Keeping a South African Company Alive Costs R100 a Year. Losing It Takes Two.

Registering a South African company is famously cheap. Keeping one is cheaper still — and that is exactly why people lose them.

A dormant private company turning over less than R1 million owes CIPC R100 a year. Miss that R100 for two successive years and the company is referred for deregistration, at which point, in CIPC's own words, "the juristic personality is withdrawn and the company or close corporation ceases to exist."

What the annual return actually costs

Fees are set by turnover, and there are two columns: filing on time, and filing late.

Annual turnover	Within 30 business days	More than 30 business days
Less than R1 million	R100	R150
R1m but less than R10m	R450	R600
R10m but less than R25m	R2,000	R2,500
R25 million or more	R3,000	R4,000
Re-instatement (Form CoR40.5)	R200	—

Two things stand out.

A dormant company is R100. If you registered an entity ahead of a visa, a contract or a launch, its annual cost to stay compliant is trivial. There is almost no financial reason to let it lapse.

Being late is cheap; being absent is not. Missing the 30-day window costs an extra R50 at the bottom of the table. The real penalty is not on this table at all — it is deregistration, and it arrives after two years.

Your deadline is not the same as anybody else's

This is where foreign owners most often come unstuck, because there is no national filing date to remember.

A company must file within 30 business days after the anniversary date of its incorporation. Your deadline is derived from the day your company was born. Register on 14 March and your window opens every 14 March; register on 2 November and it opens every 2 November.

(Close corporations work differently — within the anniversary month of incorporation and up until the month after.)

Note also that it is 30 business days, not calendar days, and South Africa has a generous public holiday calendar. Do not compute it in your head from a foreign calendar; count it, or simply file in the anniversary week.

The notice goes to the address on file

Here is the detail that turns an administrative slip into a lost company.

Before deregistering, CIPC does send a warning. The guide is specific about where: notifications are mailed to the company's registered postal address "as reflected on the CIPC records", asking it either to confirm it is still active or to file the outstanding returns.

If you incorporated from abroad, used an accountant's address, or moved, that letter goes to an address that is no longer yours. The process continues regardless. The warning system assumes CIPC's records are current, which is your responsibility, not theirs.

If you take one action from this page, make it confirming the postal address on your CIPC record.

What happens if you miss it

The sequence is worth knowing precisely, because there is a window where the problem is trivially fixable and a point after which it is not.

Two successive years outstanding. CIPC may refer the company for deregistration.

Pending deregistration. The legal persona still exists. At this stage the fix is simple: the guide states the deregistration process will be cancelled if all outstanding annual returns are filed while it is still in that status. This is the window. It is also the window most people sleep through, because the notice went to the wrong address.

Final deregistered. Now it is closed off. Once in this status, no annual return lodgment or objection can be processed. You cannot file your way out.

Re-instatement is not a formality

Many summaries describe re-instatement as a R200 form. The R200 is real, but so is the gate in front of it.

CIPC "will only process the re-instatement application if" one of these is true:

the company was in business at the time of deregistration, and proof of that fact is provided;
immovable property is registered in the company's name; or
a creditor provides proof that it will be unfairly prejudiced if the company is not re-instated.

Look at what that excludes. A company that was registered but had not yet started trading — precisely the pre-launch or pre-visa entity this whole page is about — may not satisfy any of the three. It was not in business, it owns no property, and it has no aggrieved creditor.

And even where re-instatement is granted, all outstanding annual returns must still be filed for it to take effect. The bill does not go away; it accumulates and waits.

The guide names the alternative plainly: incorporate a new company for R175. Cheap — unless the old entity held the name you built on, a contract, a licence, a bank relationship, or the trading history a lender would want to see. That is the loss, and no fee schedule shows it.

Two things that must be filed with the return, not after it

Financial statements, on the same day. A company must file, on the same day as its annual return, either audited financial statements, independently reviewed financial statements, or the financial accountability supplement. Not later, and not on request.

Beneficial ownership. Separately from the guide above, CIPC's notices state that beneficial ownership information became a required part of annual return filing from 24 May 2023, and that from 1 July 2024 a "hard stop" was introduced preventing an annual return from being filed without it.

That second one matters for foreign shareholders in particular: the filing asks who ultimately owns and controls the company, and the answer must be on record before the return will go through. It is also the newest of these rules and the most likely to be refined, so confirm the current form with CIPC before filing.

What this page does not cost out

Everything owed to SARS. Income tax registration, provisional tax, VAT once you cross the registration threshold, and payroll obligations if you employ anyone are a separate bill on a separate calendar, and none of them appear in a CIPC document. We are not going to price them from a guide that does not mention them.

The point stands anyway: the CIPC annual return is the cheapest of a company's recurring obligations, and the one whose failure is most final.

For what it costs to bring the company into existence in the first place, and why the visa is the genuinely hard part, see registering a company in South Africa as a foreigner.

About the source

Fees, deadlines, the deregistration referral rule and the re-instatement conditions are quoted from the CIPC Information Guide, "Relationship between annual returns, deregistrations and re-instatements". The beneficial ownership dates come from separate CIPC notices, as flagged above.

The guide also carries a Companies Act 1973 fee table, which applies only to returns that fell due before 1 May 2011. We have not reproduced it, because it is irrelevant to a company being registered now.

Fees change. Confirm with CIPC before filing. This is not legal or accounting advice.

How does this affect YOUR Money OS?

A R100 annual charge that can cost you the entire entity is the highest-leverage diary entry in a small business. Put the anniversary date in the calendar, and put the CIPC postal address next to it.

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FAQ

How much is a CIPC annual return for a small company? R100 if turnover is under R1 million and you file within 30 business days of your incorporation anniversary, or R150 after that. The fee rises with turnover, reaching R3,000 for R25 million or more.

When is my CIPC annual return due? Within 30 business days after the anniversary date of your company's incorporation. Every company has its own date; there is no shared national deadline. Close corporations file within the anniversary month and the month after.

What happens if I do not file annual returns? CIPC may refer the company for deregistration once returns are outstanding for two successive years. On deregistration the juristic personality is withdrawn and the company ceases to exist.

Can I still fix it after a deregistration notice? Yes, while the status is still pending deregistration — the process is cancelled if all outstanding annual returns are filed. Once the status is final deregistered, no return or objection can be processed.

How do I get a deregistered company back? By applying for re-instatement on Form CoR40.5 for R200 — but CIPC will only process it if the company was in business at deregistration with proof, or owns immovable property, or a creditor shows unfair prejudice. All outstanding returns must then be filed.

Do I have to file financial statements too? Yes, on the same day as the annual return — audited statements, independently reviewed statements, or the financial accountability supplement.

Is beneficial ownership filing compulsory? CIPC's notices state it became part of annual return filing from 24 May 2023, with a hard stop from 1 July 2024 preventing the return being filed without it.

I live abroad. What is my biggest risk? The deregistration warning is posted to the registered postal address on CIPC's records. If that address is stale, the notice never reaches you and the process continues. Check the address on file.