Summary

In pursuit of improving the tax ecosystem, one of SARS strategic objective is to work with and through stakeholders, to effect simplicity in their tax compliance responsibilities. Considering that, this guide seeks to describe how taxpayers’ and organisations/entities can manage their submission of IT3 third party data to SARS.

The webpage unpacks the overall process of user adoption regarding the use of eFiling, detailing the process involved during registration and activation of the IT3 tax-type. This is to ultimately ensure that SARS issues the taxpayer or organisation, their IT301 return during tax seasons for submission. Additionally, the guide unpacks the how registered representatives can add administrators to the organisation eFiling profile, so that tax administrators can administer the tax responsibilities of their organisation/entity. Lastly the enrolment process is unpacked of the organization and the tax administrators for the submission of the IT3 third party data.

Background

The submission of IT3 third-party data by taxpayers and third-party entities, forms part of the SARS third-party data reporting process. SARS third-party data systems receive and process information as per appropriate legislation, Government Gazette and External BRS documents aligned to international best tax practices.

The following legislation portions of the Tax Administration Act, relate to the request for certificate information:

• Section 26 – This covers Third-Party Data Reporting
• Section 18A – This covers all approved entities.
• Section 30(10) of the Income Tax Act, 1962 – This covers the PBO’s.

Consequently, the submission of IT3 third-party data or certificates bi-annually follows a legislative requirement. Taxpayers and Third Parties are required by law to submit third-party information or data to SARS.

Listed below are the IT3 tax-types that should be submitted to SARS: 

• IT3(b) – Income from Investments, Property Rights, Royalties and/or. Withholding Tax on Interest
• IT3(c) – Certificate of income in respect of the disposal of unit trust or other financial instruments.
• IT3(e) – Income from Purchases / Sales / Shipments of Livestock / Produce / Timber / Ores /Minerals / Precious Stones or bonuses Paid / Accrued to Members of Co-Operative Companies. or Societies
• IT3(s) – Tax Free Investment
• IT3(d) – Deductions on donations
• IT3(f) – Insurance
• IT3(f) – Medical
• WTI – (part of IT3(b))
• IT3(t) – Trust income, and
• Dividends Tax.

Who is Required to Submit Third Party Data

The following persons are required to submit third party data in terms of section 26 of the Tax Administration Act, 2011:

• Banks regulated by the Registrar of Banks in terms of the Banks Act, 1990, or the Mutual Banks Act, 1993.
• Co-operative Banks regulated by the Co-operative Banks Development Agency in terms of the Co-operative Banks Act, 2007.
• The South African Postbank Limited (Postbank) regulated in terms of the South African Postbank Limited Act, 2010.
• Financial institutions regulated by the executive officer, deputy executive officer or board, as defined in the Financial Services Board Act, 1990, whether in terms of that Act or any other Act (including a “financial institution” as defined in the Financial Services Board Act, 1990, other than an institution described in paragraph (a)(i) of the definition).
• Companies listed on the JSE, and connected persons in relation to the companies, that issue bonds, debentures, or similar financial instruments
• State-owned companies, as defined in section 1 of the Companies Act, 2008, that issue bonds, debentures, or similar financial instruments.
• Organs of state, as defined in section 239 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, that issue bonds or similar financial instruments.
• Any person (including a co-operative as defined in section 1 of the Income Tax Act, 1962) who purchases any livestock, produce, timber, ore, mineral or precious stones from a primary producer other than on a retail basis.
• Any medical scheme registered under section 24(1) of the Medical Schemes Act, 1998.
• Any person, who for their own account carries on the business as an estate agent as defined in the Estate Agency Affairs Act, 1976, and who pays to, or receives on behalf of, a third party, any amount in respect of an investment, interest, or the rental of property; and
• Any person, who for their own account practices as an attorney as defined in section 1 of the Attorneys Act, 1979, and who pays to or receives on behalf of a third party any amount in respect of an investment, interest, or the rental of property.

Likewise, section 18A requires that Entities who received donations and issued receipts to Donors are to report those receipts to SARS. This implies that where a receipt was issued, it should be reported to SARS. The following section 18A entities are required to submit information to SARS:

• Government (e.g., Gauteng Department of Health)
• Government Institutions (e.g., Public Schools)
• Public Benefit Organizations (e.g., Welfare, Health Care, Land & Housing etc.)
• United Nations Agencies (e.g., UN Children’s Fund, UN Development Program, etc.)

Entities are to apply and get approval for Section 18A. Although certain section 18A entities will be specified in the appropriate Gazette to make data submission, a value or volume threshold may be applied to ask for data submissions. Furthermore, where entities didn’t receive any Donations, a “NIL reporting declaration” is required.

Lastly regarding the IT3(t) (Trust Income), Representative Taxpayers or their representatives are to supply information as per government gazette. These include on the amounts vested to the beneficiary of a Trust.

Requirements for a Successful Submission

To submit the IT3 data file/certificates successfully, taxpayers/entities must submit their data on the applicable platform and declare by validating the summary of your submitted data. eFiling registered submitting entities submit data to SARS by utilising one of the following platforms, which is dependent on the size of the data/certificates.

• Connect Direct for bulk data,
• HTTPS for medium sized data, or
• eFiling for IT3-01 form (max of 50 Certificates).

Note that for IT3(d) a max of 50 Certificates can be submitted.

Manual completions are done via the completion and submission of the IT3-01 form. Electronic or data file submissions are structured and uploaded as described on the file specifications detailed in the External BRS. Upon successful structuring of the file, the file should then be submitted via the HTTPS or Connect Direct platforms.

To ensure that the data/certificates are received and processed by SARS, submitting entities representatives are required to validate the activation of the IT3 submission functionality on eFiling. Additionally, they are to review their submitted data/certificates on the pre-populated IT3-02 return and once reviewed and in agreement with the summary data, they are to declare by submitting the IT3-02 return to SARS via eFiling

How to report to SARS

Submitting entities and taxpayers are required to register with SARS and eFiling. Once registered, eFiling should be utilised to report periodically to SARS as per government gazette and external BRS specifications.

Additionally appropriate systems should be employed when recording one or more payment events. Furthermore, the report should also be indicative of payment values that passed from Donor to Recipient. They should report occurrences, where one or more payments occurred. These amounts should be reported as per SARS IT3 third-party external BRS available on the SARS website. Furthermore, the report should also be indicative of payment values that passed from Donor to Recipient.

Section 18A entities, are required to provide SARS with the details of Section 18A receipts issued to the employers to enable the necessary payroll verifications. In a scenario where, individuals donated via their employers i.e., through payroll giving, and did not receive individual receipts, as their deductions were factored into their IRP5 tax certificate, issued by their respective employers. It is of importance for those employers to obtain a once off Section 18A receipt, from the relevant Section 18A entity, detailing the monies paid over on behalf of their employees.

Provision of reporting is provided by SARS via the following submission channels.

• Capture the IT3-01 certificate information via SARS eFiling (maximum of 50 records per submission)
• Upload via HTTP (51 – 50,000 records)
• Upload via IBM Connect Direct (50,000 or more records)

eFiling Registration

eFiling is a digital platform which allows users to comply in their various tax responsibilities. Taxpayers’ or entities are required to register on eFiling in relation to their completion and submission of IT3 third party data/certificates. Thus, proper registration is of importance to ensure compliance of third-party data responsibilities for an individual taxpayer or organization.

When registering on eFiling for tax administration purposes, users are given an option of selecting various profiles. The selection of eFiling profiles is based on the capacity in which users are transacting with SARS regarding their tax responsibilities. The following eFiling profiles are available:

Individual

• This profile is created for individual taxpayers to fulfil their compliance tax responsibilities in their own capacity. This profile is also applicable to individuals who are to submit their donations deductions to name a few.

Organisation

• This profile is created for organisations/entities to fulfil their tax submissions and compliance responsibilities to SARS. Organizations that make IT3 third party data submissions include attorneys, banks, companies listed on the JSE, Co-operatives and persons purchasing from primary producers, Co-operative Banks, Estate agents, financial institutions, medical schemes, organs of state, Postbank, and State-owned companies.

Tax practitioner

• This profile is created for registered tax practitioners to make tax submission and other tax related queries on behalf of their clients. Do note that the tax practitioner profile allows them to submit third party data on behalf of their clients.

For more information on eFiling registration, kindly refer to the eFiling registration guide available on the SARS website. This section will highlight the overall registration process and outline what the user should note to ensure that their registration process was successful for the activation of IT3 third party data submission.

How to register an individual eFiling profile

Fundamentally all users of eFiling have an individual profile. An individual profile allows the user to submit tax returns and fulfil their tax responsibilities in their personal capacity. Thus, an individual profile forms part of the basis for using the eFiling platform, as additional portfolios are embedded or linked to this profile.

• This section highlights the key aspects to note during the registration process of an individual.
• To register proceed as follows:
  
  • Go to the SARS website sars.gov.za,
  • At the far-right hand side of your screen, note the eFiling icon                                        
  • Click on the Register                                                                                                                                
• Once Register has been selected, the following screen will be displayed:

• The Register form displayed requests you to complete your details.

• • Click on the Name field and complete your name,
  • Click on the Surname field and complete your surname,
  • Proceed by clicking on the fields and completing the required information
• Once all the fields have been completed/selected,
  
  • Click on Next.
• Continue to complete the fields displayed on the Register

• Once all the fields have been completed, click on Submit.
• A case number will be generated for SARS attention of your intent to register on eFiling.
  
  • Do note your case number for any query relating to your registration process.

• SARS will require supporting documentation to finalise your registration process.
  
  • Do note that you are given 21 days to upload all supporting documents required.
  • Kindly refer to the SARS website for the list of documents required to register on eFiling.
• To proceed, click on Continue and the following screen will be displayed.

• Do note the profile Status is Awaiting Supporting Documentation.
  
  • This implies that your registration is still in progress and not finalised.
• To upload the required supporting document,
  
  • Note the Upload button displayed beneath Document Details.
  • Gather all the supporting documents required for registration.
• Once all the supporting documents are gathered and available on your computer,
  
  • Click on Upload
  • Find the supporting document on your PC and upload them as per computer requirements.
• Do note that SARS will validate your supporting documents. This process might take 48 hours or longer.
• After 48 hours, login to your profile

The following screen will be displayed

Note the Status displayed on the screen.

• If the Status is “Request Successful”.
  • This is an indication that your registration process has been validated by SARS and you are now an eFiler.
• If the Status is not sucessful, kindly contact SARS on your query.
  • Do note the case number displayed on the Registration Workpage page.

To finliase your eFiling registration, click on the Complete Registation button displayed in red.

The welcome to SARS eFiling page will be displayed

• This page requires you to complete your eFiling Security Contact Details and select your preffered method of communication.
  
  • Do take note of the information completed on this page as it forms part of your login requirements.

• Complete your Cell Number and Email Address
• Select either Cell Number or Email Address as your preffered method of communication by tapping on the radio button besides your choice.
• Once completed, click on Continue.
• A One Time Pin (OTP) will be sent through to your preferred mode of communication.

• Complete the OTP number sent through and click on Submit

• Note the pop-up message that is displayed confirming that you are now successfully registered as an eFiler.
• Once you click on Ok, the SARS Welcome page will be displayed detailing the terms and conditions of SARS eFiling.

The following Landing Page will be displayed regarding your eFiling individual profile.

• Do note displayed on your screen “No Return Type Found”.
  
  • This implies that no tax type can be issued to you by SARS as your profile has not been activated with any tax type.

How to activate the Individual Income Tax (ITR12) return

It is worth mentioning that the process of submitting returns to SARS cannot occur if the user has not activated their profile. Activation allows SARS to notify and issue users their income tax return during applicable filing season.

To activate your income individual income tax return, proceed as follows:

• Login and access your Landing Page.

At the bottom of your screen, note the Manage Tax Types button.

• Click on Manage Tax Type

The tax type descriptions will be displayed concerning your individual profile.

• Select the applicable personal income tax-type to activate.

To activate your personal income tax type return on your profile

• Click on the check box besides the applicable tax-type.
• Click on Submit

The following screen will be displayed.

• Do note Activated displayed besides Individual Income Tax (ITR12)
  
  • Click on Continue

• Do note the status of Individual Income Tax (ITR12) and IT Admin Penalty is Successfully Activated
  • This implies that you have been successfully activated to submit your income tax return.

How to activate the IT3 tax return on your individual portfolio

To activate IT3 tax-type to your individual eFiling profile, login to your individual profile and proceed as follows:

• Select Organisation
• Select Tax types.
• Select Manage Tax types page will be displayed.

To activate the IT3 tax type:

• Select IT3 as the Tax Type Description, by clicking on the Activate check box.
• Once selected, click on Submit.

Do note that the Status will change to display Activated.

eFiling Portfolio

eFiling portfolio allows users to have various accounts embedded in their individual profile. This implies that were the user has multiple tax responsibilities, such as a tax practitioner or Public Officer, he/she can add the additional portfolios to their eFiling profile. This section will highlight the steps to note when adding an organisation portfolio to your eFiling profile. Once this has been successfully added, you will then be able to activate the IT3 tax-type to your eFiling profile. 

According to the TAAct, organisations are to register the Public Officer. eFiling records the Public Officer as the Registered Representative of the organisation. When finalising the registration of a registered representative to an organisation profile, various organisation tax products should be activated. Ultimately once all tax types have been activated, the registered representative, may then link multiple tax administrators/technical users to their organisation profile.

This section will unpack how to add an organisation portfolio to your eFiling profile, how to register a registered representative, how to capture your organisation details and finally how to activate your IT3 tax type on eFiIing.

How to add an organisation portfolio 

Company registrations are done with Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC). Organisation portfolio can only be added once the organization/entity has been successfully registered by CPIC. For more details on this, please refer to the SARS website on sars.gov.za.

Once your organization is registered with CPIC proceed as follows:

To create a portfolio of your organization

• Login to your eFiling profile
• Click on Profile Management.
• The Profile Management page will be displayed.

Click on Add Portfolio

• The Add Portfolio pop-up screen will be displayed.

Complete your Portfolio Name.

Select the applicable Portfolio Type.

• Note that there are three Portfolio Types: Individual, Organisation and Tax Practitioner.
• Select Organisation,

Click on Add Portfolio

Once you have selected and completed the portfolio, the following a pop-up message will be displayed.

• Note the message and click on Ok.

How to register a Public Officer (Registered Representative) on the organisational portfolio

The individual who created the organisation portfolio of the company is the Registered Representative of the organisation on eFiling.

To finalise the registration this process, proceed as follows:

• Select Organisation on the main menu.
• Select SARS Registered Details
• Select Activate Registered Representative
• The Activate Registered Representative page will be displayed.

• Click on Activate Registered Representative
  
  • The Registered Representative page will be displayed.

• To be activated as a Registered Representative
  • Click on Activate New Registered Representative

• Do note the terms and conditions of being the Registered Representative of the organisation.
  
  • Once you agree, Select I agree and click on Continue

Your information will be displayed as part of the legal entity details.

Complete the following.

• Tax reference Number.

Select the appropriate capacity you are being registered as, on Capacity

Once selected, click on Activate Registered Representative

The following screen will be displayed.

Do note that this screen requires you to upload supporting documentation to finalise the registration process.

• Note that the user may also submit the required supporting documents via the SARS Online Query System (SOQS)
• On how to submit via the SOQS, please refer to the SARS website sars.gov.za.

To upload supporting documents, proceed as follows.

• Click on the hyperlink Legal Entity Authorisation
• The following screen will be displayed

• Click on Choose File

• Select the Classification of the uploaded document from the drop-down list.

• Once selected, click on Upload
• The document will be uploaded and displayed on the screen below Uploaded documents

• Once all the supporting documents have been uploaded,
  
  • Click on Submit to SARS

• Do note that the Status of the legal Entity will be Submitted

Another way to register as a Registered Representative is to request it via the SARS Online Query System (SOQS)

The SOQS is available on the SARS website. Do refer to the external guide on the SARS Query system.

Below are the steps to take when you have access the SOQS and selected the option to be updated as the registered Representative.

Once you have accessed the link on the SARS website, the following screen will be displayed.

• Select “Request to be uploaded as a registered representative,” as the query type.
• Complete the entity fields and the entity and representative details.

• Upload the supporting documents by clicking on documents button below your screen.

• Do note that your details will be sent through to SARS for verification.

How to capture entity details on the organisation portfolio

To capture entity details on your organisation portfolio, proceed as follows:

• Select Organization on the main menu.
• Select Organization on the left menu.
• Select Register New
• The Capture Entity details page will be displayed.

Complete the fields in the form.

• Do note that the information completed must be in line with the information SARS obtained from CPIC.
• Where there is information captured not matching, there will be a pop-up screen detailing that you information is not correct.

Once all the fields are completed,

• Click on Submit

• Proceed to activate the Tax types as described below.

How to activate the IT3 and various tax returns on the organisation portfolio 

Once the above sections have been done, you can now activate your IT3 tax type. IT3 activation simply means that you are notifying SARS to issue you a return during the year of assessment for the submission of the return. SARS in turn will issue you a return during the tax seasons.

This section details the process involved to activate the IT3 tax-type so that the taxpayer and organisation may submit their IT3 third party data/certificates to SARS. Additionally, the guide also details what to take note of to ensure that the IT3 activation is processed accurately on eFiling.

To activate IT3 tax type proceed as follows:

• Login to your profile

Proceed as follows:

• Select Organisation
• Select Tax Types
• Select Manage Tax Type

Note that the Status of IT3 is Not Active

• Proceed by clicking on the check box Activate for the tax type description IT3.

Select other tax types to activate by clicking on the Activate check box.

• Once all have been selected, click on Submit.

Do note that the screen will display that the IT3 has been activated.

• Click on Continue

Tax Administrators  

The following three types of users allocated in the enrolment and submission of 3rd party data to SARS, are essential, to manage 3rd party data submission,

Business Administrator – This user is the same as the current eFiling full administrator. The role of this user is to enrol the legal entity/organisation that will be submitting data to SARS and the Technical Administrator. The taxpayer is not required to allocate new eFiling administrators for the purposes of 3^rd party data submissions if one already exists.

Technical Administrator – The role of this user is to request the security certificate and to enrol technical users. If the taxpayer decides to change the Technical Administrator, a new Technical Administrator must be added before the existing one can be removed. There must always be at least one Technical Administrator for each enrolled organisation.

Technical User – The role of this user is to submit the data files to SARS via the Direct Data Flow channel. An organisation can have multiple Technical Administrators and Technical Users in order to allocate work according to the organisation’s requirements. The technical user must be a different person from the technical administrator.

This section will list the various types of administrators and how to add them to your organisation profile on eFiling.

Business Administrators

Business Administrators are administrators with full administration rights on eFiling. This user is thus the registered representative of the organisation. Business Administrators are responsible for inviting other administers to their profile. Additionally, the role of the business administrator is to enrol the organisation and the Technical Administrators for submitting data to SARS.

How to add Technical Administrators to the organisation portfolio

To add a Technical Administrator, the Business Administrator is to invite the user to the organisation profile. This section will highlight how the Business Administrator invites a Technical Administrator to an organisation portfolio.

To invite the Technical Administrator, proceed as follows:

• Login to your eFiling organisation profile
• On the menu option, select user.

On the left menu option.

• Click on User
• Click on Invite User

On the Invite a user page, complete the following information of the Technical Administrator

• Complete their ID Number
• Complete their Surname.
• Complete the applicable Portfolio Name
• Click on Invite

The following screen will be displayed.

Select the following options by clicking on the applicable check box.

• Manage Users
• Manage Taxpayers
• Manage Groups

Once selected, click on Continue.

The User Summary page will be displayed.

Do note the information of the roles selected,

• Once noted, click on

Note that the status of the invited Tax User (technical administrator) will change to be “Awaiting Confirmation”.

• This implies that the invitation has been successfully sent through to the Technical Administrator invited and he/she should login to their profile and accept the invitation.

Notify and request the invited Tax User (Technical Administer) to accept the invitation on their eFiling profile.

How a Technical Administrator accepts an invitation.

• Request the Technical Administrator to login on his/her eFiling profile.
• Once the Technical Administrator has logged in, the following screen will be displayed.

• Click on My Profile
• Click on Portfolio Management
• The Portfolio Management page will be displayed.

• Click on Accept
• The OTP page will be displayed.
  
  • Complete the OTP

• Once verification is successful, the Technical Administrator will be linked to the organisation portfolio.

Do note the pop-up message indicating that the Technical Administrator has been linked to the organisation successfully.

• Once noted, click on OK

Note that the linked organization profile will be displayed on the eFiling Landing page of the Technical Administrator eFiling profile.

• To view the profile linked, click on View Taxpayer.

How to add Technical Users to the organisation portfolio

Technical users are invited by the Technical Administrator. Once the Technical Administrator has been successfully added to the organisation profile by the Business Administrator, he/she can invite as many technical users as possible to the eFiling organisation portfolio. This section will take the technical administrators through t how he/she can invite and add the technical user to the organisational profile.

To invite the Technical User to the Business admin profile, proceed as follows:

The Technical Administrator is to login to eFiling

Once on the Landing page, select the following.

• User – displayed on the main menu.
• User – displayed on the left menu.
• Invite User – displayed on the left menu.

• The Invite a user page will be displayed.
• Complete the Technical User details.

• Once completed, click on Invite

• Click Continue.
• Do note that the Status of the invited tax user will be Awaiting confirmation.
• Notify the Technical User to Accept the invitation sent through on the eFiling profile.
• Note the roles the technical User can do, on Roles Selected
• To continue, click on Continue.

Do note that the Status of the invited tax user will be Awaiting confirmation.

Do note that the Technical Administrator can either.

• Send a reminder.
• Cancel an invitation.
• Update user rights

How a Technical User accepts an invitation.

The invited technical User should login to their eFiling profile

• On the Landing page click on My Portfolio
• Select Portfolio Management – on the left menu option.
• The Portfolio Management page will be displayed.

To accept the invitation

• Click on Accept

The OTP page will be displayed requesting you to complete the OTP.

• Complete the OTP PIN

The following screen will be displayed indicating that the Profile has been successfully invited

How to view added Technical Administrators on the organisational profile.

Business Administrators are to login to eFiling.

As part of the menu option,

• Select Rights Groups
• Select Manage Group

The invited Technical Administers will be displayed on the far right of the screen.

eFiling Profile Enrollment

How to enrol an organization

To enrol the organisation, the user must be logged into eFiling at www.sarsefiling.co.za.

Once logged into eFiling and on your Organisation’s work page, click on Services in the top menu bar. From the side menu options, select Enrol 3rd Party Data.

Under the Enrol 3rd Party Data option the following sub-menus are available:

• Select Enrol Organisation

The following screen, containing the organisations details will appear

• Click Enrol Organisation to retrieve the organisations details.

The following screen will be displayed.

• Once you click on Ok, the following screen will be displayed.

Once an organisation has been enrolled, i.e., the Status is Legal Entity Enrolled; the Business Administrator will be able to enrol the Technical Administrator(s).

The status will initially read as Legal Enrolment Requested. The status will later change to Legal Entity Enrolled. The organisation can only enrol a technical administrator if their status reads Legal Entity Enrolled.

The status will only change once the user has refreshed the screen.

eFiling Administration Enrollment

eFiling administrator enrolments allows the invited/ added tax administrators to function on the organisational profile. This section will demonstrate how to enrol a technical administrator and technical user to tax administration purposes of the organisational profile. 

How to Enrol a Technical Administrator 

To enrol a Technical Administrator, select Enrol Technical Admin from the side menu options, on your Organisations work page under the Enrol 3rd Party Data Menu.

• Click Find Technical Administrator to search and select a Technical Administrator.

Complete the information required and click on Search. The user can complete one of the fields and click on search. If no values are entered in the above fields, click on Search and all the registered eFiling users for the relevant organisation will be displayed.

The screen with the user’s details will be displayed. Select the user to be enrolled as the Technical Administrator.

The screen with the details of the selected user will be displayed as confirmation. Select Enrol Technical Administrator, to submit the request.

By selecting the Enrol Technical Administrator button you will be redirected to the grid page.

In the Status column, the status Enrolment Requested indicates that SARS is still processing the enrolment. The status Link Enrolled will be displayed once the enrolment of the user as the Technical Administrator has been confirmed.

To replace one Technical Administrator with another Technical Administrator, the first enrolled Technical Administrator must have a status Link Enrolled. The Business Administrator must then enrol a new Technical Administrator. Click Find Technical Administrator and once a new Technical Administrator has been enrolled, the other Technical Administrator can be deleted.

How to view the details of a Technical Administrator

• To view all the Technical Administrators, click Enrol Technical Admin.

All the Technical Administrators with the associated status with regard to their enrolment and activation will be displayed. Click Open next to a Technical Administrator to view the details of that particular Technical Administrator.

• Details of the Technical Administrator will now open.

How to delete a Technical Administrator

• To delete a Technical Administrator, click Open next to the Technical Administrator that is to be removed.

• Click Delete Technical Administrator to remove the Technical Administrator.

You will be prompted to confirm that the user must be deleted. If you select confirm, the Technical Administrator will be deleted. To cancel the deletion, select Cancel.

If you attempt to delete the only enrolled Technical Administrator without having deleted all the Technical Users first, this message will be displayed.

How to enrol a Technical User  

The Technical Administrator are to enrol the Technical User. The Technical Administrator can enrol the Technical User as follows:

• Login as a Technical Administrator profile (the technical administrator to login on eFiling)

Navigate on eFiling as follows:

• Click on Services – on the main menu.
• Select Enrol 3^rd party Data – on the left menu.

• Click on Find Technical User

Complete the following details of the Technical User

• Complete the Surname
• Complete the Email Address
• Complete the First Name
• Complete the Login Name

Once completed, click on Search

Tap on the applicable Technical User.

• The Technical Administrator is to create and complete the Secure Web Username for the Technical User
  • Complete the Secure Web Username

• Once completed, click on Enrol Technical User
• The Enrol Technical User for 3^rd part data submission page will be displayed.

Note that the Status is Enrolment requested.

• This implies that the Technical User has been issued and will receive their username and  password via his/her eFiling security details.

The Technical Administrator is to advise the Technical User to login to HTTPS.

• Where the login details has not been sent through to the Technical User, kindly notify SARS via the following email address: [email protected]

How Technical Users can access the HTTPS 

Proceed on eFiling as follows:

• The Technical User should login to eFiling
• Click on Services displayed as the menu bar.

• Click on Enrol 3rd Party Data
• Select Secure File Submission

• Access the URL and open the HTTP Website
• Technical User to complete their login and password received from SARS.

• Once completed, click on Sign-in
• The following screen will be displayed

Note the username will be displayed at the right hand of the screen. This is the platform the Technical User will use to submit data to SARS.

• Note that to send files to SARS, Click on the Submission Tab
• Select the “/” forward hash and click on Choose file to find the file to submit.
• Once found and uploaded, Click on Send.

• Additionally note where to access the response files.

How to view the details of a Technical User

• To view all the Technical Users, click Enrol Technical User

• All the Technical Users will be displayed on the screen. To view the details of a particular Technical User, click Open next to the relevant user.

Details of the Technical User will be displayed. The Source Identifier field must be used in all files submitted by that Technical User on the Direct Data Flow Channel using the Secure File gateway technology.

How to delete a Technical User 

• To delete a Technical User, click Open next to the Technical User that is to be removed on the Enrol Technical User for 3^rd Party Data Submission page.

• Click Delete Technical User to remove the Technical User

• You will be prompted to confirm if the Technical User must be deleted. Selecting OK, will delete the Technical Administrator. To cancel the deletion, select Cancel.

In the Status column, the status Delete Requested indicates that the request to delete the user as a Technical User has been submitted to SARS. The status User Deleted will be displayed once the enrolment of the Technical User has been cancelled on SARS’s systems.

• The deleted Technical Users will not be displayed on the screen.

eFiling Certificate Management 

How to request a security certificate 

Once a Technical Administrator has been enrolled successfully, the Technical Administrator can request the security certificate from SARS. This security certificate is required for submission of data via the Connect: Direct channel.

To request the security certificate from SARS, select Request Certificate from the side menu options, on your Organisations work page under the Enrol 3rd Party Data menu.

The Request Certificate screen will list all certificates that were issued for that taxpayer. Initially this list will be empty. Click Request New Certificate to start a new certificate request process.

You will be requested to accept the Terms and Conditions (T&C) that govern the use of this service by ticking the box next to I have read and accept the above conditions. Once the terms and conditions have been accepted, click Continue and Request. Please note that unless the terms and conditions are accepted, you will not be able to proceed to the next step.

Capture the Node Name, IP Address, Buffer size and Number of Concurrent Sessions.

Number of Concurrent Sessions is the number of simultaneous file transfer connections available at any time. Refer to the relevant net map definitions for Connect: Direct to obtain this number.

• Select either the Electronic or Manual options for issuing the security certificate.

How to request a security certificate electronically

To generate the security certificate request electronically, select Electronically This means that the eFiling system will automatically generate the security certificate request and will send the request for fulfillment. Once the security certificate has been issued, eFiling will assist in the installation of the security certificate.

• To use the electronic request process complete the screen as per the example above and once you are done, click Continue.

• SA Java Applet widget will load on the screen

Once the Java Applet widget has loaded the screen above will be displayed. Click Browse to locate the directory for the certificate to be exported and then click Export cert.

A message will appear confirming that your certificate has been successfully installed.

How to request a security certificate manually

• To use the manual process to request a security certificate, select Manually and click Continue.

A request string will be issued to the IP Address provided. Copy the request string into the textbox. Once you have done this, click Request Certificate.

• Please note that a typical request string will look as displayed.
• You will now have the option to download the security certificate and then install it on the relevant server or to reinstall the security certificate.

How to delete a certificate   

• Revoke Certificate – You have the option to revoke a security certificate. If Revoked Certificate is clicked, the certificate will be revoked and the status of the security certificate will change to indicate that it was cancelled. The revoked security certificates will remain in the list of certificates.
• Renew Certificate – Security certificates are only valid for 12 months from date of issue. The Renew Certificate button will only be available 30 days prior to the expiry date. 

Definitions, acronyms and abbreviations

The definitions, acronyms and abbreviations can be accessed via the following link: Glossary webpage.

Legal disclaimer: In the event of conflict or inconsistency between this webpage and the PDF version of the guide, the latter shall prevail.