by Anastasia Machobane
There is a myriad of requirements that a registered company needs to comply with. I can write about many of these compliance requirements, however, at this point, I will be concentrating on the filing of Annual Returns. Later I will write about Annual Financial Statements as well as the new requirements for filing the Beneficial Ownership registers.
According to CIPC, an annual return is a form of annual renewal of the company or an entity. All registered companies that have the intention to continue trading in South Africa are therefore required to file annual returns via the CIPC. This is one aspect that most SMME’s are not aware of and that creates the most problems for them because of the consequences of non-compliance.
There is a set time period in which the annual return must be filed and non-adherence automatically flags that company as one that is no longer trading and therefore gets queued for deregistration. The process of deregistration is not an overnight one. Representatives whose details are on the system are sent reminders to file annual returns and if there is no response, the process to deregister commences.
As recent as this year (2024), the CIPC deregistered a vast amount of companies and close corporations which have been in the deregistration queue for more than three years and these companies would have been notified accordingly. Hence, another important aspect is to ensure that the details on the CIPC are kept current and up to date. Not doing so, leads to important communication not reaching recipients timeously.
The deregistration of non-compliant companies started on 19 January 2024 and ended on 23 January 2024. We are currently assisting clients who were not aware of this deregistration process to reinstate their companies and it is a very involved process that has its own in-built timelines. The non-compliant company also runs the risk of losing its trading name after a period of time. It is therefore better to remain compliant to avoid the cost of non-compliance.
In my next article I will delve into the Annual Financial Statement and Beneficial Ownership filing requirements.
Anastasia Machobane is the ceo of Mashobane Advisory Services focusing on providing specialist legal and business administration services to the mostly underserviced SMME market. She works independently or within team environments, and has a diplomatic/assertive approach in dealing with EXCO and Board members of any organisation. She is passionate about skills development and does this through her mentorship program. Anastasia holds B. Juris, L.L.B Degrees from the University of Pretoria, an MDP from Gibbs Business School/UP, and an Aviation Law Diploma from IATA in Canada as well as an editing qualification from UCT. She is currently completing her final year LLM in Mercantile Law with the University of Pretoria. She has been in the legal field since 1998 and is an Admitted Attorney of the High Court of South Africa since February 2001. She has attended various relevant courses over the past 22 years and her expertise includes PFMA, Risk management, Aviation, Compliance, Company secretarial, King IV, Companies act, and corporate governance.