Company Registration Companies In Sandton

Burger Huyser Attorneys handles company registration in Sandton through its Commercial Law and Contracts practice, lodging the application with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) under the Companies Act 71 of 2008 and drafting the Memorandum of Incorporation (MOI), shareholders’ agreement and related founding documents alongside the filing rather than as a separate engagement. The service runs from the firm’s Sandton branch at Block 3, 1st floor, Northdowns Office Park, 17 Georgian Crescent East, Bryanston, Sandton, 2191 (011 253 3080, mobile 064 555 3358), with admitted-attorney sign-off on every founding document. Standard turnaround on a clean new (Pty) Ltd is generally a few working days once the R50 name reservation is approved and the founding documents are in order; the CIPC’s own incorporation fee is R175, with the legal-service layer (drafted MOI, shareholders’ agreement, Beneficial Ownership filing, and SARS registration) quoted on a per-file basis after the initial consultation.

Why Engage a Law Firm for Company Registration in Sandton

A CIPC filing on its own produces a registered entity but leaves the legal architecture of the business — voting rights, dividend rules, director appointment and removal mechanics, drag-and-tag provisions, deadlock resolution — to be sorted in the founding documents, which most online registration bureaus supply as boilerplate templates. An attorney-led service ensures the MOI and any shareholders’ agreement are drafted to reflect the actual deal between the founders, not a generic CIPC default.

The Companies Act 71 of 2008 also imposes personal duties on directors: section 76 sets the duty of care, skill and diligence, section 75 sets the duty to act in the best interests of the company, and section 77 sets liability for breaches. The advice bundled with a registration service should cover what those duties look like in practice — not in a footnote, but as part of the engagement. Choosing the wrong entity type at incorporation is expensive to unwind later; the choice between (Pty) Ltd, NPC, Inc and co-operative has tax, liability and governance consequences that an attorney flags before filing. For foreign-owned Sandton operations, additional documentation applies (passport, certified proof of foreign address, in some cases a SAQA evaluation of qualifications), and generic bureaus tend to hand this back to the client rather than handling it end-to-end.

What the Service Covers (Scope of Engagement)

Burger Huyser’s Sandton branch treats company registration as a single engagement covering pre-incorporation advice through to a compliance-calendar handover, rather than splitting the legal work from the filing.

• Pre-incorporation advice — entity selection, structuring for tax efficiency, shareholder and director role allocation, and identification of any licensing or industry-specific registration that follows the CIPC filing (FSCA approval for financial-services businesses, NHBRC registration for construction, CIDB grading, and similar).
• Name reservation — submission of the CoR9.1 name reservation to CIPC at the prescribed R50 filing fee (non-refundable; valid for six months; extendable in 60-business-day blocks on a R30 extension fee); typical turnaround 1–3 business days through CIPC’s e-services platform.
• Founding document drafting — a Memorandum of Incorporation tailored to the founders’ agreement rather than a generic template, using the standard CoR15.1 form for simple single-class structures or the customised CoR15.1B form where there are multiple share classes, preference shares, founder-vesting clauses or special director-voting rules; a shareholders’ agreement where there is more than one shareholder.
• CIPC filing — preparation and submission of the registration application and supporting documents (IDs or passports of directors and shareholders, registered office address, MOI, approved name reservation) via the CIPC’s online channel; the R175 incorporation fee is paid into the CIPC’s ABSA account (account 4055 68 1017, branch Van der Walt Street).
• Mandatory Beneficial Ownership (UBO) filing — completing and lodging the UBO declaration required by CIPC under current anti-money-laundering rules for every newly registered company, identifying each person who ultimately owns or controls the company with supporting documentation.
• SARS tax registration — registering the new company with SARS for income tax, appointing a public officer, and (where the threshold applies) setting up VAT registration and PAYE/UIF for any staff.
• Bank-account opening support — preparing the FICA-compliant file (registration certificate, MOI, resolution, IDs of directors and signatories) for opening a corporate bank account at a Sandton-area branch of one of the major commercial banks.
• Compliance calendar handover — a plain-language schedule of the company’s ongoing CIPC annual return, SARS filing, B-BBEE and industry-specific deadlines, and the next UBO refresh cycle.

The Sandton Filing Layer: Where the National Process Hits the Map

All new company registrations in Sandton are filed with the CIPC — a national regulator, not a provincial body — and the CIPC runs a Self Service Centre in Johannesburg for walk-in queries. Sandton-based founders lodge through the CIPC’s online e-services platform via the BizPortal at bizportal.gov.za and do not need to attend the regulator’s offices in person. The substantive law is the Companies Act 71 of 2008 read with the Companies Regulations, 2011, both of which apply uniformly across South Africa; the Sandton-specific layer is operational (which CIPC channel to use, which FICA desk to open the bank account through, where the registered office will physically sit).

The Sandton-area courts do not handle incorporations: the Sandton Magistrate’s Court and the Gauteng Division of the High Court, Johannesburg seat, hear litigation and commercial disputes, not company registrations. Founders who reach for those venues have typically been misdirected by general legal guides. The correct filing channel is the CIPC e-services platform, lodged on the client’s behalf by the firm’s attorneys rather than handed over to the founder.

Choosing the Right Entity Type

Entity selection is the first conversation in any registration engagement because each form carries different tax, liability and governance consequences. The table below summarises the main types available under the Companies Act 71 of 2008.

Entity	Best suited to	Liability of owners	Tax treatment	Key drafting point
Private Company (Pty) Ltd	Most SMEs, owner-managed businesses, joint ventures, Sandton-based consulting and trading firms	Limited to the value of the shareholding (no minimum share capital required)	Company taxed at 27% corporate rate; shareholders taxed on dividends	Voting and dividend mechanics in the MOI; shareholders’ agreement for any multi-party setup
Non-Profit Company (NPC)	Charities, social-impact organisations, community projects	No shareholders; members with limited rights	Tax-exempt status available via SARS application under section 18A / section 30 of the Income Tax Act	“Objects” clause drafted tightly so the company stays within its non-profit purpose
Personal Liability Company (Inc)	Professional practices (law, audit, architecture, consulting)	Directors and past directors are jointly and severally liable for company debts	Same as (Pty) Ltd	Used where the profession’s regulatory body requires personal liability of the principals
Co-operative	Member-owned businesses, agricultural collectives, community enterprises	Members have limited liability	Specific co-op tax dispensation under the Income Tax Act	Democratic one-member-one-vote governance; the Co-operatives Act 14 of 2005 governs in parallel with CIPC filing
External Company	Foreign-owned companies establishing a Sandton branch	Liability sits with the foreign parent	Same as (Pty) Ltd but with extra SARS and exchange-control reporting	Registration under section 23 of the Companies Act; the foreign parent remains the regulated entity

A private company may be registered with or without a company name under the Companies Act; non-profit companies must have a name. The Memorandum of Incorporation governs the company’s internal rules and is binding on the company, its directors and its shareholders — getting the MOI right at incorporation is cheaper than amending it later.

The Registration Process, Step by Step

1. Consultation at the Sandton branch — entity-type selection, naming and structuring discussion; opening the client file and running conflict checks.
2. Trade-mark and domain check — recommended before lodging the name reservation, because CIPC name approval does not extend to trade-mark rights.
3. Name reservation — CoR9.1 filed with CIPC at the R50 non-refundable filing fee; typical turnaround 1–3 business days through the e-services platform.
4. Memorandum of Incorporation finalisation — confirming the standard CoR15.1 wording or finalising the bespoke CoR15.1B drafted clauses.
5. CIPC incorporation filing — lodging the file with the required supporting documents (IDs of directors, registered address, MOI, approved name reservation); the R175 incorporation fee is paid into the CIPC’s ABSA account.
6. Issuance of registration certificate (CoR14.3) — CIPC emails the registration certificate and company number on approval.
7. SARS and bank-account setup — registering the company for income tax with SARS, opening a FICA-compliant corporate bank account at a Sandton-area branch with the new company number, and (where required) registering for VAT and PAYE/UIF.
8. Mandatory Beneficial Ownership filing — completing and lodging the UBO declaration on CIPC’s beneficial-ownership platform.
9. Share certificates, share register, and shareholders’ agreement — issuing first share certificates, opening the company share register, and signing any founders’ shareholders’ agreement drafted as part of the engagement.

What to Look for When Choosing a Company Registration Service in Sandton

The differences between providers matter once you look past the headline price:

• Admitted-attorney involvement — founding documents (MOI, shareholders’ agreement) carry legal weight; an attorney’s sign-off is materially different from a template produced by an online bureau.
• Founding-document drafting, not just filing — the value sits in the MOI and shareholders’ agreement being drafted to the deal, not in the CIPC submission itself.
• Post-incorporation coverage — SARS registration, bank-account FICA support, UBO filing and an ongoing compliance handover should all be in scope rather than treated as separate engagements.
• Transparent pricing on the legal layer — secretarial-service quotations frequently exclude UBO filing, SARS registration and shareholders’ agreements; an attorney-led service should quote on the full scope rather than bundling into a single headline figure.
• Sandton-based intake — proximity to the CIPC’s Johannesburg Self Service Centre and to the commercial-bank FICA desks clustered around the Sandton CBD speeds the practical layer up.
• Cross-practice availability — registration often leads to a lease, employment contracts, restraint undertakings or shareholder disputes; a firm with commercial, labour and litigation capability avoids changing firms at each step.
• Ongoing commercial-law support — once incorporated, the company will need contract drafting, lease reviews, employment-law advice and occasional litigation; using a firm that does all of this avoids re-explaining the business to a new adviser each time.

Burger Huyser’s Sandton branch is set up to meet that profile in a single engagement: files are run through the Commercial Law and Contracts practice, with admitted-attorney sign-off on every founding document and the firm’s broader commercial, labour and litigation practices available without a hand-off.

Practical Considerations: Cost, Timeline, What to Bring

Cost

CIPC filing fees are set by the regulator — R50 for name reservation and R175 for incorporation. The legal-service layer (MOI drafting, shareholders’ agreement, UBO filing, SARS registration) is quoted separately by the attorney on a per-file basis after the initial consultation at the Sandton branch (011 253 3080). Published secretarial-market packages in South Africa currently range from sub-R1,000 for an entry-level Pty Ltd up to R1,450 and above for a package with share certificates and UBO filing; an attorney-led engagement sits above the secretarial baseline in exchange for the drafting component.

Timeline

Name reservation through CIPC e-services is typically returned within 1–3 business days. Full incorporation from filing to registration certificate typically takes 5–10 business days for a clean file. SARS tax-number issuance and bank-account opening run in parallel once the CoR14.3 certificate is in hand.

What to bring to the first Sandton consultation

Proposed company names (in order of preference), certified IDs or passports of all proposed directors and shareholders, proof of physical address for the registered office, a short description of the business’s intended activities (used to draft the “objects” section of the MOI), and the proposed share-allocation table (number of shares per founder, share class, and any preference or vesting terms). For non-South-African founders, additionally a certified passport, certified proof of address in the country of residence, and (if any qualification is to be relied on) a SAQA evaluation certificate.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does company registration cost in Sandton?

CIPC filing fees are set by the regulator — R50 for name reservation and R175 for incorporation. The legal-service layer (drafted Memorandum of Incorporation, shareholders’ agreement, Beneficial Ownership filing, and SARS registration) is quoted separately by the attorney. Published secretarial-market packages start from R985 for a basic (Pty) Ltd and around R1,450 with share certificates and UBO filing included; an attorney-led engagement at Burger Huyser is priced on a per-file basis after the initial consultation at the Sandton branch (011 253 3080), with an itemised quote rather than a bundled headline figure.

How long does it take to register a (Pty) Ltd in Sandton?

Name reservation via the CoR9.1 process typically returns a decision within 1–3 business days. Once the name is approved and the founding documents are in order, a clean (Pty) Ltd registration generally completes within 5–10 business days. SARS tax-number setup and bank-account opening run in parallel once the CoR14.3 registration certificate is issued. Non-Profit Companies with multi-object memoranda, close-corporation conversions, and external-company registrations for foreign-owned branches take longer because of the additional documentation layers.

Do I need a lawyer to register a company in South Africa, or can I file directly with CIPC?

No law degree is required to submit a CIPC filing — anyone can lodge through the BizPortal at bizportal.gov.za. The case for using a lawyer is not the filing itself but the founding documents around it: the Memorandum of Incorporation and any shareholders’ agreement carry the actual governance and ownership rules for the business, and a template MOI does not reflect the deal between the founders. An attorney-led service is also where the entity-type decision, the post-incorporation handover, and the ongoing commercial-law support sit.

What’s the difference between a (Pty) Ltd, NPC, Inc and co-operative?

A Private Company (Pty) Ltd is the standard limited-liability entity for SMEs with no minimum share capital. A Non-Profit Company (NPC) is for charitable or social-impact organisations and may apply for tax-exempt status under section 18A or section 30 of the Income Tax Act. A Personal Liability Company (Inc) is used by professional practices where the directors carry personal liability for the company’s debts. A co-operative is a member-owned entity governed additionally by the Co-operatives Act 14 of 2005. Each carries different tax, liability and governance consequences, which is why entity selection is the first conversation in the engagement rather than an afterthought.

Do I need a shareholders’ agreement as well as an MOI?

Strongly recommended for any company with more than one shareholder. The MOI is a public document filed with CIPC and governs how the company interacts with the world; a shareholders’ agreement is a private contract between the shareholders that covers what the MOI typically leaves out — drag-and-tag rights, deadlock resolution, what happens when one founder wants to leave, restraint of trade, and dispute-resolution mechanics. A shareholders’ agreement can usually be drafted in parallel with the MOI without adding to the registration timeline.

Where is the Burger Huyser Sandton branch, and what are the hours?

Block 3, 1st floor, Northdowns Office Park, 17 Georgian Crescent East, Bryanston, Sandton, 2191. Telephone 011 253 3080, mobile 064 555 3358. Open Monday to Friday, 7:30am to 4:30pm. Initial consultations for company registrations can be booked by phone or by visiting the branch directly.

Can non-South Africans register a company through the Sandton branch?

Yes. Non-residents can be directors and shareholders of South African companies; additional documentation is required (passport copy, certified proof of address in the country of residence, and in some cases a SAQA evaluation of qualifications). Burger Huyser confirms the documents required for the specific nationality and country of residence at the consultation before the CIPC filing is lodged.

What is the mandatory Beneficial Ownership (UBO) declaration?

Under current CIPC rules, every newly registered company must lodge a Beneficial Ownership declaration identifying each person who ultimately owns or controls the company, with supporting documentation. Non-compliance may attract penalties. Burger Huyser includes the UBO filing in the standard registration engagement so the new entity is compliant from the date of incorporation.

If you are setting up a company in Sandton and want the founding documents drafted to the deal — not produced from a template — contact Burger Huyser Attorneys’ Sandton branch on 011 253 3080 (mobile 064 555 3358) or visit the office at Block 3, 1st floor, Northdowns Office Park, 17 Georgian Crescent East, Bryanston, Sandton, 2191. The firm handles company registrations through its Commercial Law and Contracts practice, with files run by Specialist Consultant J’Retha van Rensburg and the Sandton admitted attorneys. The service covers entity selection, name reservation, Memorandum of Incorporation and shareholders’ agreement drafting, CIPC filing, Beneficial Ownership declaration, and the post-incorporation layer (SARS registration, FICA-compliant bank-account opening, compliance-calendar handover). Initial consultations are booked through the Sandton branch directly; bring certified IDs of each founding director and a short description of the business activity to the first meeting. The firm carries a 4.8/5 average across 250+ Google reviews (Trustindex verified “Top Rated Law Firm in South Africa”) and was awarded Commercial Law Firm of the Year 2025 — South Africa at the 5 Star Lawyers Awards.