246. Public officers of companies
(1) Every company carrying on business or having an office in the Republic must at all times be represented by an individual residing in the Republic.
(2) The individual representative under subsection (1) must be-
(a) approved by SARS and-
(i) must be a person who is a senior official of the company; or
(ii) if no senior official resides in the Republic, may be another suitable person;
(b) appointed by the company or by an agent or legal practitioner who has authority to appoint such a representative for the purposes of a tax Act;
[Paragraph (b) substituted by section 45 of Act 33 of 2019]
(c) called the public officer of the company; and
(d) appointed within one month after the company begins to carry on business or acquires an office in the Republic.
(3) If a public officer is not appointed as required under this section, the public officer is the director, company secretary or other officer of the company that SARS designates for that purpose.
(4) A company that has not appointed a public officer is subject to a tax Act as if a tax Act did not require the public officer to be appointed.
(5) A public officer is responsible for all acts, matters, or things that the public officer’s company must do under a tax Act, and in case of default, the public officer is subject to penalties for the company’s defaults.
(6) A public officer’s company is regarded as having done everything done by the public officer in the officer’s representative capacity.
(7) If SARS is of the opinion that a person is no longer suitable to represent the company as public officer SARS may withdraw its approval under subsection (2)(a).
(8) A person who is disqualified in terms of section 6 of the Trust Property Control Act, 1988 (Act 57 of 1988), section 25A of the Nonprofit Organisations Act, 1997 (Act 71 of 1997), or section 69 of the Companies Act, 2008 (Act 78 of 2008), may not be appointed as a public officer under this section
[Subsection (8) added by section 30 of Act 18 of 2023]