Guide to the Entity Merge Functionality on eFiling

Summary

The purpose of this webpage is to assist users with:

Activation as a Registered Representative or Tax Practitioner; and
The Legal Entity Merge Functionality on eFiling is to ensure that one single view exists for an entity with all its associated tax types. (Tax Types include Income Tax, VAT, Employment Tax, MPRR, Customs and Excise).

General Information

In order to reduce the number of requests to “Maintain Registered Particulars” on a Single Entity Profile and to reduce the number of repeated visits to a SARS branch to record the registered representative, this functionality is introduced to allow taxpayers, registered representatives and registered tax practitioners the ability and opportunity to:
- Consolidate the taxpayer’s tax type registration into one profile where SARS can match the taxpayer’s identity number and identity details across tax products.
- Provide SARS with a Tax Reference Number for each tax type that is currently excluded from the taxpayer’s eFiling profile.
- For cases where SARS is unable to verify the tax reference number, SARS can request supporting documents and confirm a request.

The Legal Entity Merge Functionality will enable taxpayers, Confirmed/Registered Tax Practitioners and Registered Representatives to request, view, verify or add all the tax type specific details that currently exist or should exist at SARS in relation to an entity’s portfolio.
The user will thereafter always be presented with a single, concise and consolidated view of the legal entity either via eFiling or from within a SARS branch.
The Entity Merge Functionality can only be performed by the taxpayer in his individual capacity, Registered Representatives in respect of Companies, Trusts, Government Institutions and Public Entities and registered Tax Practitioners on eFiling, where the Income Tax record is included in their Tax Practitioner Profile.
Where the eFiling Merge functionality is used to consolidate the tax records into a single tax profile and the system cannot find it as an exact match based on the entity’s identity or registered information the system will create a verification case for a SARS user to review the requested merge. The system will inform the eFiler that the verification case was created and the case number can be viewed on his eFiling correspondence page.
The Tax Product Mineral and Petroleum Resource Royalty (MPRR) is now included in the merge functionality.
In cases where a user may have merged the incorrect Tax Reference Number to an entity profile, the removal or the unmerge of an Entity’s record can be performed at a SARS Branch.

The Entity Merge Process

Log in to eFiling

Navigate to sars.gov.za and click “Login”.
Enter your username and click “Next”.

Enter your password and click “Login”.

Select “SARS Registered Details”, under the Home tab to proceed.

SARS Registered Details

The SARS Registered Details functionality allows the user to view, edit and maintain demographic information on eFiling. This functionality will be under different menu tabs for each eFiling profile.
On the Individual profile on eFiling, the SARS Registered Details functionality is under the Home tab and has Notice of Registration, Maintain SARS Registered Details, Saved Details, Maintain Registered Details History, Merge Entities, Entity Merge History, Letters and Register Withholding Tax on Interest menu items.

On the Tax Practitioner and Organisation eFiling profiles, the SARS Registered Details functionality is under the Organisations tab and has Notice of Registration, Activate Registered Representative, Maintain Registered Users, Maintain SARS Registered Details, Saved Details, Maintain Registered Details History, Merge Entities, Entity Merge History, Letters, and Register Withholding Tax on Interest.

If you want to use the SARS Registered Details functionality, ensure that at least one of the Entity Tax Reference Numbers is registered / activated on eFiling

Activation of Registered Representative

The Activate Registered Representative functionality allows the representative to be activated as the assigned Representative for the Legal Entity. This functionality is only available on the Tax Practitioner and Organisation eFiling profiles.
In the event that you are not a Registered Representative recorded on SARS records at the time you request activation, SARS will create a case and request relevant supporting documents in order to verify that you should be updated as the new Registered Representative of the taxpayer.
Select the “Organisations” tab.

Select the “Activate Registered Representative” tab from the SARS Registered Details menu:

The “Activate Registered Representative” screen will be displayed. Select the applicable option “Activate Registered Representative” or “Activate Tax Practitioner” button to continue.

The “Representative Declaration” screen will display. If you select “I agree” the “Continue” button will be available to select. If you select “I do not agree”, you will not be able to continue.

Once the declaration has been accepted, click the “Continue” button to proceed with the Registered Representative activation.
The “Activate Registered Representative” screen below will be displayed.

Ensure that the correct “Capacity” is selected.
One of the following statuses will be indicated next to the “Activation Status on eFiling” field in the Activate Registered Representative screen

- Unconfirmed – the representative has not been confirmed as the registered representative with SARS and the representative might be required to submit supporting documents to confirm the representative relationship to the represented entity (Taxpayer).
- Request under Verification – the representative must submit supporting documents and the case will be reviewed by SARS.
- Rejected – when the supporting documents submitted do not match the representative details as per SARS’ records.
- Active – the activation request is successful, the supporting documents submitted to SARS is aligned with the SARS’ records.

Note that the eFiling registration details will be used for verification purposes and it should be aligned with your identity document or passport.
Complete your Tax Reference Number or Practitioner Number in the case of a Tax Practitioner.
If the Legal Entity information and the eFiling User Details are correct, select the “Activate Registered Representative” button to continue.

If you are a Registered Representative of the entity according to SARS records, upon the selection of the “Activate Registered Representative” button, you will be activated immediately.
If you are not a Registered Representative of the entity according to the SARS records, upon the selection of the “Activate Registered Representative” button, you will be required to upload and submit supporting documents as indicated in the screen below.

Select the “Legal Entity Authorisation” link and the “Upload Supporting Documents” screen will be displayed.

Click on the “Choose File” button and select the files to upload.
Ensure that you select the relevant classification per file to be uploaded

Select the “Upload” button to add the document(s) and it will be listed under the “Uploaded Documents” heading. If you wish to remove the document uploaded, click the document and select the “Remove” button.

When you have uploaded all the documents, select the “Submit to SARS” button to continue. If you have submitted the relevant material (supporting documents) to your nearest SARS branch, click on “Manually Submitted” to indicate on eFiling that the documents have been submitted.

Confirm that you want to submit all documents by clicking on “OK” button on below.

The status will be updated to “Submitted”

The representative relationship will be granted and activated once the representative relationship has been approved by SARS.
Upon successful activation of the Registered Representative or Tax Practitioner on eFiling, the status field will be indicated as “Active”. On completion of the activation step, the “Activate Registered Representative” button will be inactive

Tax Practitioner Activation

This functionality will enable Tax Practitioners to confirm their Tax Practitioner status at SARS and allow Tax Practitioners to access the Entity Merge functionality.
To access this functionality, select “Services” and “My TP Configuration”.

Practitioner Activation

Select “Practitioner Activation” and the “Tax Practitioner Declaration” screen will be displayed.
Select “I agree” and continue.

The “Activate Tax Practitioner” screen will be displayed.
Enter a valid practitioner number in the Tax Practitioner Number field and select “Confirm My Tax Practitioner Status” button to continue.

If the Tax Practitioner Number is inactive or does not match the SARS’ records (invalid) the screen below will be displayed:

If the Tax Practitioner Number is valid and matches with the SARS’ records, the status field will be indicated as “Registered”.
If you wish to refresh the status of an existing PR number, select the “Reconfirm Status” button.

A message will be displayed which indicates that you have been successfully confirmed as a Registered Tax Practitioner.

Merge Entities

The Merge Entities functionality is where the user will be able to link tax products to the Legal Entity Profile. This applies where the entity has more than one tax or customs registration.
The Tax Product MPRR is included in the merge functionality. Where the user has been registered for MPRR, the system will prompt the user to proceed with a merge.
Select “Merge Entities” under SARS Registered Details:

Upon the selection of the “Merge Entities” menu option under the Tax Practitioner and Organisation profiles, eFiling will determine if the user has been activated as the Tax Practitioner or Registered Representative of the entity.
If the user is not activated as the Registered Representative or Tax Practitioner of the entity, the following message will be displayed and you will have to activate yourself as the registered user before you will be able to access the entity merge functionality.

Where the user reflects as the Registered Representative or a confirmed Tax Practitioner, an information page will be displayed with details pertaining to the functionality. Select “Continue” in order to proceed to the merge functionality.

The records merge application (RM001) will be displayed.

Complete the Records Merge Application

The Records Merge Application must be completed in order to view, verify or add legal entities to your profile at SARS.

Representative

The representative step allows you to select a representative that will represent the entity once the merging process is complete.
A list of the representatives will be displayed if more than one representative is recorded with SARS for the entity. In the case of an individual, the individual taxpayer details will be displayed and locked representative details will be displayed if one has been recorded for the relevant circumstance, e.g. in an Estate case.
Click on the “Next” button to continue to the “Main Record” section.

Main Record

The Main Record step allows you to select the main entity registration that will include tax records based on the selection made in the steps below. It is recommended that the most up to date record is selected as the main record, which is usually the Entity Registration with Income Tax linked to it.

The main record will be displayed with the relevant fields pertaining to the entity type.
- The following demographic fields will be displayed for the Individual:
  - Match type – will indicate the suggested master record at SARS
  - Select your main record – this indicator will be selected by default
  - Nature of Entity
  - Party ID
  - First Name
  - Surname
  - Other Name
  - Date of birth
  - ID no
  - Passport no.
  - Country of Issue
  - Legal Status
It should be noted that in the event where the Main Record has missing information for the specified fields and is the Preferred Main Record, the user must first maintain the missing information on the RAV01 available on eFiling. The user is allowed to select another record as the Preferred Main Record. The most updated record is suggested as the Main Record

The following demographic fields will be displayed for non-individual entities:

- - Match type – will indicate the suggested master record at SARS
  - Select your main record – this indicator will be selected by default
  - Nature of Entity
  - Trading Name
  - Registration Number
  - Master of Office Registration
  - Registered Name
  - Legal Status
  - Representative
Under the “Tax Types”, the tax products will be listed.
With the new inclusion of Mineral and Petroleum Resource Royalty, you will be allowed to add your MPRR Tax Reference Number.

The “Physical address” details container will display the following fields:

- Unit No
- Complex (if applicable)
- Street no
- Street / farm name
- Suburb / district
- City / town
- Country code
- Postal code

The “Contact details” container will display the following fields:

- Cell no
- Home tell no
- Work no
- Email

Click on the “Next” button to continue to the “Additional Records” section.

Additional Records

In the “Additional Records” step, you will be able to add additional tax records which belong to you but are not reflected on eFiling.

Click on the “Add” button to add an additional Tax, Customs or Excise Registration Reference Number. An “Added Record 1” column will open. The main record will also be displayed.

Complete all the relevant fields for the additional entity that must be merged.
Under the “Tax Types” section, you will complete the Tax Reference Number of the additional entity added.

Complete the “Physical address details” and the “Contact details” fields for the additional entity you want to add.

After you have completed all mandatory fields, click on the “Next” button to proceed.

The following guidelines are provided when adding additional entities or tax types to the main entity:

Valid Merge Scenarios: Examples where entities should be merged
- Where entities have the same ID/Registration Number and Name, and have different tax types linked to them
- Where an entity is not registered with a registration authority such as Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC), and has no Registration Number but multiple records of the entity exist with different tax types linked to them, and the name, address and contact details are similar
- Where multiple records of an entity exist, but the Registration Number was recorded incorrectly on one of the records, which could have been due to a company conversion at CIPC
Merge scenarios not allowed: Examples where entities should not be merged

- Where the entity types are different e.g. Company and Trust and cannot be combined
- Where multiple records of an entity exist but the registration numbers are different and different registrations exist at the registration authorities (e.g CIPC , Masters Office).
- Where multiple records of a Trust exist and the Trust Numbers and name are the same but the Masters Office at which the trust was registered are different
- Where an Owner/Trustee wants to merge entities because he owns/represents both entities and wants to see all tax and customs registrations in one profile, but they are registered as separate entities at a registration authority
- Where the entities are husband and wife.

Review

In the “Review” step of the process, you will be able to view and verify the details of entity registrations which SARS includes in your request and the additional entity registrations that you want to merge.
If you want to make changes, you can click on the “Previous” button to make the changes.
If you are satisfied with all the information that you have completed, click on the “Next” button to continue.

Submission of Records Merge Form

In the submission step, you will be presented with the declaration to complete before submitting the records merge application request.
Select the declaration tick box and click the “Submit” button to submit the request to SARS.

Entity Merge History

All the entity merge requests submitted to SARS will be listed in the “Entity Merge History” page.

It should be noted that where records have been added and SARS has already identified them as a likely or a possible match due to the entity details displayed, the system will not route or create a verification case for futher verification. These verification cases are only created where the tax records that were added do not match the identity information of the target record.
Click the “Open” hyperlink to view the “Portfolio Maintenance Work Page”. In this page the entity details and the case number that has been created to verify the records merge application will be displayed.

If you select the Entity Name hyperlink, you will be able to view the records merge application you have completed.
If the user is not activated as the Tax Practitioner or Registered Representative of the Entity, the following message will be displayed and you will have to activate yourself as the registered user before you will be able to access the Portfolio Maintenance History Functionality.

Notices

The following notices may be applicable:

Confirmation of a Registered Representative.
A letter in the case where relevant material is required.
A notice to all representatives in the case where a change in the Registered Representative is made by way of the Entity Merge application.
Exclusion of an entity from the merge request where the Entity Merge. application of a particular entity is rejected.

These notices will be posted to your eFiling profile Homepage

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.

Last Updated:

19/04/2024
13:47