COIDA registration

Workmen’s compensation registration and the letter of good standing that clients and tenders demand. Every employer must register within seven days of hiring. Estimate your annual assessment below before you commit.

R1 290fixed ProperSA service fee · Department processing and requirements vary

COIDA registration costs R1 290 at ProperSA. That is our fixed service fee; government and authority fees are charged at cost on top. Turnaround: our part is done within 1 business day. If you give us everything we ask for and we still fail to deliver what this page promises, we refund our fee; a refusal by the authority is not refundable.

Independent paperwork service. ProperSA is an independent private company, not the Compensation Fund. You can register with the Fund yourself at no charge. Our R1 290 pays for us to prepare the registration, prepare the registration administration, address the Return of Earnings requirements and request a Letter of Good Standing once the account is eligible.

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What you will actually pay, all in

Two amounts, and only the first one comes to us.

Our fee	R1 290	Registration, your first return of earnings and the request for your first letter. Fixed.
Compensation Fund assessment	from R1 621 a year	Paid to the Fund, not to us. Set by your payroll and industry class. R1 621 is the 2026/27 minimum for a commercial employer, R560 for a domestic employer. Your letter is issued once it is paid.
To hold your first letter	from R2 911	R1 290 to us, at least R1 621 to the Fund. Use the estimator above for your own figure.

What the R1 290 is really buying. The Fund assesses you in an industry class, and that class sets your tariff for years. We check it before the registration goes in, so you are not paying a construction rate for office work. The registration must happen within seven days of your first hire, and a late return of earnings carries a 10 percent penalty, so the cost of leaving it is real.

Which COIDA service do you need?

Three different situations arrive asking for “a letter of good standing”. Pick yours and you get the right price, not a menu.

Never registered with the Compensation Fund, R1 290We register you, file your first return of earnings and request your first letter. The Fund’s own annual assessment is on top and paid to the Fund.
Registered, but the letter has lapsed or the return of earnings is due, R690We file the return, confirm the assessment and get the letter reissued. This is most people.
Registered, and the assessment looks far too high, R890We check whether the Fund has you in a riskier class than the work justifies, and tell you what a correction saves before you pay.

What is included

W.As.2 employer registration with the Compensation Fund
Your industry subclass confirmed so you are not over-assessed
First return of earnings (ROE) prepared and submitted
Letter of good standing requested once the assessment is paid
A renewal calendar: ROE season dates so the letter never lapses
A B-BBEE sworn affidavit template for an exempted micro enterprise, included free, because the same tender that asks for your letter of good standing asks for this next
Claims guide: what to do in the first 24 hours after a workplace injury

How ordering works

Order online with the button below and pay securely by card or instant EFT (PayFast), or wait for the EFT invoice.
Complete the short online form waiting in your client portal. It asks for everything we need, no calls, no meetings, everything on record.
We register you with the Compensation Fund from your questionnaire and submit the return of earnings on ROE Online. Once the Fund issues your assessment and you pay it, we request your letter of good standing. Fund processing commonly takes two to six weeks.
The price you see is the price you pay (your annual assessment is owed to the Compensation Fund directly, per the estimate above), Department decisions, account outcomes and turnaround times remain outside ProperSA’s control.

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Already registered and think your tariff is too high for the work you do? That is a COIDA subclass correction at R890. The gap between the lowest and highest class is about fifteen times, so it is worth checking.

Already registered with the Fund and just need the letter renewed? That is letter of good standing renewal at R690, not this page.

Not sure this is the right one for you? Ask us first and you get a written answer within one business day.

Check you are registering with the right fund first

Section 84 of the Act exempts some employers from paying assessments to the Compensation Fund altogether, and two of those exemptions catch ordinary businesses.

Building industry, class 5Employers fully insured by Federated Employers Mutual Assurance are covered through FEM rather than the Compensation Fund. If you build for a living, check which one you are actually with before you register or pay anything.
Mining, class 4, and metals, class 13Employers fully insured by Rand Mutual Assurance are covered through RMA on the same basis. RMA is licensed for both class 4, mining, and class 13, which is iron, steel, galvanising, garages, metals and related industries. Class 13 employers were moved off the Compensation Fund to RMA in March 2015, so a garage or an engineering works is often with RMA without the owner realising it. If that is you, see RMA registration.
No employees, but a tender asks for the letterThe Fund is explicit: do not complete the registration form. You ask for a tender letter instead. The Fund issues it for one specific tender, addressed to the company that issued the tender, to a business that has no employees and has never operated unregistered. Registering a business with no employees is the wrong answer to that question.

We check which of these applies to you before anything is lodged, because registering with the wrong fund costs money and fixes nothing.

Why your clients insist on the letter

It is not box ticking. Section 89 says an employer who gives work to a contractor must obtain a letter of good standing from that contractor, and the Fund states the consequence plainly: if they do not, the mandatory becomes responsible for paying the assessment for those employees.

So the main contractor who will not let you on site without a letter is not being difficult. They are avoiding your liability landing on them. That is also why a lapsed letter costs you work immediately rather than eventually.

What good standing actually means

The Fund lists four conditions, and all four have to hold at the same time:

Registered with the FundSection 80.
Annual return of earnings submittedSection 82. One missing year is enough.
Assessment paid in full, or being paid in instalmentsSection 86. An approved instalment arrangement satisfies this, which is why owing money does not have to mean no letter.
Accidents reported on timeThe one almost nobody knows about. An unreported injury on duty can sit between you and your letter.

What we will need from you

Registration itself is free at the Compensation Fund. Their own document list is short: the Registration of Employer form (W.As.2), a copy of your CIPC documents, and a copy of an identity document. Trusts supply the trust documents (J246) instead, and non profits their NPO or NGO certificate. We complete the form and lodge it. What we need from you is what shapes the assessment behind it.

Your company or close corporation registration number, or your identity number if you trade in your own name. Trusts send the J246, non profits the NPO or NGO certificate.
Your SARS income tax reference number.
A precise description of what the business does. This sets your industry subclass and therefore your tariff, so a vague answer can cost you every year for as long as you trade.
How many people you employ, including casual and part time staff and any working directors. Note that sole proprietors, partners and non working directors are not employees under the Act and their earnings are not declared.
Actual earnings paid over the past assessment year, and your estimate for the year ahead. The year runs 1 March to the end of February.
Your business address and banking details.
Whether you are already insured with FEM or RMA, if you are in building or mining, so we do not register you twice.

New to this? The letter of good standing guide explains in plain words what the Fund issues, when, and what stops it.

Update, October 2026

Outstanding returns of earnings. Returns of Earnings for 2025 and earlier years that are still outstanding must be submitted by 31 October 2026. After that date the Compensation Fund may raise an assessment on an estimate of your earnings and add a penalty of up to 10% of the final assessment (Notice 4140 of 2026).

2026/27 figures. The maximum earnings counted per employee are R668 000, and the minimum assessment is R1 621 a year, or R560 for a domestic employer, in effect from 1 March 2026 (Notice 3910 of 2026).

Frequently asked questions

I build houses. Should I be with the Compensation Fund or FEM?

Check before you register. Section 84 of the Act exempts employers who are fully insured by Federated Employers Mutual Assurance, which covers the building industry as class 5, from paying assessments to the Compensation Fund. Rand Mutual Assurance does the same for class 4, mining, and class 13, which is iron, steel, galvanising, garages and metals. If you are already covered through FEM or RMA you do not also pay the Fund, so establishing which one you are with is the first thing we do rather than the last.

I have no employees but a tender wants the letter. What do I do?

Not register. The Fund says in terms that an employer with no employees should not complete the Registration of Employer form, and should ask for a tender letter instead. The Fund issues a tender letter for one specific tender, addressed to the company that issued it, and only to a business that has no employees and has not been operating unregistered. Registering a business that has no employees creates an assessment liability you did not need and does not give the tender what it is asking for.

Do my directors count as employees?

A working director does. A non working director does not, and neither do sole proprietors or partners, because the Act does not treat them as employees. It matters, because declaring earnings for people who are not employees inflates your assessment every year.

What is a letter of good standing and why do clients ask for it?

It is the Compensation Fund’s confirmation that your registration and assessments are up to date, which means workers injured on your site are covered. Construction main contractors and most tenders will not let you on site without one.

How much does COIDA cost per year?

Your assessment is your assessable payroll times your industry tariff. An office business pays around 0.18%; construction around 2.65%. The minimum assessment is R1 621 a year, and earnings above R668 000 per employee are not assessed. The calculator above gives your estimate.

Who must register for COIDA?

Every employer with one or more employees, including casual and part time staff, within seven days of the first hire. Directors drawing a salary count too. Sole proprietors without employees do not register.

How long does a letter of good standing take?

Once registered and assessed, payment of the assessment usually unlocks the letter within days on ROE Online. The slow part is first time registration and assessment, which is the part this service manages.

What if I have employees but never registered?

Register now. The Fund can back-assess up to previous years with penalties and interest, but that beats personal liability for an uninsured injury claim, which can run into millions.

The assessment estimate uses representative class tariffs compiled from the gazetted Tariffs of Assessment and the 2026/27 earnings ceiling and minimum assessment; your exact subclass rate is assigned by the Compensation Fund on registration and will differ.