How to register a company in South Africa
What registering a private company with the CIPC actually involves — the decisions, the documents, the order they happen in, and the parts that are not included no matter who does it for you.
Written for founders doing this for the first time. It is a guide to the process rather than a sales page: if you read it and decide to do it yourself, it has done its job.
The sequence
Six decisions, in the order they arrive.
Described as decisions rather than as a walkthrough of a government portal. Portals change; the decisions do not, and they are the part that determines whether the application goes through first time.
Decide what you are registering, and whether you need to
Almost every small South African business that registers ends up as a private company — the one that carries “(Pty) Ltd” after its name. Before that, though, is a question worth asking properly: is somebody requiring this of you, or are you doing it because it feels like the next step? A client who will not onboard an individual, a landlord, a bank or a procurement process are concrete reasons with concrete deadlines. Anything about tax or personal liability is a real question too, and it belongs with an accountant or an attorney rather than with a registration service.
Choose a name — and three you would also accept
Name reservation is a separate step from registering the company, and it is where most of the delay in this process actually comes from. The register is crowded, and a name close to one already on it gets refused. The way through is unglamorous: pick alternatives before you lodge anything, in an order you would genuinely be happy with, so a refusal costs a day instead of a fortnight. It is also possible to register a company without a reserved name and trade under the registration number until you have one — occasionally the right call when a deadline is the binding constraint.
Gather the details of every director and incorporator
Identity documents or passports, full names exactly as they appear on them, contact details, and the addresses that will go on the register. “Exactly as they appear” is doing real work in that sentence: a name entered slightly differently from the identity document is one of the most common reasons an application comes back, and it is entirely avoidable.
Settle the founding document
A company is constituted by its Memorandum of Incorporation — the document setting out how it is governed, who may do what, and how shares work. Most small companies adopt the standard form, which is the sensible default and the reason registration is not an expensive exercise. A customised one is occasionally warranted, usually where there are several shareholders with different rights, and that is a conversation for an attorney rather than a form field.
Lodge the registration
The filing itself is electronic and is made with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission. There is nothing to attend in person and no reason the applicant has to be in any particular city. What decides whether it goes through first time is whether everything above was done carefully — which is the part people underestimate, and the part we are actually being paid for.
Then use it, which is a separate pile of work
Registration gives you an entity and a registration number. It does not give you a bank account, a supplier account, a place on a customer’s vendor list, a letterhead or a logo. Each of those is a further application, and each will ask for the company’s details — which is why they have to agree with each other, everywhere, from the beginning.
Before you start
What to have in front of you.
- Identity document or passport details for every director
- Full names exactly as they appear on those documents
- Contact details and addresses for the register
- A proposed company name, and alternatives
- The share split, where there is more than one shareholder
- An address where official correspondence will actually reach you
Everything on that list is something a first application gets sent back for. None of it is difficult; all of it is easier to gather before you open the form than halfway through it.
Where the line is
Registering a company is not registering for tax.
Nira Business Services does not offer tax, accounting or bookkeeping, and does not give tax advice. For anything involving SARS, VAT, payroll or annual financial statements, the right person is a registered accountant or tax practitioner. The two get spoken about as one thing and they are not, and the difference matters most to exactly the person reading a page like this for the first time. The same applies where a question is genuinely a legal one — several of the decisions above have a version that needs an attorney, and we will say which.
Official sources
Where the current fees and rules live.
- Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC)The registrar itself. Fees, forms and the current requirements.
- BizPortalThe government’s own registration portal, run by the CIPC.
We do not publish the statutory fees here, because they are the CIPC’s tariff rather than ours and a number copied onto a web page goes out of date quietly. The pages above are the ones to check.
Questions
The ones that come up every time.
Can I register a company myself?
Yes. The process is public, the filing is electronic and nothing about it requires an intermediary — anybody willing to read carefully can do it. What people pay for is not access, it is not doing it twice: names that were never going to clear, details that do not match an identity document, and addresses that get queried are the usual causes of a delay, and all three come from moving quickly through a form nobody has filled in before.
What is the difference between reserving a name and registering a company?
Reserving a name holds that name for you. Registering a company creates the legal entity. They are separate steps and they cost separate fees, which is why the two get confused — and why somebody can end up with a reserved name and no company, or a registered company trading under its registration number while a name is still being sorted out. Either situation is fixable; both are easier to avoid.
How much does it cost to register a company?
Two different things get added together in that question, and they are worth separating. The statutory fees are set by the CIPC, are paid to the CIPC, and are the same wherever you register — the current amounts are published on their own site. What Nira charges is for handling the process, and it is quoted per business rather than listed, because a company with one director and a company with four shareholders are not the same job.
Do I have to be in a particular city?
No. The register is national and the filing is electronic, so a founder in Cape Town, Polokwane or a small town in the Karoo goes through an identical process. Where you are matters for what happens afterwards — who is going to ask you for the documents, and what they expect them to look like — rather than for the registration itself.
What happens after the company is registered?
Practically: a bank account in the company’s name, then whatever your customers and suppliers require before they will deal with a company rather than a person. Administratively: a registered company has ongoing obligations, including an annual return to the CIPC, and companies do get deregistered for neglecting them. There is also a tax side, which begins immediately and is not ours — that belongs with a registered accountant or tax practitioner.
Do you handle the SARS side?
No. Nira Business Services does not offer tax, accounting or bookkeeping and does not give tax advice. Registering a company and everything to do with SARS, VAT, payroll or annual financial statements are separate matters, and the second belongs with a registered accountant or tax practitioner. We will say so rather than take the work.
Where this goes next
Related pages.
If you would rather not
We will do it properly, and once.
Registration, name reservation, branding and the administration underneath them — scoped and quoted per business, with the statutory fees paid to the CIPC rather than marked up.