COIDA Letter of Good Standing

Registration versus good standing

There are two COIDA services here, and they solve different problems:

• COIDA registration enrols you with the Compensation Fund as an employer. You do that once, when you first employ somebody.
• This page proves you are up to date: the Letter of Good Standing a client or a tender asks for.

You cannot get the letter without the registration. If you have never registered, start there. If you registered years ago and have not thought about it since, you are in the right place, because that gap is exactly what this service exists to close.

Why this is more work than it looks

A Letter of Good Standing is not issued on request. The Fund issues it when your account is current, which means your Returns of Earnings are filed and your assessments are paid. Most companies who need the letter urgently are not current, which is why the service covers:

1. Verifying your registration status with the Fund
2. Submitting any outstanding Return of Earnings
3. Settling outstanding assessments on your behalf
4. Applying for the letter
5. Delivering the certificate to you digitally

Steps two and three are why this costs more than a simple filing, and they are not optional. The letter does not exist while they are outstanding.

What we need

Company name and registration number, and your Compensation Fund reference number if you can find it. If you cannot, leave it blank — we would rather look it up than have you guess at a number.

Employee count matters because assessments are calculated on earnings, so an approximate figure beats none.

Use the additional-details box for the two things that genuinely change how we work the file: a tender deadline, and any outstanding returns you already know about. Surprises are the enemy here.

Do not leave it to the deadline

Steps two and three above are the whole reason this takes time. A company that has never filed a Return of Earnings is not one form away from a letter, and the Fund does not shorten its own process because a bid closes on Friday. If you know a tender is coming, start this before the documents list arrives.

The other letter of good standing

Tenders often ask for two documents with nearly the same name from two unrelated bodies. This one is the Compensation Fund's. The tax one comes from SARS — tax clearance certificate. Getting one does nothing for the other.

Where this sits in a tender file

A typical public-sector bid wants a company registration certificate, a SARS compliance PIN, a CSD profile, a B-BBEE affidavit or certificate, and this letter. Construction adds CIDB grading. Five bodies, five timelines — assemble them before a deadline appears rather than after.