IEASA National - News

Notification re CIPRO returns   Article Date :6 May 2005 Section 173 of the Companies Act, 1973 A recent advert in the Sunday Times, which advises all private companies to submit annual returns to the Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (CIPRO) with effect from 1.5.2005 For further information please contact them directly: Web address: www.cipro.gov.za Call centre no: 0861 843 384 Herewith as extracted from their website. Dear Customers Section 173 of the Companies Act, 1973, which came into operation on 25 August 2003, provides that all companies must lodge an Annual Return with the Registrar. The section further requires that this return must be lodged every year by not later than the end of the month, which follows upon the month within which the anniversary of the date of the company's incorporation occurs. Annual returns refer to the information that companies and close corporations must submit to the Registrar as confirmation that the company / close corporation is still in business and that the information provided is still valid. It has become imperative that Annual Returns should be introduced for purposes of data integrity and information reliability. Annual Returns are used in most countries across the world to update information kept by the Registrar. All private Companies are obliged to submit their Annual Returns with effect from May 1, 2005 together with the following prescribed fees: Annual turnover less than R10m.......R450.00 Annual turnover above R10m but less than R50m......R2 500.00 Annual turnover R50m and above.......R4 000.00 Since Annual Returns for Private Companies come into effect as from May 1, 2005, this means Companies that were incorporated in May, irrespective of the date and year, will have to submit their Annual Returns by no later than end of the following month, in this case it's June. Those incorporated in June will lodge by no later than end of July, and so on. Companies will only be allowed to lodge Annual Returns electronically. Electronic transactions will have the effect that CIPRO will not accept or receive paper documents or cash from the companies. All lodgments and payments will be done via an electronic banking system preferably by using credit cards. Alternatively, the required money can be deposited in the CIPRO bank account at ABSA Bank, Account no. 4055681017, Branch Code 323345. The reference required on the ABSA deposit slip is most important and all persons wishing to lodge annual returns must first register as a "customer" on the CIPRO Website. It must also be noted that only directors and officers of companies who are registered as such with CIPRO will be able to lodge Annual Returns. Annual Returns will be facilitated through our CIPRO website where we will be showing the company what information CIPRO has on the company. The annual return information will be stored separately on our database and will not update the actual database. Companies will still be required to lodge any relevant CM Forms to update changed information. If a company fails to lodge its Annual Returns and subsequently fails to pay the prescribed fee, an additional fee of R150.00 will be levied on the defaulter. If after successive reminders, the defaulter still fails to lodge and/or pay, the Registrar will, after six months, institute deregistration proceedings against the company. Please note that this information will also be published in the newspapers and other communication media during the course of the week. Yours faithfully REGISTRAR OF COMPANIES CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO THE MAIN NEWS PAGE