Switching accountants in South Africa is a routine professional process. Your SARS history, CIPC records and accounting file stay with your business, and the new firm handles the clearance letter and the access transfers. A standard engagement letter can be ended once outstanding fees are settled. This guide covers the steps, the deadlines and the cases that need care, such as unpaid fees.

Reasons to change accountant

Reasons to change accountant include these:

  • You want contact through the year, with fees agreed in advance.
  • You want replies to questions within an agreed time.
  • You want your accountant to track SARS and CIPC deadlines and remind you before each one.
  • You want to move your books to cloud accounting software.
  • You want advice on tax planning, cashflow and business structure as well as year-end accounts.
  • You want a fixed monthly fee that sets out what is included.
  • Your business has grown and now needs VAT registration, payroll, a second entity or a B-BBEE affidavit for a tender.

Before you choose a new firm, write down what you need from it: year-end accounts and returns only, or monthly bookkeeping, payroll and advice as well. Compare firms against that list.

Professional clearance

There's a long-standing professional courtesy in South African accounting. When you appoint a new firm, your new accountant writes to your old one — this is the professional clearance letter (sometimes called a handover or 'letter of no objection'). It asks two things: is there any professional reason we shouldn't take this client on, and please release their records. The outgoing firm is professionally expected to respond and hand everything over. Your part is to sign the authority forms and send a short note.

A standard engagement letter can be ended once outstanding fees are settled. You can give a reason for leaving if you wish, but you are not required to. Your business records, data and SARS profile belong to you, and your accountant holds them on your behalf. Professional clearance asks only whether there is an ethical reason the new firm should not act, such as an unresolved conflict. The outgoing firm cannot refuse clearance to keep the fees.

The handover process, step by step

  1. You appoint the new firm and sign their engagement letter plus a short authority form (this is what lets them act for you at SARS and CIPC).
  2. The new firm sends the professional clearance letter to your outgoing accountant, requesting confirmation there's no professional objection and asking for your records and working papers.
  3. You send your old accountant a short, polite note confirming you're moving and giving permission to release everything to the new firm. Two lines is enough.
  4. The old firm hands over prior annual financial statements, trial balances, the fixed asset register, tax computations and the working papers you're entitled to.
  5. Access is transferred on SARS eFiling (and the CIPC customer code and your cloud accounting file, if used).
  6. The new firm reviews your last numbers, checks nothing is outstanding at SARS or CIPC, confirms your next three deadlines, and takes over each deadline from the next one due.

Settle any outstanding fees you agree with before you go. A firm can exercise a lien, which lets it hold your records until it is paid. Once the bill is paid, the records are released. Handle disputed fees separately so that a small unpaid invoice does not hold up your records.

How the SARS eFiling transfer works

Your eFiling profile belongs to you. It is tied to your ID number and your company. Your entire filing history (every VAT201, EMP201, IRP6, ITR14 and ITR12) stays put. What changes is tax practitioner access. Your outgoing accountant releases their practitioner link to your tax types, and your new firm requests access as the registered representative or tax practitioner. SARS processes this as a standard reassignment, and your filing history stays on your profile throughout.

The equivalent happens at CIPC: your new firm registers against your CIPC customer code so they can file your annual return and beneficial ownership updates. Your company registration and number stay the same. Only the firm with access to act for you changes.

Records and access to transfer

We work through this list on every switch:

  • SARS eFiling profile — your tax types (Income Tax, VAT, PAYE) and the transfer of tax practitioner / representative access.
  • CIPC customer code and access — for annual returns and beneficial ownership filings on your Pty Ltd.
  • Accounting software file — your live cloud file (Xero, Sage, Zoho or QuickBooks) or the backup if you're still on desktop software.
  • Prior-year financials and returns — the last ITR14/ITR12, VAT201s and provisional tax IRP6 workings.
  • Fixed asset register and wear-and-tear schedules — so allowances carry forward correctly.
  • Payroll history — EMP201 submissions, EMP501 reconciliations and employee tax certificates (IRP5s) if you have staff.
  • Opening balances — the closing trial balance from your last finalised year, which becomes your new firm's starting point.

The best time to switch

You can switch at any point in the year. A new firm can take over mid-year and pick up your live deadlines. If you have a free choice, the tidiest handover point is just after your annual financial statements are finalised, because there's a natural line drawn under the year and a clean set of opening balances to carry across.

Appoint the new firm first, then tell the old one. That way an accountant is acting for you when the next VAT201 or provisional tax deadline falls due.

Mistakes to avoid when switching

  • Telling the old firm before appointing the new one. That leaves a period with no accountant acting for you. Appoint the new firm first.
  • Assuming they'll lose their SARS history. The history stays on your profile, because it is tied to the business.
  • Leaving a disputed invoice unpaid and being surprised by a lien. Settle the fees you agree with and raise disputed ones separately, so records are released.
  • Not confirming the beneficial ownership filing is up to date on handover. If the filing has lapsed, CIPC can block your annual return, so check it as part of the move.
  • Forgetting the fixed asset register. Without it, wear-and-tear allowances have to be rebuilt or are missed, and you overpay tax.
  • Switching in a panic the week a return is due. Allow a fortnight so clearance and access transfer are complete before the deadline.

Worked examples

A clean mid-year switch

A Pretoria café owner moves in June, halfway through her February tax year. Her new firm sends clearance and gets records released within two weeks, imports her Xero file, and files each two-monthly VAT201 on time. She settles her old accountant's final invoice of R3,400 and the records are released. She spends about an hour on the switch herself, mostly signing forms.

A switch with a disputed fee

A Durban contractor tries to leave with a disputed R9,000 bill outstanding. The old firm exercises a lien and holds back the asset register. He pays the undisputed portion (R5,000), receives the records and pursues the R4,000 dispute separately. Keeping the fee dispute apart from the handover lets the move go ahead.

How we handle a switch

At Buzz we handle the clearance letter, the eFiling and CIPC transfers and the software file import. We review your last set of numbers before we start, so any outstanding returns or errors are found at the outset, and we tell you your next three deadlines on day one. Book a discovery call and we'll set out the steps for your switch.