need to know about beneficial ownership (as of November 2023)

Accepted Answer

||| As of 1 April 2023, South African companies are required to file their beneficial ownership to the CIPC.

Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

What are the legal requirements?

On 29 December 2022, the South African government published the General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing) Amendment Act 22 of 2022 including amendments to the Companies Act 71 of 2008 that came into effect on 1 April 2023.

These amendments included the requirement to keep a register of beneficial owners and to file this information with the CIPC on a regular basis. It also defined concepts such as beneficial owners and affected companies.

The purpose of these amendments was to provide the relevant authorities with the necessary information to reduce the risk of money laundering, financial crimes, and reputation damage.

Who needs to file beneficial ownership?

The following types of companies are required to file beneficial ownership to CIPC:

Private Companies ("PTY")
Close Corporations ("CC")
Non-Profit Companies ("NPC")
State Owned Companies ("SOC")
Personal Liability Company ("PLC")
Public

Question 6

How to create a register of beneficial owners

Accepted Answer

||| The CIPC has announced the promulgation of the amendments to the Companies Act 71 of 2008, as amended. The amendments of the Companies Act give the CIPC a mandate to request companies to file and update Beneficial Ownership information, as and when applicable.

Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

Companies are required to file their Beneficial Ownership information to the CIPC by 1 October 2023.

The following documents are required documents when filing your beneficial ownership information:

How to create a Register of Beneficial Owners

Step 1: Navigate to the Shareholders Tab and select Create New Shareholder.

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