Starting a business in South Africa
CIPC registration in days with SARS attached automatically - the thinking is in the VAT line, turnover tax, and what tenders will ask for.
Checked against the sources on 2026-08-30
Before anything else
A South African sole proprietorship needs no registration at all - trade begins, and profit lands in your personal SARS return with provisional tax twice a year. The Pty Ltd registers at the CIPC (or through the BizPortal front end) for under R200, no minimum capital, and arrives with its SARS income-tax number already issued - the integration that makes the process genuinely painless.
What deserves planning: VAT registration is compulsory only at R1,000,000 of twelve-month turnover (voluntary from R50,000); the turnover-tax regime offers micro businesses under R1M a simple sliding levy instead of the full system; and anyone selling to government or large corporates will meet B-BBEE paperwork - for small businesses mostly a sworn affidavit, not the full scorecard.
The legal shell
Sole proprietor or Pty Ltd?
Sole proprietor
Simple start, low risk.
R0.
Personal liability and personal marginal rates to 45%; provisional tax deadlines are yours to remember.
Pty Ltd
Contracts, growth, separation.
~R125-175 via CIPC/BizPortal.
27% corporate rate plus dividends tax on extraction; CIPC annual returns (with fees) keep it alive, and lapsing them deregisters the company with the bank account attached.
The sequence
Register at CIPC / BizPortal
Where: bizportal.gov.zaCost: ~R125-175Takes: Days
Name reservation plus incorporation in one flow; the SARS income-tax registration comes bundled, and BizPortal can add a bank account application, domain and B-BBEE affidavit in the same sitting.
Set up the SARS relationship
Where: eFiling
Provisional tax runs twice-yearly for individuals and companies alike. Small business corporations (SBC) get preferential graduated rates if they qualify; the micro turnover tax replaces the lot under R1M for those who elect it.
VAT when the line demands
Compulsory at R1M rolling turnover, voluntary from R50,000. B2B service exports and the usual digital-services rules apply; the 15% rate has been politically contested - check the current figure.
The employment add-ons
PAYE, UIF and SDL register together at SARS with the first employee; COIDA (workers’ compensation) registers at the Department of Employment and Labour. None applies to the solo founder without staff.
What it costs to start
| What | Amount |
|---|---|
| Sole proprietor | R0 |
| Pty Ltd | ~R125-175 |
| CIPC annual returnBy turnover; skipping it deregisters the company. | R100-450/year |
| AccountantCustomary for companies. | R500-2,000/month |
The words on the forms
- CIPC
- The companies commission.
- BizPortal
- The one-stop front end bundling company, tax, bank and B-BBEE.
- SARS / eFiling
- The revenue service and its portal.
- Provisional tax
- The twice-yearly prepayment cycle.
- Turnover tax
- The micro regime under R1M.
- SBC
- Small business corporation - the preferential rate table.
- B-BBEE affidavit
- The empowerment paperwork small businesses satisfy by sworn statement.
The traps
- Missing CIPC annual returns and losing the company by deregistration.
- Provisional tax deadlines unmarked in the calendar.
- Registering for VAT voluntarily while selling to consumers.
- Assuming B-BBEE requires a consultant when an affidavit suffices below the threshold.
Where to check this yourself
This is a map, not legal or tax advice - and an honest one about how it was drawn: the Germany guide was written by a person who walked the route; most other countries were drafted with AI against the official sources and have not yet been walked by someone who did it. Laws change. Every guide carries the date it was last checked and the sources to check it yourself - and if you have been through one of these routes, your corrections are exactly what this handbook wants.