The Public Officer

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

All companies are required by law to appoint a Public Officer within one month of the company’s date of incorporation. Failure to appoint a Public Officer within the designated time frame, will result in non-compliance. The Public Officer is required to be a South African resident, and is in essence the face of the company. Either a director (in the case of Closed Corporations) or the Company Secretary may act as the company’s Public Officer. If there is a change of Public Officer, the company must notify SARS within 14 days to avoid hefty fines.

A “registered representative” is a person who is appointed with full rights to act on behalf of another legal entity with SARS. In the case of a registered company this individual is also known as a “public officer” and needs to be appointed by a resolution of the board of directors. SARS recently enhanced the functionality of the “registered representative” on eFiling which allows the representative to have greater control over the organisation’s profile. In addition, their new query system allows representatives to become registered online without going into a SARS branch.

In order for an individual to be appointed in this capacity for an organisation, they will need to fill in the details of the entity requested on the SARS query system.

In addition, you will need to furnish SARS with a number of supporting documents. These include;

The ID of the Public Officer, Liquidator, Administrator
An image that was taken on the day of the request, clearly showing the individual in question holding up a copy of their ID document and a note that reads ‘_Update my details_‘.
Proof of residence for the Public Officer, Liquidator, Administrator (Not older than 3 months)
A signed consent letter of the Public Officer, Liquidator, Administrator
Ordinary directors resolution – Public Officer, Liquidator, Administrator appointment
Company registration certificate – COR14.3

Here is a download of one of those templates as an example.

Since it is a requirement to inform SARS within 14 days of a public officer appointment/ change, InfoDocs has seamlessly included the SARS registration into the Appoint Officer process.

For more information, please refer to the SARS website.

Updated on: 23/05/2023

Was this article helpful?

Thank you!