Legal force of the document- a property of an official document imparted to it by current legislation, the competence of the body that issued it and the established procedure for its execution.

Chapter 2, paragraph 18. To give the document legal force The following mandatory details are required:

name of the organization and (or) structural unit- author;

registration index;

For certain types of documents, additional details that give them legal force are an approval stamp, a seal, and a mark on the certification of the copy.

For electronic documents, the printing function is performed by the digital signature of a legal entity or the head of an organization, his deputies, or another authorized person (part three of clause 18 was introduced by Resolution of the Ministry of Justice dated December 30, 2015 N 225)

Law of the Republic of Belarus of January 10, 2000 No. 357-z On electronic documents

Article 11. Legal force electronic document

An electronic document on a machine medium is equivalent to a document on paper and has the same legal force. If the legislation of the Republic of Belarus requires that a document be drawn up in writing or presented in writing or in writing, then an electronic document is considered to comply with these requirements. Originals of electronic documents and their copies on paper, meeting the requirements of Article 10 of this Law, have the same legal force. In cases where the legislation of the Republic of Belarus requires notarization and (or) state registration of a document, either an electronic document or a copy of it on paper is subject to certification and (or) registration in the manner established by the legislation of the Republic of Belarus. The procedure for documenting and circulating information specified in part one of Article 18 of this Law in the form of electronic documents is regulated by technical regulatory legal acts in the field technical standardization and standardization and office work rules established by the legislation of the Republic of Belarus.

Article 10. Copies of electronic documents and their identification Copies of an electronic document are created by certifying, in accordance with the procedure established by law, the form of external representation of the electronic document on paper. Copies of an electronic document on paper must contain an indication that they are copies of the corresponding electronic document. Certification of the form of external presentation of an electronic document on paper can be carried out: by a notary or other person authorized to perform notarial acts; an individual entrepreneur or a legal entity who, in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Belarus, has the right to carry out such activities. Reproduction of an electronic document on a material object other than paper, separable from machine media, or a copy of it on paper that is not properly certified, does not have the legal force of a copy of the electronic document. Article 18. Electronic documents containing information the distribution of which is prohibited or restricted The content of electronic documents may be information that is a state, official or commercial secret, as well as other information, the distribution of which is prohibited or limited. The rules for the use and measures to protect such information are established by the legislation of the Republic of Belarus. State bodies and legal entities, their officials, as well as individuals whose functions include working with electronic documents containing information specified in part one of this article, are obliged to provide the necessary measures to protect it in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Belarus.

8. Document forms: types, design requirements, features of development and use.

Instructions for office work in government bodies and other organizations (as amended by resolutions of the Ministry of Justice dated October 24, 2011 N 235, dated January 27, 2012 N 18, dated January 15, 2013 N 9, dated December 10, 2014 N 240, dated December 30, 2015 N 225)

According to clause 21 Document form- a standard sheet of paper with details reproduced on it, containing constant information, and space allocated for variable. Constant information is the details of the organization (its name, address, telephone numbers, bank account, etc.), and variable information is the main text of the document, its main content.

If a document (for example, a letter) turns out to be very voluminous, then only the first page of the document is prepared on forms, and standard blank sheets of paper are used to produce subsequent pages.

Forms are being developed in accordance with the State Standard of the Republic of Belarus STB 6.38-2004 “Unified documentation systems of the Republic of Belarus. System of organizational and administrative documentation. Requirements for the preparation of documents”, approved by Resolution of the Committee on Standardization, Metrology and Certification under the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus dated December 21, 2004 No. 69 (hereinafter referred to as STB 6.38-2004).

They are two types:

· letter form;

· general form of other types of organizational and administrative documents.

When producing a specific document, the name of its type (except for a letter) is applied to a general form using technical means. Based on the general form, forms can be produced for specific types of documents (orders, instructions, instructions, protocols, etc.). At the same time, the Instructions emphasize that the production of forms for specific types of documents is advisable if their volume exceeds 200 documents per year.

According to paragraph 24 of the Instructions When developing document forms, standard sheets of A4 paper are used(210×297 mm) and A5(148×210 mm). The choice of form format when preparing a document depends on the nature and volume of the text. Thus, an A5 format form is used for documents with small text, no more than 5–7 lines.

Paragraph 25 of the Instructions clarifies permanent information on letterhead, these are the details:

· organization code: code according to OKRB 004-2001 “Government and management bodies (for public authorities and management)” or code according to OKRB 018-2003 “ Legal entities And individual entrepreneurs»;

· name of company;

· sender's postal address;

· communication (addresses, telephone numbers) and commercial (banking) data.

Marked on the letterhead

As for the details that are applied to the general form, their list will be as follows:

· State emblem of the Republic of Belarus (for government organizations);

· organization emblem or trademark (service mark);

· organization code: code OKRB 004-2001 “Government and management bodies (for public authorities and management)” or code according to OKRB 018-2003 “Legal entities and individual entrepreneurs”;

· name of the parent organization;

· name of company;

· name of the structural unit;

· place of compilation or publication.

Apply on the general form limit marks and lines for details: date, registration index.

To register the details “Name of document type” on general form is given free place between the details “Name of organization” (“Name of structural unit”) and the limiting lines for the details “Date” and “Registration index”.

Paragraph 27 of the Instructions establishes that document forms are developed based on the longitudinal or angular arrangement of the details. With the corner option, the form details are located in the upper left corner. Maximum length lines of the form details should not exceed 73 mm. In the longitudinal version, the form details are located in the middle of the sheet along the top margin without limiting the horizontal dimensions, but in compliance with the established margin sizes.

The form details are located centered or flag method. With the centered method, the beginning and end of each line of details are centered, that is, equidistant from the boundaries of the area where the details are located. With the flag method, each attribute line starts from the left border of the attribute location area.

It should be borne in mind that, if necessary, restrictive marks for fields and individual details in the form of corners and lines can be applied to the form. It is allowed to mark the form for folding and punching holes with a hole punch.

When creating a form in several languages, the form details must be duplicated in these languages.

In all organizations, regardless of the form of ownership, the letter form is prepared with a longitudinal arrangement of details in two languages.

It has been established that the form of a document sent by e-mail, including via the interdepartmental system electronic document management government bodies, drawn up in accordance with Appendix 21 to the Instructions.

According to clause 31 of the Instructions, the specifics of the production and use of document forms with images State emblem of the Republic of Belarus are regulated by separate acts of legislation of the Republic of Belarus. But since our “educational program” is intended to to a greater extent for privately owned organizations, we will only emphasize that The national emblem of the country is used on the letterhead of government bodies and organizations, and we will not dwell on this topic in more detail.

If the document is prepared not on a form, but on a blank sheet of paper, in the upper left part of the first sheet of the document it is indicated corner stamp. It is allowed to produce three types of corner stamp:

· for writing;

· general corner stamp;

· corner stamp of a specific type of document.

The composition of the details of the corner stamp, the order of their placement and execution must correspond to the composition, order of placement and execution of the details of the form.

Paragraph 34 of the Instructions establishes that the size of the corner stamp should not exceed 73 mm horizontally and 75 mm (for stamps with the image of the State Emblem of the Republic of Belarus or emblem) or 55 mm (for stamps without the image of the State Emblem of the Republic of Belarus or emblem) vertically.

9. Features and procedure for preparing draft legal acts.

Law of the Republic of Belarus January 10, 2000 No. 361-З On regulatory legal acts of the Republic of Belarus

Features of the procedure for preparing projects various types normative legal acts, technical and legal requirements for their execution, as well as other issues not regulated by this Law, are determined by the Rules for the preparation of draft normative legal acts, developed by the National Center for Legislation and Legal Research of the Republic of Belarus together with the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus and approved by the President of the Republic of Belarus .

Article 47. Procedure for preparing a draft normative legal act

Preparation of a draft regulatory legal act may include:

consideration of the rule-making proposal and decision-making on the preparation of the draft;

organizational, technical and financial support for its preparation;

collection necessary materials and information;

development of the project concept;

drafting the text of the project;

project approval;

carrying out legal and other necessary examinations.

The rule-making body can carry out the preparation of a draft normative legal act independently or entrust it to another subject of the rule-making initiative on issues within its competence, order it from the National Center for Legislation and Legal Research of the Republic of Belarus, and also, in the prescribed manner, involve relevant specialists from other organizations in the preparation of the draft. primarily state ones, entrust temporary commissions or working groups specially created for this purpose.

Preparation of a draft regulatory legal act is carried out with the mandatory participation of the legal service of the relevant government agency(organizations).

However, this law has a narrow focus: it is focused on the legal force of electronic signature in documents and equates it to handwritten one. At the same time, the general legislative act There is no one that would regulate ED in our country yet. There are so many types of documents used in document management that it is very problematic to spell out each of them in law. Therefore, today digital document flow is regulated indirectly, through several different legislative acts. One of them is the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, in particular, Article 160. It provides for the ability to sign documents not only with a handwritten signature, but also with any other signature provided for by Russian legislation, including electronic digital ones. The legal force of paper and electronic documents today is recognized as equal only in cases where all the necessary details are met.

Legal force of an electronic document and its mandatory attributes

This may be quite enough to resolve important issues or clarify information. However, in some cases, you need to not only send an email, but also make it official.

The question arises, in this case, is it email official document. Read also Most large Russian enterprises and organizations will definitely interpret the letter as official.

However, in order for such a letter to truly have official status, it must contain the above details. Naturally, the presence of an electronic digital signature will give such a message the necessary legal force.
In the absence of one, some doubts about authenticity may arise.

An electronic document is not just created on a computer

Attention

What documents must be immediately drawn up on paper? Regardless of whether the enterprise has an electronic document management system installed, all personnel documents for which labor legislation, employment contract, the collective labor agreement requires the consent of the employee, must be stored on paper, with the signatures of authorized persons and the employee. Since if you store personnel orders in electronic form, and separately the employee’s acquaintance receipt in paper form, then if a conflict arises, the employee can say that he was not acquainted with the document that was properly stored in the organization.

And it will be impossible to prove the opposite. We can make an unambiguous conclusion that at this stage a complete transition to electronic personnel document management is impossible.

Another problem is the need to ensure the legal validity of electronic documents. But the further we go, the more often this problem can be solved as an ordinary organizational and technical problem.

Thanks to the fact that a law regulating the use of electronic digital signature (EDS) has finally been adopted, it has become possible to give electronic documents legal status. According to the Federal Law “On Electronic Digital Signature” Federal Law “On Electronic Digital Signature” dated January 10, 2002, Article 4-12 // Collection of Legislation of the Russian Federation.

2002. No. 2. Art. 127., an electronic digital signature in an electronic document is equivalent to a handwritten signature in a paper document, subject to certain conditions.

Legal force of an electronic document

If, in accordance with the law or business custom, a document must be certified by a seal, then an electronic document signed with an enhanced electronic signature is recognized as equivalent to a paper document signed with a handwritten signature and certified by a seal. This rule is established by parts 2 and 3 of Art. 6 of Law No. 63-FZ.
In other words, a simple and unqualified electronic signature corresponds to an autograph, and an enhanced signature corresponds to authenticating a document with a signature and seal. Thus, an enhanced unqualified signature can be recognized as both an analogue of a signature and an analogue of a signature with a seal.
Electronic document in court Documents sent via Email, in accordance with the above classification, can be called signed with a simple electronic signature.

The concept of an electronic document, its legal force

There is structured information in electronic form that cannot be changed after it is certified by an electronic signature. If information about the same transaction is printed on paper and signed by both parties to the contract, you will get a second document about the same thing.

These two documents will be equivalent. But where is the guarantee that they are identical? On what basis should only one of the two documents be recorded? And which one exactly? In general, you cannot do without collisions. The only area where there is a clear understanding on this issue is the turnover of invoices.

An invoice is issued on paper if the buyer, for any reason, has not received an electronic invoice. Here the conjunction “and” in the wording of the norm works: an invoice can be issued both electronically and in paper form.

Legal force of the document

Mandatory details of an electronic document The composition of the mandatory details is established by the following regulations: - Federal laws: dated July 27, 2006 N 149-FZ “On information, information technologies and information protection”; dated January 10, 2002 N 1-FZ “On Electronic Digital Signature” (as amended on November 8, 2007); dated November 21, 1996 N 129-FZ “On Accounting” (as amended on November 23, 2009); — Resolutions of federal executive authorities and GOSTs: Goskomstat of Russia dated 01/05/2004 N 1 “On approval of unified forms of primary accounting documentation for recording labor and its payment”; GOST R 6.30-2003 “Unified documentation systems. Unified system of organizational and administrative documentation.
Documentation requirements." For electronic documents, GOST 6.10.4-84 “Unified documentation systems” applies.

Giving an electronic document legal force

Info

No notary will simply certify the brought printout. Here is a letter asking for help posted on several forums on the Internet.

I'm fired. I file a lawsuit (up to 3 months) by mail against the employer for wage arrears (2007 and 2008) - there is no money to travel to the location of work. I send it to the court by mail along with statement of claim copies of 2-NDFL forms sent by mail from the place of work and copies of acceptance/dismissal orders.
During my work, I repeatedly received orders and scanned copies of documents by email. How can this information from email be presented as evidence in court? The notary refuses to certify my printed correspondence.
What can you advise in such a situation? Of course, the notary will refuse to certify a document taken from someone unknown.

Electronic document as evidence in court

If it is assumed that such work will be carried out constantly, it is better to provide both server-based recognition for the purposes of full-text search, and copies of the recognition program installed at user workstations and integrated with the client part of the EDMS. In this case, the user will be able to independently convert document images into text with the necessary options and save the text in the format he needs.

The stage of migrating existing documents from paper to electronic form is perhaps one of the most dangerous. If it is not planned carefully, you may encounter problems that can undo all previous work and fail the entire project.

If an organization has a paper archive of documents, then trying to find their electronic copies throughout the network to create an electronic version of the archive is a hopeless task.

A paper document has legal force if it contains the required details and a handwritten signature individual and in some cases printing. What gives legal force to an electronic document?

What is electronic document management?

Electronic document management (or EDI) is the exchange of documents in electronic form via the Internet, the company’s internal network or other means. EDI significantly speeds up the exchange of documents and settlements of transactions between counterparties, and allows you to save on office and postal costs.

In 2011, the Russian Ministry of Finance legalized the exchange of invoices in electronic form using digital signature; previously - digital signature. This was the impetus for the spread of legally significant electronic document management. Electronic document management in Russia is regulated by:

• Federal Law No. 402-FZ “On Accounting” dated December 6, 2011,
• Federal Law No. 63-FZ “On Electronic Signatures” dated 04/06/2011,
• Order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia N 174n “On approval of the Procedure for issuing and receiving invoices in electronic form via telecommunication channels using an enhanced qualified electronic signature” dated November 10, 2015.

What gives an electronic document legal force?

A document created on a computer or a scan of a paper document is not yet legally binding. For different types documents have different guarantees of legal force.

Formalized documents

Such documents include invoices, reporting, an employment contract with a remote employee, and a list of required documents. They are given legal force by:

• compliance with the format approved by the state,
• transfer of documents in accordance with the regulations,
• qualified electronic signature (hereinafter referred to as CES).

Electronic documents signed by CEP are by default equivalent to those signed personally and have legal force.

Unformalized documents

This category includes all other documents: contracts, powers of attorney, letters, etc. The state does not regulate the format of these documents. There are two ways to give them legal force:

1. Sign . As in the case of formalized documents, the EPC by default gives the document legal force.
2. Sign simple or .

Additionally, EDF participants must enter into an agreement on the mutual recognition of the legal force of these types of electronic signatures (Article 4 No. 63-FZ “On Electronic Signatures”). This agreement must specify the requirements for details, form and format of documents, and type of signature. If there is such an agreement, electronic documents will be considered legally significant and any authority, including courts and the Federal Tax Service, will accept them as personally signed.

How to sign a document with an electronic signature?

The ability to create a signature for an electronic document is implemented in many programs:

1. IN specialized systems for electronic document management and reporting (for example, Kontur.Diadoc, Kontur.Extern).
2. In various information systems (for example, on the State Services portal, on electronic trading platforms).
3. In accounting systems (for example, SAP, Oracle, MS Dynamics and others).
4. IN computer programs for working with electronic documents (for example, Microsoft Word, PDF).
5. In special programs for creating and

And with electronic document management, do these documents have legal force? how to confirm the fact of shipment? thank you in advance!

How to organize document flow in accounting. Legal force of electronic document management. What needs to be reflected in the accounting policy about electronic document management.

Question: And with electronic document management, do these documents have legal force? how to confirm the fact of shipment?

Answer: Yes, documents signed with an electronic signature (qualified, simple, unqualified) are recognized as equivalent to documents on paper and have the force of paper documents with a handwritten signature.

This statement follows from the provisions of paragraphs 1 and 2 of Art. 6 of the Law on Electronic Signatures dated April 6, 2011 No. 63-FZ.

Rationale

How to organize document flow in accounting

Electronic documents

How to prepare and certify an electronic primary document

Primary documents can be prepared both on paper and in electronic form (Part 5 of Article 9 of the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ). The latter option is possible if the documents are certified with an electronic signature ().

The format for submitting a document on the transfer of goods during trade operations in electronic form was approved by Order of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated November 30, 2015 No. ММВ-7-10/551. The format for submitting a document on the transfer of work results (a document on the provision of services) in electronic form was approved by Order of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated November 30, 2015 No. ММВ-7-10/552. These formats are relevant both in business activities and when submitting documents at the request of the inspection in electronic form.

What if an organization draws up documents not in the format approved by the Federal Tax Service of Russia? Then submit the forms to the inspectors on paper - certify the copies with a note that the documents are signed with an electronic signature.

Similar explanations are given in the letter of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated November 10, 2015 No. ED-4-15/19671.

For details on how to submit documents to tax inspectors, see:

1. How to submit documents at the request of inspectors during a desk tax audit;
2. How to submit documents at the request of inspectors during an on-site tax audit.

Electronic signature

Exist the following types electronic signature:

1. simple;
2. reinforced unskilled;
3. reinforced qualified.

What electronic signature to use for primary accounting documents is established by federal accounting standards (clause 4, part 3, article 21 of Law No. 402-FZ of December 6, 2011). But currently there is no such standard. Therefore, you can sign the primary document using any electronic signature.

A document that is signed simple or strengthened is not qualified signature, has the force of a paper document with a handwritten signature. But only if there is an agreement between the counterparties to verify these signatures. Similar conclusions follow from paragraphs and Article 6 of Law No. 63-FZ dated April 6, 2011 and are confirmed by letters from the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated January 13, 2016 No. 03-03-06/1/259, dated May 5, 2015 No. 07- 01-06/25701, dated August 4, 2015 No. 03-03-06/44905, Federal Tax Service of Russia dated May 19, 2016 No. SD-4-3/8904.

Let us note that previously the Russian Ministry of Finance took a different position: primary documents need to be certified only with an enhanced qualified signature. If you use a simple or enhanced unqualified signature, then the documents cannot be accepted for accounting and tax accounting. Such clarifications were given by the Ministry of Finance of Russia in letters dated April 12, 2013 No. 03-03-07/12250, dated December 25, 2012 No. 03-03-06/2/139, dated May 28, 2012 No. 03-03- 06/2/67, dated July 7, 2011 No. 03-03-06/1/409.

Taking into account that in later letters the Russian Ministry of Finance softened its position, digital documents can be certified with any electronic signature. However, it is safer to use a strong qualified signature.

What needs to be reflected in the accounting policy about electronic document management

If an organization decides to process primary documents electronically, this method of maintaining documentation must be reflected in the accounting policy. In particular, the accounting policy needs to record:
- list of documents participating in electronic document flow;
- list of employees who have the right to sign electronic documents;
- way electronic exchange documents (with or without the involvement of an electronic document management operator);
- procedure for storing electronic documents;
- method of presenting documents upon request tax office(electronically or on paper).

But the formats of electronic documents that the organization uses do not need to be reflected in the accounting policies. This was confirmed by the Federal Tax Service of Russia in a letter dated November 10, 2015 No. ED-4-15/19671. Although in this letter we're talking about about accounting policies for tax purposes, the conclusion of the Federal Tax Service of Russia is also relevant for accounting policy for accounting purposes.

Federal Law of April 6, 2011 No. 63-FZ On Electronic Signatures

Article 6. Conditions for recognizing electronic documents signed with an electronic signature as equivalent to paper documents signed with a handwritten signature

1. Information in electronic form, signed with a qualified electronic signature, is recognized as an electronic document equivalent to a paper document signed with a handwritten signature, and can be used in any legal relationship in accordance with the law Russian Federation, except if federal laws or regulatory legal acts adopted in accordance with them establish a requirement for the need to draw up a document exclusively on paper.

2. Information in electronic form, signed with a simple electronic signature or a non-qualified electronic signature, is recognized as an electronic document equivalent to a paper document signed with a handwritten signature, in cases established by federal laws, normative legal acts adopted in accordance with them, or an agreement between participants in an electronic interactions. Regulatory legal acts and agreements between participants in electronic interaction, establishing cases of recognizing electronic documents signed with a non-qualified electronic signature as equivalent to paper documents signed with a handwritten signature, must provide for a procedure for verifying the electronic signature. Regulatory legal acts and agreements between participants in electronic interaction establishing cases of recognizing electronic documents signed with a simple electronic signature as equivalent to paper documents signed with a handwritten signature must comply with the requirements of Article 9 of this Federal Law

This article will discuss the use of electronic document management based on digital signatures in commercial activities in the relationships of commercial organizations, provided that these organizations do not have the prerequisites to trust each other “at their word”, and any result of their interaction is documented in order to have in future evidence base in order to be able to defend both their rights and the obligations of the opposite party.

Such relationships between organizations provide wide scope for the use of digital signatures as an analogue of a handwritten signature. It will become unnecessary to pay attention to the fact that all these electronic papers require legal significance so that each party is confident that the other party will fulfill its obligations. Although, what is the legal significance of an electronic document? Generally speaking, a legally significant electronic document is an electronic document that has these properties, such that the rights and obligations of any of the parties arising from this electronic document are protected by current legislation, in our case, the legislation of the Russian Federation.

In world practice, it is customary to ensure the legal significance of an electronic document using an electronic signature. Regulatory framework for the implementation of legally significant electronic document management based on an electronic signature when registering legal relations in the Russian Federation

Today, the current Russian legislation provides for 2 methods of implementing legally significant document flow based on digital signatures.

Method I is regulated only by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, Article 160 of which stipulates that “the use of an electronic digital signature or other analogue of a handwritten signature when making transactions is permitted in situations and in the manner provided for by the agreement parties."

Thus, 2 parties have the opportunity to sign an ordinary contract on paper stating that in their subsequent relations they will use an electronic digital signature, seal it with their own signatures and from that moment use it. Naturally, arbitrage practice demonstrated that it is necessary to stipulate a lot of subtleties in the contract, such as engineering features of using this signature, the actions of either party in the event that one of the parties does not recognize the signature as valid, etc., although in general such a mechanism has been working and has been working successfully for a very long time. By the way, agreements between organizations and banks on the implementation of electronic document management using digital signatures were based on this legal basis for a long time, however, for the standardization, unification and control of this device, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation issued a number of instructions.
However, this method has several significant disadvantages. The first of them is that if an organization intends to interact via electronic document management with all or at least half of its counterparties, then with all of them it will be necessary to conclude agreements on the use of digital signatures, which seems quite problematic. The second drawback is that, in accordance with the concluded agreements, an electronic signature of a specific specification will be used, which neither the organization itself nor its counterparties will probably ever be able to apply in relations with other partners.
As you know, the first method, based only on the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, is quite easy to use, although not very convenient. It seems unlikely that on the basis of such a device in the Russian Federation an electronic digital signature will begin to develop.

Method II is seriously more promising.

In fact, it evolves from the usual contract for the use of digital signature, which was mentioned above. Only in the second case, the provisions of such a “contract” apply not only to the parties to the contract, but also to the entire national information network, which involves not only the life and activity of thousands and millions of users, but also a change in their composition. Of course, this requires a very strong legislative framework.
The functioning of the II device is based on a number of regulations. Any of them regulates 1 or more aspects of the relationship between the parties to a transaction when they use electronic document management using digital signatures:

• Article 160 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, which allows contracts to be signed not only with a handwritten signature, but also with any other signature provided for by law or agreement of the parties (in particular electronic);
• The principle “On information, information technologies and information protection” specifies a number of basic terms, such as “information”, “electronic message”, “electronic document”, etc.
• the principle “On EDS” determines under what conditions an EDS on an electronic document is recognized as equivalent to a handwritten signature, and describes the mechanism for implementing the functioning of EDS in the information network common use.

In order to determine whether electronic papers signed with an electronic signature are protected by law today, and therefore whether they are legally significant, it is necessary to analyze 2 aspects of this issue: the legal significance of the digital signature and the legal significance of the electronic document.
As you can see, the digital signature is issued by a certification center (CA). The “On EDS” principle involves the registration of all CAs in a single state register, and the functioning of the “authorized federal body (UFO)” as the holder of the register of all CAs. Only a CA registered in the Ural Federal District can issue a certificate of such digital signature, which is equivalent to a handwritten signature.

Today there is a register, the holder of which is UFO1 (the ministry did not come up with a new name for it, for this reason it is called the Authorized Federal Body). In addition, there is a root CA made on the basis of the All-Russian State Information Center(OGIC)

2. The registry and root CA are managed by the Information Technology Agency under the Ministry of Communications and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation. Those. in fact, all the necessary technical base for the implementation of the provisions described in the law “On EDS” is ready today. In addition, this technical base is enshrined in regulations, for example, Order No. 33 specifies that a unified register of certificates is being created precisely in accordance with the Law “On Digital Signatures”.
Now any organization performing the functions of a CA can obtain a certificate from the root CA of the OGIC (subject to compliance with specific scientific requirements) and register it in the register of the Ural Federal District. If there is such a certificate certified by the root CA, the organization will be able to make and issue its own certificates, which will comply with the provisions of the law “On EDS” regarding the implementation of EDS on a public information network. Those. in fact, an electronic digital signature placed under a document using a certificate issued by a CA registered in the State Information Center must be regarded as an analogue of the handwritten signature of the certificate holder.
Although, the digital signature itself, of course, does not represent any special value. The functions of an electronic digital signature can only be implemented when it is used as an attribute of an electronic document. Therefore, you need to understand that this is an electronic document. And what regulations ensure (or do not ensure) its legal significance.
The principle “About EDS” indicates that an EDS is the equivalent of a handwritten signature if placed on an electronic document, which seems quite logical. The same principle defines an electronic document as “a document in which information is presented in electronic digital form.”

Such a formulation seems to be sufficiently free to make it possible to create and use electronic papers of any format. Although, the main regulatory act regulating the use of electronic documents is principle No. 149 “On information, information technologies and information protection.” This principle first of all introduces the concept of an electronic message into the practice of Russian legislation: an electronic message is information transmitted or received by a user of an information and telecommunications network."

Thus, principle No. 149 separates the concepts of an electronic document and an electronic message. The differences between these two concepts are discussed in article 11. law. Including paragraph 3. indicates that only this electronic message signed with an electronic signature, the electronic form of which is not excluded by law, can be considered an electronic document. In other words, if a regulatory act clearly states that a specific document must be drawn up on paper, then this document, executed electronically and signed with an electronic digital signature, will only be a copy of the paper document and will not have any legal force.
In other matters, paragraph 4 of the same article separately contains clarifications in the “conclusion” section civil contracts or registration of other legal relations." According to this paragraph, electronic messages signed with an electronic signature, created and used for the purpose of establishing the above relations, are recognized as electronic documents. In other words, in the case of concluding contracts, issuing invoices and acts in electronic form, they will be recognized as electronic documents on the basis of the above article of law No. 149.

Thus, now in the Russian Federation there is the necessary regulatory framework for the functioning of legally significant electronic document management based on digital signature, applicable when registering legal relations.

Practical use of legally significant document flow based on digital signature

The transition from conventional (paper) document flow to electronic one in the context of interaction between 2 or a certain number of organizations makes economic sense, provided that a significantly larger part of all documentation is transferred into electronic form (65-75 percent, there are other estimates). In other words, concluding contracts electronically, but continuing to draw up other primary and accounting documents in paper form seems of little use, because slight reduction in volumes paper document flow then there will be no significant benefits relative to the costs of introducing new processes.
The practice of document flow in commercial organizations in the Russian Federation is such that most of the documents are drawn up not only for the purposes of certifying legal relations, but also for taxation purposes. Let's try to consider this issue from the perspective of 2 types of accounting practiced by any commercial organization in the Russian Federation: accounting and tax. Despite the fact that acts on completed work, invoices and papers of equal importance for accounting are called primary accounting documents by the Law “On Accounting”, they are also used for tax accounting. Of course, not to mention that the document is counted twice. Rather, the document is initially recorded in accounting, and then the accounting registers are used to maintain tax records. One way or another, for the purpose of proving the correctness of calculation of the tax base, the Federal Tax Service constantly requires primary papers. WITH accounting there are no problems: it reflects the facts of economic activity, and economic activity conducted on the basis of legal relations between economic entities. Consequently, any electronic document permitted by civil law that defines any nature of legal relations between international organizations must be recognized in accounting. The situation with tax accounting is somewhat different. Tax accounting is maintained only for the purpose of correct calculation and payment of taxes and control over this process. The procedure for maintaining tax accounting is regulated not by civil law, but by tax law.
After spending short review tax legislation, it is possible to establish that, in general, the Tax Code of the Russian Federation directly prescribes tax accounting on the basis of primary accounting documents, without making any special requirements for these documents. The same was proven by letter of the Ministry of Finance No. 03-02-07/1-383 dated September 30, 2008. The exception is documentation related to VAT accounting. Article 169 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation requires the preparation of an invoice. Taking into account the fact that this document is not mentioned in civil legislation, it is a specific tax document, and its execution is regulated by tax legislation. Tax legislation does not regulate the form of the invoice. So, the question arises: will the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation accept an electronic invoice for tax accounting purposes and, as a consequence, for the purposes of calculating VAT? The Federal Tax Service itself has not yet given an answer to this question. If the Federal Tax Service answers this question in the negative, this means that all invoices must continue to be issued in paper form.
How significant is the share of invoices in the total volume of documents? If we consider a simple set of documents for one transaction, we will get a similar set:
1. Contract.
2. Certificate of work completed or invoice for the supply of material assets.
3. Invoice.
Thus, in general, in organizations reporting VAT (the majority of all organizations in the Russian Federation), the volume of invoices is at least 1/3 of all mandatory documents.
One way or another, it should be noted that in the letter mentioned above, the Federal Tax Service promises to sort out this issue very soon and give a clear answer: is it possible or not to accept an electronic invoice for accounting. Also, taking into account the government’s policy towards introducing electronic document management within all government agencies and departments, and the promise to begin providing government services electronically in 2010, it makes sense to expect that the issue will be resolved in favor of an electronic invoice.
The example with an invoice is by no means the only one. There are also a lot of special documents, the form of which is regulated by certain sections of the legislation of the Russian Federation. Moreover, we must not forget about international transactions, in which it is necessary to take into account some provisions of the law “On EDS” and Law No. 149, and the national legislation of other states in the field of electronic document management.

conclusions

Summarizing the material presented above, we can conclude that today in the Russian Federation there is the necessary regulatory framework for the functioning of legally significant electronic document management on the basis of an electronic digital signature, applicable when formalizing legal relations, although for the purposes of practical use of electronic document management (and therefore, extracting advantages from it) You need to keep in mind the lack of a legally mandated electronic form for some special documents. In my opinion, despite the restrictions mentioned above, in a number of sectors of the Russian economy the current situation creates quite favorable conditions for the introduction of electronic document management systems based on digital signatures in order to formalize legal relations among economic entities.

New information has been released!

On May 12, the Order of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated March 5, 2012 was published, which approved the formats of electronic invoices, purchase and sales books and a journal for recording issued and received invoices. The order comes into force 10 days after publication.
According to the law, electronic invoices can be exchanged in accordance with the procedure approved by order of the Federal Tax Service, in established formats, through specialized electronic document management operators, whose activities are also regulated by order of the tax department. To date, all these orders have been published and either have already entered into force or will enter into force in less than two weeks. It will be possible to issue a legally significant electronic invoice as early as May 23.

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