SARS Tax Practitioner Registration 2026: What SMEs and Practitioners Must Know Now

SARS Can Deregister Your Tax Practitioner — and Leave Your Business Exposed

If your tax practitioner is deregistered by SARS and you didn't know about it, every submission they make on your behalf is at risk. SARS published a video in October 2025 specifically on when it can deregister a tax practitioner for non-compliance — and in April 2026, it modernised the entire registration and verification process to make enforcement faster and more precise. For South African SMEs, this is not background noise. It directly affects who can legally represent you before SARS, and what happens to your tax affairs if that person's registration lapses.

What SARS Changed in April 2026: Risk-Based Verification Is Now Standard

Effective 21 April 2026, SARS overhauled the tax practitioner registration process. The three-step registration process remains — a Recognised Controlling Body (RCB) initiates registration, the applicant completes the RAV01 form, and the applicant finalises the application on eFiling — but SARS has added a significant layer on top of that.

After receiving an application, SARS now applies risk-based verification. Where SARS identifies a risk flag on an application, it can request supporting documents before approving registration. This means the rubber-stamp era is over. SARS is actively scrutinising who gets onto the register.

Registration status on eFiling has also been simplified. A tax practitioner now shows as one of three statuses: Active, Suspended, or Deregistered. There is no ambiguity. If the person handling your company's tax submissions shows anything other than Active, you have a problem.

SARS updated two official guides alongside these changes: the GEN-GEN-59-G01 Criteria for the Registration of Tax Practitioners and the GEN-GEN-58-G01 guide for RCBs managing tax practitioner members on eFiling. Both are available on the SARS website and represent the current legal standard for practitioner compliance.

Who Counts as a Tax Practitioner Under South African Law

Under the Tax Administration Act, a tax practitioner is any person who provides advice about a South African tax Act to another person for a fee, or who completes or assists in completing a return for another person for a fee. This is a broad definition. It captures accountants, bookkeepers, auditors, and many financial advisers operating in the SME space.

Critically, anyone who meets this definition and charges for the service must register with both a Recognised Controlling Body and with SARS directly. Operating without registration is a criminal offence under the Tax Administration Act. SARS has the power to intervene on behalf of a taxpayer harmed by an unregistered or non-compliant practitioner — but by the time that intervention happens, your business may already have suffered the consequences.

The Beneficial Owner Register: New IT3(BO) Form Affects Every Partnership

If your business operates as a partnership, a significant new administrative requirement took effect during the 2024 Filing Season and has been simplified for 2026. SARS implemented a requirement under the General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing) Amendment Act 22 of 2022 for partners to declare partner details on their ITR12 returns.

The original implementation created a serious administrative burden — each individual partner had to list every other partner on their own ITR12. SARS has resolved this by launching a single eFiling form: the Beneficial Owner Register IT3(BO).

Here is how the new process works. The partnership must nominate a designated representative who accesses the IT3(BO) form on eFiling and captures the details of all partners. Once submitted, SARS issues a unique IT3(BO) number to the representative. Each individual partner then uses only this unique number when declaring partnership details on their ITR12 — no more duplicating information across multiple returns.

There are two firm rules every partnership must understand. First, the IT3(BO) form must be submitted annually by the designated representative — it is not a once-off registration. Second, individual partners may only use the unique IT3(BO) number on their ITR12; they cannot submit the full partner details themselves. Missing this submission means partners cannot correctly complete their ITR12, which creates an immediate non-compliance risk across the entire partnership.

Filing Season 2026: What Tax Practitioners Need to Prepare For

The July 2026 edition of the SARS Tax Practitioner Connect newsletter — published on 24 July 2026 — confirms that Filing Season 2026 is underway with several developments practitioners and their clients must act on now.

The newsletter covers registration challenges that some practitioners are experiencing, which SARS has flagged as a known issue. If your practitioner has mentioned delays or difficulties with their SARS registration status, this is a live systemic issue — not an excuse. The newsletter also addresses auto assessment enhancements and changes to provisional taxpayer processes. Provisional taxpayers — which includes most SMEs with income outside of a salary — need to confirm that their practitioner is up to date with these changes before submitting the first provisional tax return for the 2026/2027 year.

New SARS digital services are also covered in the July 2026 newsletter, as are updates on the online traveller declaration requirements effective from 1 July 2026. If your business involves any import or export activity, this is directly relevant to your compliance obligations.

The March 2026 Tax Practitioner Connect newsletter (Issue 70) flagged separate changes relevant to employers: new rules for long service awards, death compensation during employment, and an updated source code for travel reimbursements in the 2026/2027 PAYE Employer Reconciliation. If your business pays employees and submits PAYE reconciliations, your tax practitioner or payroll function must already be working with the updated e@syFile™ Employer version 8.0, which was released on 26 March 2025.

The Consequences of Using an Unregistered or Non-Compliant Practitioner

SARS does not treat the use of an unregistered practitioner as the practitioner's problem alone. If someone submits returns on your behalf without being properly registered, SARS can challenge the validity of those submissions. Returns prepared or submitted by an unregistered person may be treated as if they were self-submitted — removing any professional liability protection and potentially exposing your business to penalties for errors or omissions that a registered practitioner would have been trained to avoid.

Beyond the validity of returns, there is a practical financial risk. SARS can impose administrative penalties for incorrect returns, late submissions, and underpayment of tax. These penalties can reach up to 200% of the shortfall in certain cases under the Tax Administration Act. If an incompetent or non-compliant practitioner made errors on your behalf, you as the taxpayer are ultimately liable for the underlying tax debt plus interest and penalties. Claiming ignorance about your practitioner's registration status does not reduce that liability.

SARS also published guidance in December 2024 specifically warning taxpayers to use only registered practitioners, and followed this with a video tutorial. The message is consistent: SARS expects taxpayers to verify their practitioner's status. The tools to do so are publicly available — SARS maintains an online lookup database where anyone can check whether a tax practitioner is currently registered.

Scam Risk: Protecting Your Business from Fake SARS Communications

In September 2025, SARS issued a warning about the unauthorised use of SARS trademarks. Fraudsters use SARS logos, names, and official-looking insignia to deceive taxpayers and businesses into making payments or disclosing sensitive information. This is not a theoretical risk — it is an active threat to South African SMEs.

SARS holds exclusive rights to its trademarks. Any communication purporting to be from SARS that arrives via unofficial channels — unsolicited WhatsApp messages, emails from non-sars.gov.za addresses, or phone calls requesting banking details — should be treated as suspicious. Legitimate SARS correspondence arrives through eFiling notifications, official post, or SARS-verified WhatsApp (a verified channel SARS introduced for specific service types). If you receive a suspicious communication, do not act on it before verifying through the official SARS website at sars.gov.za.

What to Do Right Now: A Five-Step Action Plan for SMEs

The volume of changes SARS has made to the tax practitioner environment in 2025 and 2026 means that doing nothing is a compliance risk in itself. Here is what your business should do immediately.

Step 1: Verify your tax practitioner's registration status. Go to the SARS website and use the online lookup tool. Confirm that the person or firm handling your tax affairs shows as Active — not Suspended or Deregistered. Do this now, before Filing Season 2026 submissions are due.

Step 2: If your business is a partnership, confirm the IT3(BO) has been submitted. Identify your designated partnership representative and confirm they have submitted the Beneficial Owner Register IT3(BO) form on eFiling for the current year. Each partner needs the IT3(BO) unique number to complete their ITR12. Without it, your returns cannot be correctly filed.

Step 3: Check your practitioner is across the 2026 Filing Season updates. Ask directly whether they have reviewed the July 2026 Tax Practitioner Connect newsletter and are aware of the auto assessment enhancements and provisional taxpayer changes. A practitioner who is not subscribed to SARS updates is a liability.

Step 4: If you are an employer, confirm e@syFile™ Employer version 8.0 is installed. Version 8.0 was required from April 2025 and includes the updated PAYE reconciliation rules for 2026/2027. Submitting reconciliations on an older version creates errors that trigger SARS queries.

A note on what we do and don’t do: ClearComply’s free check covers your CIPC record — Beneficial Ownership, annual returns and company status. It does not check your SARS standing. For tax matters, tell us what you need and we’ll put you in touch with an accountant who does this for a living.

Your Compliance Status Should Not Be a Surprise

SARS is investing in better governance, faster verification, and cleaner registers. That is good news for businesses that stay on top of their obligations — and a serious risk for those that don't. The changes to tax practitioner registration, the new IT3(BO) form for partnerships, and the Filing Season 2026 developments all require action from SMEs, not just from practitioners.