Import & Export Licence

A company registration does not let you clear goods

A CoR14.3 makes you a company. It does not make you an importer. Moving goods across a South African border needs a customs registration with SARS — the importer or exporter code — and that is an entirely separate application from anything CIPC does.

This service applies for the code and guides the supporting documentation.

Check that you need one

We would rather you did not buy this than bought it early. You probably do not need a code yet if:

• You buy from a local wholesaler or warehouse, even where the goods originated overseas
• Somebody else is the importer of record and you take delivery domestically
• You are still testing demand and have not committed to a shipment

You do need one when the company itself will be the party clearing goods through customs.

What the code does not solve

Customs registration is permission to trade across the border, not permission to trade in anything.

• Duties and import VAT are assessed per shipment and sit outside this application
• Restricted goods — food, medicines, chemicals, dual-use items — need permits from their own regulators, which no registration agent can issue
• Clearing is usually done through a customs broker. The code is yours; the clearance work is theirs

What we need

Company name and registration number, whether you are importing, exporting or both, and a description of the goods. Be specific in that description. "General trading" tells SARS nothing and invites a query, while the actual product category moves the application along.

Timing

The company side runs on CIPC's clock and the customs side runs on SARS's, and they are different queues. The SARS registration frequently takes longer than the company certificate did. Plan your first shipment around the code arriving, rather than the other way round.

A sequence that works

1. Company registered, CoR14.3 in hand
2. Income tax number confirmed and eFiling working — SARS tax registration
3. Registered representative verified, because the customs application runs through the SARS profile — registered representative
4. Importer or exporter code applied for
5. Broker appointed before the first container lands

Skipping step three is the usual cause of a stalled application.

If the company does not exist yet

Buying the licence and the incorporation separately is the expensive way round. The import and export industry page covers the bundle that does both, along with the tax and supplier-database work a trading company needs anyway.