SARS no longer issues tax clearance certificates. Since April 2016 they have been replaced by a Tax Compliance Status (TCS) under section 256 of the Tax Administration Act (TAA). You request it on eFiling or the SARS Online Query Service, choosing either “Good Standing” or “Approval International Transfer” (AIT). If you are registered, have no outstanding returns and owe nothing without an arrangement, SARS issues a PIN. You give the PIN to the bank, tender office or counterparty, who sees your status as it is at the moment they check. Fail any one of those three tests and you are non-compliant until you fix it.
That last point is where people get caught.
The request always comes at a bad moment. A tender closes on Friday. The bank will not release an offshore transfer until it has verified a PIN. Only then does the taxpayer log on and find a red block on the screen, often for something they did not know existed.
What has replaced the tax clearance certificate?
The old certificate said you were compliant on the day it was issued, and stayed in a file long after that day had passed. The TCS system works the other way round. Anyone holding your PIN and tax reference number can check your status on eFiling, and SARS is explicit that the result reflects your status at the date and time the PIN is used. If a return becomes overdue after you hand over the PIN, the person verifying it will see red.
Three practical consequences follow:
- A PIN is not a certificate. Staying compliant matters for as long as anyone may still verify it.
- You are told when someone looks. SARS sends an SMS each time a verification is confirmed, and the “Who Viewed My Status” function shows who checked, when, and what they saw.
- You can withdraw access. A PIN can be cancelled at any time, and a new one issued later.
There are only two request types. SARS removed the separate Tender request and replaced the old Foreign Investment Allowance and Emigration requests with AIT in its April 2023 changes, and its current eFiling guide (revision 24, effective 28 August 2026) lists only Good Standing and AIT.
Which one do you need: Good Standing or AIT?
Good Standing is the general confirmation that your tax affairs are in order, and SARS says to use it where you previously would have asked for a Tender PIN. Individuals and organisations can both apply. Government bid forms ask for the PIN or, failing that, your Central Supplier Database (CSD) number, because the CSD checks suppliers’ tax status with SARS electronically.
AIT is for individuals who want to move money offshore beyond the single discretionary allowance. On eFiling, companies and other organisations can request only Good Standing.
The thresholds changed this year. The Reserve Bank’s Exchange Control Circular 6/2026, effective 8 April 2026, doubled the single discretionary allowance from R1 million to R2 million per calendar year for residents aged 18 and older. That allowance does not need a TCS PIN. Above it, the foreign capital allowance (still widely called the foreign investment allowance) permits a further R10 million per calendar year, and here the bank must verify an AIT PIN on eFiling before it transfers anything, and must confirm the amount does not exceed what SARS approved. Transfers above R10 million need a separate application to the Reserve Bank’s Financial Surveillance Department, with the same tax verification.
Consider a resident who wants to invest R8 million offshore in 2026 and has not used any of this year’s discretionary allowance. The first R2 million can go under that allowance; the remaining R6 million needs an AIT approved for at least that amount.
Do not treat AIT as a form-filling exercise. It is closer to a desk review of your wealth. SARS asks for proof of where the money you want to transfer came from, local and foreign statements of assets and liabilities for the previous three tax years, and in most cases bank statements no older than 14 days. Each family member registered with SARS applies separately. One of the possible outcomes on the dashboard is “Declined (Audit investigation required)”.
The statement of assets and liabilities is where an application can unravel. If it shows an offshore account, a property or an inheritance that your returns never mentioned, the application has done SARS’s work for it. Deal with the history first.
What turns your compliance status red?
Section 256(3) sets three requirements, and My Compliance Profile shows each as green or red.
- Registration. You must be registered for every tax you are liable for.
- Returns. No return may be outstanding after its due date, unless SARS has accepted an arrangement for its submission.
- Debt. You may not have outstanding tax debt, with four exceptions in the Act: debt under an instalment payment agreement (section 167), debt being dealt with as a compromise (section 204), debt suspended pending an objection or appeal (section 164), and debt not exceeding the small amount referred to in section 169(4).
Under section 256(7) you are non-compliant from the day you stop meeting any of these until the day you remedy it. There is no grace period.
The red blocks that catch people out are rarely the obvious ones:
- A tax type you forgot about. The VAT or PAYE registration of a business that stopped trading years ago still expects returns.
- Debt created by an estimated assessment. Where returns were not filed, SARS may have raised an estimate and is now treating it as debt. Our article on why estimated assessments are a powerful tool in SARS’s hands explains how these are made and challenged.
- Penalties and interest left behind. The tax was paid, the late-submission penalty was not.
- A disputed amount. Lodging an objection does not by itself take a debt out of the calculation. Only debt that SARS has suspended under section 164 is excluded.
How do you get back to compliant, and in what order?
The order matters, because SARS’s own system enforces it: a payment arrangement cannot be requested on eFiling while returns are outstanding.
1. Read the profile properly. Hover over each red indicator on My Compliance Profile, where SARS gives guidance on what is causing the problem. Merge your tax types first if you have not done so, or the profile will be incomplete.
2. Fix registration. A registration problem cannot be fixed on eFiling. It needs a SARS branch visit, so book early.
3. File every outstanding return. Use correct figures, not figures that merely close the gap. Where SARS has already raised an estimated assessment, a true and full return is the route to having it reduced, but section 95 sets time limits for doing so, so do not wait.
4. Deal with the debt that is left. Pay it, ask for a section 167 instalment arrangement, or, if the assessment is wrong, object and apply for section 164 suspension at the same time (see how to object to a SARS assessment). Penalties can often be challenged through a properly grounded remission request. The wider options are in what SARS can do about an unpaid tax debt.
5. Challenge the status if SARS is wrong. Unallocated payments and settled debts do appear on profiles. “Challenge Status” sends the matter to the relevant SARS division, which may apply a temporary override if it agrees. SARS gives no turnaround time, so this is not a remedy for Friday’s tender.
The case study R440k Debt to R145k Refund shows this sequence in practice: compliance restored for the recent years first, then the older disputed debt dealt with on its merits.
How long does a TCS PIN last, and how long does SARS take?
Section 256(2) gives SARS 21 business days to issue or decline a request, longer if a senior SARS official considers that issuing it may prejudice the collection of revenue. In practice, a fully compliant taxpayer usually gets a Good Standing PIN on eFiling straight away. AIT requests involve a document review and take longer.
Validity is chosen, not fixed. When you request a PIN you enter the number of months it should remain valid. Once it expires, the person relying on it needs a new one.
Keep two calendars in mind with AIT: your SARS approval runs for the period you chose, but the Reserve Bank allowances run per calendar year.
What to do before you need it
- Log on to My Compliance Profile now, not when the request arrives.
- Deregister tax types you no longer use, and file the nil returns needed to close them.
- If you plan to move money offshore in 2027, reconcile your statement of assets and liabilities against your last three returns before applying for AIT.
- If anything in that reconciliation was never declared, take advice before you submit.
Frequently asked questions
Is a tax clearance certificate the same as a tax compliance status?
In purpose, yes; in mechanics, no. A TCS confirms that your tax affairs are in order, but third parties see your live status through a PIN rather than a paper document.
How long is a tax compliance status PIN valid?
You choose the validity period in months when you request it on eFiling, and you can cancel it earlier. Even a valid PIN only shows your status at the moment it is checked.
Can I get a TCS if I owe SARS money?
Yes, if the debt falls within one of the exceptions in section 256(3): an instalment payment agreement under section 167, a compromise, a section 164 suspension or a very small amount. A debt you are simply disputing, without suspension, will keep you non-compliant.
Do I need SARS approval to send money overseas?
Not for the first R2 million per calendar year under the single discretionary allowance, available to residents aged 18 and older. Beyond that, the R10 million foreign capital allowance requires an approved AIT PIN, and larger amounts also need Reserve Bank approval.
Why does my profile show non-compliant when I have filed everything?
Usually because of debt on a tax type you were not looking at, unpaid penalties or interest, or a payment allocated to the wrong period. If SARS’s record is wrong, use Challenge Status and keep proof of every payment.
This article is general information about South African tax and is not tax advice. Outcomes depend on the facts of each matter. See our Website Terms of Use.
A red status is usually fixable. The deadline is the problem.
A red profile can usually be dealt with in a sensible order. The difficulty is finding it the week the PIN is needed. If your status is red and a tender, a transfer or a contract depends on it, send us a copy of your compliance profile and we will tell you honestly what is blocking it and how quickly it can realistically be cleared. If an AIT application would expose an old problem, we will tell you that too, before SARS does. Tax clearance and compliance status is one of our core services.
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