How to Register a Company With CIPC in South Africa: Cost, Documents and Timeline

Registering a private company with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) costs R125 if you skip the name reservation, or R175 if you reserve a name first (R50 for the name, R125 for registration), according to CIPC's own fee and service turnaround schedule checked in October 2026. Do it online through BizPortal or CIPC e-Services, and if your documents are in order, BizPortal, the mobile app and the banks process it immediately once you've paid; e-Services takes about one working day. You'll need your green bar-coded or smart South African ID, each director's ID details, and a physical registered address. Non-residents use a certified passport copy instead of an ID. This guide covers the South African process — for the country's other money and tax guides, see our South Africa hub.

What you need before you start

Have these ready and the whole thing takes under half an hour:

• Your South African ID (green bar-coded or smart ID) if you're a resident. Non-residents, refugees and asylum seekers use a certified copy of a passport or other prescribed documentation instead.
• Each director's full legal name, ID or passport number and nationality — exactly as it appears on their ID, not a nickname or shortened version.
• A physical registered address for the company. A post box alone won't do; CIPC needs a street address it can use to serve legal notices.
• Up to four proposed company names, in order of preference, if you want a trading name. You can skip this entirely and let CIPC register the company under its own registration number instead.
• A bank card or EFT facility to pay the fee immediately — most of the fast-track channels only move once payment clears.

How to register a company on BizPortal, step by step

BizPortal (bizportal.gov.za) is one of CIPC's own registration channels, alongside e-Services, the CIPC mobile app, Self Service Terminals and participating banks.

1. Create an account using your South African ID number.
2. Choose "Register a Company" and select a private company (Pty) Ltd — the structure almost every small business and side hustle registers under.
3. Reserve a name or skip it. Reserving a name costs R50 and CIPC checks it isn't already taken or too similar to an existing one. Skipping it means your company is simply known by its registration number until you change the name later.
4. Enter director details for everyone who'll sit on the board — full names, ID numbers and contact details.
5. Give the company's registered address. This is where CIPC and SARS correspondence goes.
6. Pay online. R125 for a standard registration without a name, R175 with a reserved name, or R425 if you want a customised Memorandum of Incorporation (MOI) instead of CIPC's standard one.
7. Receive your registration documents. Once CIPC processes the payment, you get your company registration number and incorporation documents by email — immediately on BizPortal if everything checks out, per CIPC's own published turnaround times.

No South African ID? Use e-Services instead

BizPortal's identity check runs against Home Affairs records, so it only works for South African ID holders. If you're a foreign national, a refugee or asylum seeker, or you need a custom MOI, public company, state-owned company or incorporated company structure, register through CIPC e-Services instead and submit a certified copy of your passport (or your prescribed refugee/asylum documentation) in place of an ID. CIPC's published turnaround for that route is one working day, against five working days for the standard and customised MOI company types filed the same way.

CIPC company registration fees in full (October 2026)

These are CIPC's own charges — no accountant, agent or "registration service" needs to add anything on top to get your company incorporated. If a provider quotes you far more than R175 just to file the registration itself, ask exactly what the extra money covers (a customised MOI, a company secretary, tax registration help) before you pay.

How long does it actually take?

Per CIPC's published service turnaround times:

• BizPortal, the mobile app, Self Service Terminals and banks: immediate, as soon as payment clears, provided your documents and name are in order.
• CIPC e-Services: one working day for a standard company registration.
• Name reservation: one working day.
• Customised MOI company types (public, state-owned, incorporated companies) filed via e-Services: five working days.

The one thing that reliably slows this down is a rejected name — if your first, second and third choices are all taken or too close to an existing company, CIPC bounces the application and you resubmit, which costs you the turnaround time again. That's the main argument for registering without a name and renaming later once you've checked availability yourself.

Tax registration happens automatically

You don't need a separate trip to SARS to get a company income tax reference number. According to SARS's own guidance on corporate income tax, a company registered through CIPC is automatically registered with SARS for income tax through a direct interface between the two systems — you don't file a separate SARS registration for that. If you'll be hiring staff, you still need to register separately for PAYE and UIF once you have employees. And once the company starts paying you a salary or dividends, you file your own personal return and work out what you owe on it — our SARS eFiling guide walks through that, and you can run the numbers through our South Africa income tax calculator before you decide how much to pay yourself.

What to watch out for

• Don't pay a markup you don't need to. The CIPC fee for a standard registration is R125–R175. Plenty of private "company registration" sites exist purely to resell this basic filing at several times the price.
• A post box address gets queried. Use a real street address you can be reached at, even if it's a home address to start with.
• Annual returns aren't optional. Once your company is registered, you must file an annual return (and, when it applies, a beneficial ownership declaration) with CIPC every year, even if the company never traded. Miss it for long enough and CIPC suspends the company from doing business, then deregisters it — and directors can still be held personally liable for what happened while it was trading.
• A CIPC certificate alone doesn't let you open a business bank account or trade with some clients. Most banks also want proof of address and ID for directors, and some tender processes want a B-BBEE affidavit (not required at all if your turnover is under R10 million) or CSD registration. Budget time for these as separate steps, not part of the CIPC process itself.

Running a small shop rather than a formal company? Not every business needs this step — sole proprietors, including most spaza shops, register for tax straight with SARS and skip CIPC entirely. Our guide on starting a spaza shop in South Africa covers that route, plus the municipal and health registrations a retail shop needs instead.

Once the company is actually earning, put some of what you pay yourself to work. Our guide to the best Tax-Free Savings Accounts in South Africa is a good place to start with your personal savings, separate from the business. For more on getting a small business or side hustle off the ground, browse our business plans guides.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to register a company with CIPC in 2026?

R125 if you register without reserving a name first, or R175 if you reserve a name (R50) and then register (R125). A customised Memorandum of Incorporation costs R425 instead of R125. These are CIPC's own fees, checked October 2026, with no third-party markup.

How long does CIPC company registration take?

If you use BizPortal, the mobile app, a Self Service Terminal or a bank, and your documents and chosen name are all in order, registration is immediate once payment clears. Through CIPC e-Services, a standard private company takes about one working day.

Can I register a company with CIPC if I don't have a South African ID?

Yes, but not through BizPortal, which checks your identity against Home Affairs records. Foreign nationals, refugees and asylum seekers register through CIPC e-Services using a certified copy of a passport or other prescribed documentation instead of an ID.

Do I need to reserve a company name before registering?

No. You can register without a name and CIPC will use your company's registration number as its name until you change it. Reserving a name costs R50 and takes about one working day, and it protects your choice from being taken by someone else while you finish registering.

Does CIPC registration also register my company for tax with SARS?

Yes. A company registered through CIPC is automatically registered with SARS for income tax through a direct link between the two systems, according to SARS's own guidance. You still need to register separately for PAYE and UIF once you take on employees. That's separate from your own personal income tax return as a director, which still has its own deadline each year — see what happens if you miss SARS's filing deadline if you're not sure where you stand.

What happens if I don't file annual returns after registering my company?

CIPC suspends the company from doing business if you fall behind on annual returns or beneficial ownership declarations, and can eventually deregister it entirely, which ends its legal existence. Directors can still be held personally liable for actions taken while the company was trading, so it's worth filing even for a dormant company.