How to request your Tax Compliance Status via eFiling
Once you have viewed your “My Compliance Profile”, you may request a Tax Compliance Status by:
- Selecting the Tax Compliance Status Request option and the type of TCS for which you would like to apply. You will have the following options:
- Good standing
- Tender
- FIA (Foreign Investment Allowance) (individuals only)
- Emigration (individuals only)
- Complete the Tax Compliance Status Request and submit it to SARS.
Top Tip: See FIA and Emigration applications for more information on the supporting documents required.
Taxpayers who already emigrated and who want to transfer ‘Emigrant’s Remaining Assets’ (formerly known as Blocked Funds) need to request a TCS for FIA via eFiling. When applying for the TCS in respect of FIA, you need to set the ‘Source of capital to be invested‘ to ‘Emigrant’s Remaining Assets’. For more information, see the process for transferring Emigrant’s Remaining Assets (Blocked Funds).
Once your request is approved by SARS, you will be issued with an overall tax compliance status and a PIN. You can request that the PIN be sent to you via SMS and you can view it on your “Tax Compliance Status Request” dashboard on your eFiling profile. The PIN can also be printed in the form of the TCS result letter.
Top Tip: A unique PIN will be issued for each request that you make.
The Tax Compliance Status PIN
The PIN provides you with a way to authorise any third party to view your tax compliance status online via eFiling.
Once you have provided the PIN to a third party, the PIN will enable the relevant organisation or government department to view your current tax compliance status online. It will present them with your overall compliance status as at the date and time they check it instead of your status as it was at the date that the PIN was issued to you. To protect the confidentiality of taxpayer information, no other information will be accessible.
What do I need to do?
With this in mind, in order to be tax compliant you should make sure that:
- You do not have any outstanding tax returns
- You do not owe any money to SARS unless a payment arrangement or suspension of debt has been agreed to
- You are registered for all the tax products that you are liable for
- Your registered particulars are updated. For more information on how to update registered particulars click here.
- You have either merged (via the Merge tool on eFiling) or declared (on the ERC01 form available as part of the TCS process on eFiling), all your registered tax reference numbers. For more information on Merge, click here.
The new TCS system has at its heart the “My Compliance Profile (MCP)” functionality. The MCP affords taxpayers the opportunity to view their tax compliance status online as determined by SARS in order to remedy any non-compliance identified. The introduction of the MCP empowers taxpayers with more information about their tax compliance and forms the basis for the overall compliance status issued with regards to TCS applications (for example for Tender or Good standing and others).