General services tenders requiring SARS tax clearance

Common questions

Do general services tenders require SARS tax clearance?

2 400 general services tenders on record name it in their bid documents, and 36 of those are open right now. It is not universal — plenty of tenders in this category do not ask for it — but on this kind of work it is common enough to plan for.

Can I bid on a general services tender without SARS tax clearance?

Not on the ones listed here. Where a tender names SARS tax clearance as a requirement, a bid without it is normally disqualified at the administrative stage, before anyone opens your pricing. That is the expensive part: you do the work of pricing a bid and it is never read.

What does SARS tax clearance mean for a tender?

SARS replaced the old paper certificate with a Tax Compliance Status PIN. You give the buyer the PIN and they check your status with SARS directly, seeing only whether you are compliant, not your tax affairs.

How do I get a Tax Compliance Status PIN?

Request it on SARS eFiling under Tax Status. It is free and issued immediately if your returns and payments are up to date. If you are non-compliant, eFiling shows you which returns or debts are the problem.

Can I still bid if I owe SARS money?

Often yes, provided you have an approved payment arrangement in place, which usually restores compliant status. What sinks bids is unfiled returns and unarranged debt discovered at award stage.