Check your SARS profile and prepare a Tax Compliance Status PIN

Choose the correct task

This guide covers preparing a Good Standing request for a business. It does not cover Approval International Transfer, which has different requirements. Use the purpose stated by the organisation asking for your status, and confirm which company or taxpayer they need to verify.

The SARS request instructions explain the available request types and the PIN. Keep a request for a company separate from a director’s personal tax affairs. Similar names can hide a wrong taxpayer selection.

Prepare access and the working file

• The company’s registered name, registration number and tax reference details.
• Authorised access to the correct eFiling portfolio.
• Current representative and contact details.
• Recent return acknowledgements, statements of account and payment references for items under review.
• The requesting organisation’s exact purpose and submission requirement.

If a representative has changed, check the SARS registered representative process. Do not pass a previous representative’s password to the new person. Agree the authorised access arrangement and retain the mandate or appointment record where applicable.

Work through the request

1. Confirm the taxpayer. Compare the name and reference numbers on the profile with your company records before opening a status request.
2. Review My Compliance Profile. Note each item needing attention. Record the tax type, period, message and the evidence you already hold.
3. Investigate differences. Match payments to the relevant statement and submitted returns to their acknowledgements. A bank payment record alone does not prove that SARS allocated it to the intended period.
4. Resolve or challenge the item appropriately. Use the supported SARS process for the actual issue. Ask a tax practitioner to review matters you cannot establish from the records.
5. Request the correct status. Follow the current SARS process, review the captured information and save the request reference. Keep the outcome when it arrives.
6. Check what the recipient needs. Share the authorised verification information through the agreed channel. Record the date and recipient, and retain a copy of the result letter if required.

Use an issue register instead of loose screenshots

Keep the issue register private. It is a preparation aid and does not itself change SARS records.

Share status with the right boundaries

A TCS PIN allows a recipient to check the status at the time of verification. It is not an eFiling login and should never be accompanied by your password or authentication code. Ask the recipient to identify the taxpayer they are verifying if they report a mismatch.

Record the PIN expiry and status shown by SARS rather than assuming a validity period from a previous request. Review access and sharing when a transaction is cancelled or the intended recipient changes. For repeat tenders, verify that the material in the tender folder is still current.

Do not mark the internal task complete merely because someone captured a request. Your completion record should distinguish submitted, awaiting information, approved and shared.

Common stopping points

The TCS function is missing: review portfolio permissions and activation using the official eFiling TCS guide. Do not create a second taxpayer record as a workaround.

One tax type is absent: check the complete profile and the guide’s entity-merging guidance before drawing a conclusion about compliance.

SARS asks for more information: respond to the specific request and keep the submission confirmation. Avoid uploading unrelated private records.

The recipient sees a different status: compare the taxpayer, PIN and check date. A later status can differ from an earlier letter. For help with the review and request, use Vatco’s Tax Compliance Status PIN service.