Requirements to appoint a Public Officer
A Public Officer should be appointed within one month after the company begins to carry on business or acquires an office in South Africa.
Every company in South Africa must at all times be represented by an individual residing in the South Africa, who must be a person who is a senior official of the company; or if no senior official resides in the Republic, maybe another suitable person.
Responsibilities of a Public Officer
The public officer is responsible for all matters relating to a tax act. The public officer is the face of the entity – essentially a representative of the entity in all aspects including tax. In other words, the public officer has full representative authority and accountability for the entity. These duties could include the following:
attending to the various tax registrations such as VAT, Payroll Taxes, Customs and Excise;
attending to all tax matters of the entity, including submission of the tax returns for VAT, employees’ tax, employee tax reconciliations, income tax, dividends tax and provisional taxes;
the individual is also responsible for the timeous payment of taxes due to SARS; and
notifying SARS of any change of the registered particulars such as registered address, year-end change, name change and verifying bank details.
The public officer may authorise tax practitioners, such as Mello CFO, to act on their behalf in terms of the above duties. However, the Public Officer will remain fully accountable for all the tax matters.
Documents required to register as a Public Officer
The following will be required:
A resolution confirming appointment as Public Officer.
A Certified ID.
Personal Income Tax Number.
A recent proof of address.
A photo of the Public Officer with their ID and a note that reads "Update my details" and date.
What we need you to do as the Public Officer
For new companies or tax registrations - Mello CFO will request access to tax types on SARS eFiling, including VAT, employees’ tax, employee tax reconciliations, income tax, dividends tax and provisional taxes. We will email you instructions on how to authorise. This can be done online and should take less than 4 minutes.