IRBA, CIPC and SARS: who regulates what
Which South African body regulates auditors, administers company law or collects tax, how each touches a firm's work in Achekam, and what is never sent.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa
A South African accounting firm answers to more than one authority, and on a busy day it is easy to blur them. The audit partner worries about an inspection. The company secretarial team chases annual returns. The tax team is dealing with an assessment. Each is dealing with a different body, under a different law, with different consequences for getting it wrong.
New staff, and clients, often mix them up: "send it to SARS" for a company filing, or "IRBA will check" for a tax matter. This article sets out which body does what, where each one touches the firm's work in Achekam, and, just as important, what Achekam does not submit to any of them.
Three bodies, three jobs
In South Africa, the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (IRBA) regulates auditors, CIPC administers the Companies Act and SARS collects tax.
| Body | Its role | Where a firm meets it |
|---|---|---|
| IRBA | Regulates auditors | Registration, inspections, standards, file retention |
| CIPC | Administers the Companies Act | Company records, annual returns, financial statements filing |
| SARS | Collects tax | Tax returns, payroll declarations, assessments |
Where each body touches your work
IRBA and auditors
IRBA's auditing standards follow the IAASB's, adopted through IRBA. For a firm that performs audits, IRBA's rules shape how the work is done and how the file is kept.
One example Achekam applies directly is file retention. IRBA Board Notice 512 of 2023, Rule 4, requires the final engagement file to be assembled within 60 days of the report date and kept for at least five years, for audits of periods beginning on or after 15 December 2024. Achekam's rule book holds this rule as approved and uses it to set the retention date of an audit file.
Two limits matter on the IRBA side. A partner, manager or administrator can record each practitioner's professional body, membership standing with the date it was verified, and practising authority, with evidence, and a credential someone recorded about themselves is flagged. But for a South African firm, Achekam does not check that register when a partner approves an audit report or signs financial statements: signing needs only the Partner role. The "IRBA" badge on the Partner Review & Signing screen is a label only; the regulator field is free text the firm types. Making sure that only a registered auditor signs an audit report remains the firm's own control. Preparing for an IRBA inspection looks at what inspectors expect to find.
CIPC and the Companies Act
CIPC administers the Companies Act 71 of 2008, under which South African companies are incorporated, keep their records and file their annual returns and financial statements. The government publishes the Companies Act 71 of 2008 with a summary that covers how companies are governed and CIPC's role.
The Act and its Regulations also decide which companies need an audit. Companies Regulation 26(2) sets how the public interest score is counted, and Regulation 28(1) sets audit thresholds of 350 and 100, the lower one for internally compiled statements.
Where Achekam touches CIPC's world:
- Public interest scores, prepared and reviewed in Achekam, with thresholds from the approved rule book.
- iXBRL. Achekam turns a set of financial statements or a trial balance into an iXBRL file, checks it with its own validation and packs it in a ZIP file with the validation report. But it does not file iXBRL with CIPC, and a production iXBRL pack is refused until someone uploads and approves the official CIPC taxonomy package. The built-in taxonomy is a partial list Achekam wrote, so only TEST packs can be made with it. iXBRL test packs for CIPC explains what a test pack is good for.
SARS and tax
SARS collects tax: income tax, VAT, employees' tax and the rest. For a firm, SARS work means preparing returns and declarations for clients and for itself, and dealing with assessments and queries.
Achekam helps prepare that work but does not submit it. Achekam does not submit tax returns or payroll declarations to SARS; the firm files them itself and records the filing in Achekam. Build the filing step, and who performs it, into your tax procedures, and record each filing promptly so the client's file shows what was submitted and when.
Rules Achekam holds for each
The statutory rules behind Achekam's decisions sit in the Regulatory Rule Book, which a firm's partners and administrators can read with its change log. Only Achekam's platform administrators change them, never one person alone. For South African work that includes the public interest score thresholds that come from CIPC's legislation and the audit-file retention rule from IRBA. Read the rule book when a regulator announces a change, to see whether it has caught up.
One client, three bodies
Picture a private company client with a February year end. Its public interest score is prepared and reviewed in Achekam, and a partner records whether this year's engagement is an audit or an independent review. If it is an audit, the registered auditor who signs answers to IRBA, and the file is assembled and kept under IRBA's retention rule. The financial statements go to CIPC with the annual return, through CIPC's own channels, after any iXBRL test pack has been used to check the tagging. The company's income tax return goes to SARS, filed by the firm on SARS's own system and then recorded in Achekam. Three bodies, three submissions, each made by a person in the firm.
What Achekam submits to none of them
It is worth saying plainly, to staff and to clients:
- Achekam does not file anything with CIPC, including iXBRL.
- Achekam does not submit tax returns or payroll declarations to SARS.
- Achekam does not check a practitioner's registration with IRBA before a South African partner signs.
Each of those steps belongs to a person in the firm. The value Achekam adds is in preparing the work, holding the rules and recording what the firm did, not in replacing the firm's own dealings with its regulators.
Write a one-page "who we file with" sheet for new staff, naming each body, what goes to it, and who in the firm is responsible, and keep it next to your filing procedures.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
