It is recognized as an electronic document. Formats and forms of electronic documents. What is the difference? How much do electronic documents cost

Article 6. Conditions for the recognition of electronic documents signed electronic signature, equivalent to documents on paper, 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 for the case when federal laws or regulatory legal acts adopted in accordance with them require the need to draw up a document exclusively on paper.

2. Information in electronic form, signed with a simple electronic signature or an unqualified electronic signature, is recognized as an electronic document equivalent to a paper document signed with a handwritten signature, in cases established by federal laws, regulatory 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 that establish cases for recognizing electronic documents signed with an unqualified electronic signature as equivalent to paper documents signed with a handwritten signature should provide for the procedure for verifying an electronic signature. Normative legal acts and agreements between participants in electronic interaction establishing cases of recognition of 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.

3. If, in accordance with federal laws, regulatory legal acts adopted in accordance with them, or business practice, a document must be certified by a seal, an electronic document signed with an enhanced electronic signature and recognized as equivalent to a paper document signed with a handwritten signature is recognized as equivalent to a document on hard copy, signed with a handwritten signature and certified by a seal. Federal laws, regulatory legal acts adopted in accordance with them, or an agreement between participants in electronic interaction may provide for additional requirements for an electronic document in order to recognize it as equivalent to a document on paper, certified by a seal.

3.1. If federal laws and regulatory legal acts adopted in accordance with them provide that a document must be signed by several persons, an electronic document must be signed by persons (authorized officials body, organization) that produced this document, with the type of signature established by the legislation of the Russian Federation for signing a prepared electronic document with an electronic signature.

4. Several interconnected electronic documents (package of electronic documents) can be signed with one electronic signature. When signing a package of electronic documents with an electronic signature, each of the electronic documents included in this package is considered to be signed with an electronic signature of the type that was used to sign the package of electronic documents. The exception is cases when the package of electronic documents by the person who signed the package includes electronic documents created by other persons (bodies, organizations) and signed by them with the type of electronic signature that is established by the legislation of the Russian Federation for signing such documents. In these cases, the electronic document included in the package is considered signed by the person who originally created such an electronic document, with the type of electronic signature with which this document was signed during creation, regardless of the type of electronic signature signed by the package of electronic documents.

The Tax Code of the Russian Federation (relevant for the "simplifiers" as well) states that expenses taken into account for tax purposes must be confirmed by documents drawn up in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation. The Tax Code does not establish a specific list of documents that confirm the expenses incurred by the taxpayer. Therefore, confirmation of the data tax accounting are primary documents that meet the requirements of accounting legislation (the Ministry of Finance drew attention to this nuance in letters dated 06/22/2016 No. In other words, the "primary" in addition to the main function - accounting and registration of the facts of economic life - plays an important role in tax accounting. Despite the fact that a lot of materials are devoted to the problem of processing primary documents (including in our journal), questions always arise on this topic. We will give answers to some of them today, taking into account the clarifications of the official bodies.

Rules for issuing primary documents

When compiling primary documents, an economic entity must first of all comply with the rules established by Art. 9 of the Federal Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ (hereinafter - Law No. 402-FZ). It is in this article that the requirement is fixed to draw up each (!) Fact of economic life as a primary accounting document. In addition, the named article defines a list required details that such a document should contain (clause 2):

Title of the document;

date of preparation of the document;

the name of the economic entity that prepared the document;

the value of the natural and (or) monetary measurement of the fact of economic life, indicating the units of measurement;

the name of the position of the person (persons) who made (have made) the transaction, operation and responsible (responsible) for its execution;

signatures of the persons who made the transaction, operation and those responsible for its execution, indicating the surname and initials or other details necessary to identify these persons.

Part 5 of Art. 9 of Law No. 402-FZ provides for the possibility of compiling an accounting document in electronic form.

Essential point : accounting legislation provides for the possibility of issuing primary accounting documents on paper and/or in in electronic format. It turns out that Law No. 402-FZ does not require concurrent primary paper and electronic documents. In a word, an economic entity has the right to independently choose in what form to draw up accounting documents and exchange them with counterparties - in paper or electronic form, since none of them is named as a priority by Law No. 402-FZ (provided that they are executed and signed with taking into account the requirements of the current legislation). True, the requirements of tax and accounting legislation are different.

Nuances of registration of electronic primary documents

In order for a document drawn up in electronic form to be equivalent to a paper document, it must contain all the required details of the primary accounting document (their list is given above) and an electronic signature (ES).

Recall that the current legislation provides for the use of three types of signatures for signing electronic documents - simple, enhanced unskilled and enhanced qualified.

By virtue of paragraph 3 of Art. 21 of Law No. 402-FZ types of electronic signature used to sign documents accounting, are installed federal standards accounting. However, the standard, the provisions of which would determine with which signature (out of the three above) it is necessary to sign electronic primary documents, has not yet been adopted. The current RAS does not say anything about the types of electronic signature that must be used to sign primary documents.

In this regard, the Ministry of Finance, for the purposes of accounting and taxation, allows the possibility of signing an "electronic" primary any provided by Law No. 402-FZ with an electronic signature (see, for example, Letter No. 03-03-06/2/53176 dated September 12, 2016).

For accounting, this assumption of financiers is perhaps fair.

Note: to organize the storage of accounting documents, including primary accounting documents, accounting registers, drawn up in the form of an electronic document signed with an electronic signature, the Regulation on documents and workflow in accounting, approved by the USSR Ministry of Finance dated July 29, 1983 No. 105 (in part, not contradicting the relevant legislative and other regulatory legal acts issued later), and the Rules approved by Order of the Ministry of Culture of Russia dated March 31, 2015 No. 526 (see Appendix to Letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated January 22, 2016 No. 07-04-09 / 2355).

But not for tax purposes. On this issue, one should take into account the recent clarifications of officials of the Ministry of Finance in Letter No. 03-03-06/1/85248 dated December 20, 2017. They stressed that relations in the field of the use of electronic signatures in civil law transactions regulated by Federal Law No. 63-FZ dated April 6, 2011. Thus, the conditions for recognizing electronic documents certified by ES as equivalent to paper documents containing the handwritten signature of the persons who issued them are defined in Art. 6 of Law No. 63-FZ.

For example, from paragraph 1 of the named article it follows that an electronic document signed qualified ES , is accepted for execution or for information on a par with paper document in almost all cases , except for the situation when the requirement to draw up a paper document is enshrined in federal laws and regulatory legal acts. And paragraph 2 defines the conditions for the recognition of an electronic document signed simple or unqualified ES , equivalent to a paper document in an agreement between participants in electronic interaction. Two conditions:

1. When using simple EP the agreement must contain the rules (Article 9 of Law No. 63-FZ) for determining the person signing the electronic document, as well as the obligation of the person creating and (or) using the simple ES key to keep it confidential.

2. When using unqualified ES the agreement should provide for the procedure for verifying the electronic signature.

Thus, when organizing electronic document management between the "simplifier" and its counterparties, the parties have the right to use any kind electronic signature (for example, a simple electronic signature). For interaction with counterparties (drawing up documents on transactions), such a signature is quite enough. At the same time, the Tax Code not contained there are no additional requirements for the execution of primary documents in electronic form.

In the same time cases , in which information in electronic form, signed by a simple ES, recognized electronic document, equivalent document on paper, signed with a handwritten signature, not defined in the tax code (See Letter No. 03-03-06/1/85248). But! It expressly names a number of cases where taxpayers are required to apply qualified ES , For example:

during electronic interaction with tax authorities (sending information messages) (clauses 5.1, 7, article 23 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation);

when sending applications for the return (offset) of taxes (Article 78, Tax Code of the Russian Federation);

when submitting tax returns, reports on insurance premiums (clauses 1, 5, article 80, clause 1, article 431 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).

Based on the above norms in the aggregate, the Ministry of Finance in Letter No. 03-03-06 / 1 / 85248 came to the conclusion that a document executed in electronic form and signed with a qualified electronic signature may be a document confirming the expenses incurred by the taxpayer, in cases where federal laws or other regulatory legal acts do not establish a requirement to draw up such a document on paper.

Please note: electronic document signed qualified ES, is a proper documentary evidence of the taxpayer's expenses taken into account for taxation. But only if the current legislation does not provide for the mandatory preparation of a paper document.

Thus, for the purposes of tax accounting, only one of the three possible ES has a clear priority - reinforced qualified EP . This means that the “simplifier” does not have the right to choose the application of one or another type of ES for tax accounting.

Note: The Tax Code of the Russian Federation provides for the right of an official tax office conducting a tax audit, to demand from the audited person the documents necessary for the audit. At the same time, paragraph 2 stipulates the possibility of submitting electronic documents (through TCS channels). However, only those documents can be submitted in electronic form, the transmission formats of which through the TCS channels are approved by the Federal Tax Service (see Letter of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated February 9, 2016 No. ED-4-2 / [email protected]). For example, an agreement (agreement, contract), including additions (changes); act of acceptance and delivery of works (services); consignment note; consignment note (TORG-12). Accordingly, if electronic format to transfer one or another primary document confirming the taxpayer's expenses is not approved by the Federal Tax Service, such a document is submitted on paper in the form of a certified copy (see Letter of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated February 29, 2016 No. SD-3-3/808).

Is it legal to facsimile on primary documents?

It was previously mentioned that one of the mandatory details when drawing up a primary document is the signature of the person (s) provided for in paragraph 2 of Art. 9 of Law No. 402-FZ, indicating the surname and initials or other details necessary to identify this person (persons). The method of affixing such a signature - in one's own hand (mechanically) or by facsimile - is not specified by Law No. 402-FZ. At the same time, it does not contain a direct ban on the use of a facsimile signature when processing primary documents. After all, the advantage of the latter method is undeniable, especially in a situation where the taxpayer has to draw up a large number of “primary documents” every day.

For a substantive conversation, we believe it makes sense to explain what a facsimile is. For example, in the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation of September 27, 2011 No. 4134/11, the concept of “facsimile” is defined as a cliché, that is, the exact reproduction of a signature by means of photography and printing. And in clause 2 of the Instruction on the procedure for the manufacture, accounting, storage and destruction of seals, stamps and facsimiles, as well as their issuance and use in the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, it is stipulated that a facsimile is an analogue the original personal signature of the person, made by mechanical means.

Supervisory authorities, as a rule, object to the use of facsimiles on primary documents. Another reminder of this was made in the recent Letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated December 08, 2017 No. 03-03-06/1/81951. Earlier, in Letter No. 03-03-06/20808 dated April 13, 2015, financiers also pointed out that the current legislation does not provide for the use of a facsimile signature when processing primary documents, they must bear the personal signature of the responsible person.

However, officials do not substantiate their ban in any way, they only insist that the document should contain personal signature of the person who issued it. True, the mention of a personal signature was contained in Art. 9 of Law No. 129-FZ, the predecessor of Law No. 402-FZ. In the current normative act refers to the signature without mentioning its personal affiliation. But the reference to the norm that has lost its force does not bother the financiers at all.

However, even if the indication that a personal signature is required on a document in paragraphs. 7 p. 2 art. 9 of Law No. 402-FZ, this indication, in our opinion (taking into account the above definitions of the concept of "facsimile"), cannot be unambiguously interpreted in such a way that the signature must be affixed by hand or mechanically.

Not by chance arbitrage practice on this issue is ambiguous.

For example, the possibility of using a facsimile signature for issuing a “primary” is indicated in the Ruling of the RF Armed Forces dated March 29, 2017 No. 307-KG17-1822 in case No. A42-3320 / 2015. The absence in the tax legislation of a ban on facsimile reproduction of signatures on primary documents is stated in the Decree of the AC VVO dated February 9, 2016 No. F01-6109/2015 in case No. A29-3865/2015.

But there are judicial acts stating that primary documents signed using a facsimile cannot be considered documents drawn up in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation. Thus, the arbitrators of the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region, in Resolution No. F05-3258/2015 dated 04/06/2015 in case No. A40-4051/14, noted that the use of a facsimile does not apply to the proper methods of processing primary and tax accounting documents. They are echoed by the judges of the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region, who indicated in the Resolution of May 10, 2016 No. F05-5570 / 2016 in case No. A40-5400 / 15 that accounting legislation provides for a direct ban on the use of facsimile reproduction of the head's signature when drawing up primary documents that entail financial consequences. The fact that accounting documents must contain the personal signatures of the relevant persons is also reported in the Decree of the AS UO dated 08.19.2016 No. F09-7693 / 16 in case No. A71-6027 / 2015 (Determination of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated 12.19.2016 No. 309-KG16 -16803 upheld).

For our part, we add that the mere fact of facsimile signature of primary documents cannot be sufficient grounds for asserting that there is no documentary evidence of the expenses incurred by the taxpayer. But in any case, the tax authorities will pay attention to such documents (see, for example, Resolution of the AC of the Central Organ of November 16, 2017 No. F10-4607 / 2017 in case No. A09-15640 / 2016).

Note: for the formation of tax accounting data, properly drawn up documents confirming the expenses incurred by the “simplified” are required. In this regard, it is safer for a “simplified” person to put a “live” personal signature on primary documents, otherwise claims from the tax authorities are possible and their position will have to be defended in court.

Primary documents: “replacement cannot be fixed”

In Letter No. 03-03-10/69280 dated October 23, 2017, the Ministry of Finance noted that Law No. 402-FZ not provided complete replacement of the primary accounting document previously accepted for accounting with a new, correct document in case of detection of errors in the primary document. However, there is no prohibition on such actions either. By the way, the Tax Code also does not prohibit entering missing information into primary documents and correcting them by completely replacing them with new documents with the same details in accordance with the requirements of the law. The AS PO drew attention to this nuance in the Resolution dated May 24, 2017 No. F06-20469/2017 in case No. A72-5811/2016.

The arbitrators consider such a substitution possible. Thus, in the Decree of the Nineteenth Arbitration Court of Appeal dated February 21, 2013 in case No. A64-3569 / 2012, it is noted that the law (in this case we are talking about Law No. 129-FZ) does not exclude the right of the subject and his counterparties to make corrections to the primary documents drawn up in violation of the established procedure or containing inaccurate information about the business transactions performed, and does not prohibit the entity from eliminating the inconsistency of primary documents with the requirements of accounting legislation by making corrections to an incorrectly executed document, reissuing it, replacing it with a document issued in in due course and submit reissued primary documents to tax authority or to the court to justify the legality of the costs incurred.

Thus, if not a replacement, then corrections and corrections to the “primary” are possible. A similar right of subjects is enshrined in paragraph 7 of Art. 9 of Law No. 402-FZ. The same rule stipulates that not every document is subject to correction. For example, it is not possible to change cash and bank documents (clause 4.7 of Bank of Russia Ordinance No. 3210-U dated March 11, 2014, clause 16 of the Regulation on Accounting and financial statements in RF).

At the same time, the mechanism for making corrections to primary documents in paragraph 7 of Art. 9 of Law No. 402-FZ spelled out vaguely (which eventually became the reason for disputes about the procedure for correcting the "primary document"), it establishes only the minimum requirements for the content of the corrected primary document. In fact, this paragraph sets out the basic rules for the corrective method of making corrections, the procedure for which is given in sec. 4 of the Regulations on documents and workflow in accounting (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations) - corrections must be accompanied by an indication of the date they were made and information about the person who made them.

Meanwhile, the absence in Law No. 402-FZ of a detailed procedure for making corrections to primary accounting documents allows entities to develop such rules on their own and fix them in accounting policies. In practice, there are two common ways to make corrections to the "primary".

* This method, provided for in Sec. 4 of the Regulation applies to documents drawn up manually or automatically (that is, using specialized accounting programs, for example, 1C). In the latter case, despite the electronic method of creating a document, it is, in fact, not such, since it is used in the subject's workflow as a regular paper one.

** This method should not be used when correcting double-sided documents, since the changes must be made to both copies. A unilateral change in information in primary documents without the mutual will of the parties is contrary to the law and does not entail legal consequences (see, for example, the Resolution of the First Arbitration Court of Appeal dated June 30, 2015 in case No. A43-27322 / 2014). It is also inconvenient when making several corrections to the document - in this case, the document becomes unreadable.

* The named method is based on the method of making corrections by analogy with the approved procedure for compiling corrected invoices. The name - a new (corrective) document - is taken from the Recommendations of the NRBU Foundation BMC R-41/2013-KpR "Introduction of Corrections to Primary Documents". True, according to the meaning of the analyzed question and taking into account the analogy used with invoices, in this case it is more correct to speak of a new (corrected) document. In fact, with this method, a new primary document is compiled to replace the incorrect one.

Essential point : The above methods of making corrections apply only to paper "primary". Errors in electronic documents, due to the technical features of their compilation, cannot be corrected in a corrective way. the only possible way their elimination is the preparation of a new (corrective) electronic document.

Connecting traditional office work with electronic document management is not always easy. In the article you will find answers to the five most popular questions about electronic documents. We will tell you what an electronic document is, when it can and should be transferred to paper, how to make the electronic document exchange legally significant, how to issue an electronic document as an attachment to a paper letter, and how to store electronic documents.

QUESTION 1: WHAT IS AN ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT?

An electronic document spends all of its life cycle- from creation to destruction - in electronic form. A printed electronic document - like a scanned paper one - is just a copy of the original.

AT last years the theory and practice of office work seek to "make friends" electronic and paper documents in order to keep up with the document flow that is rapidly leaving the online space and at the same time save it legal significance. For example, there are several variants of an e-mail, of which only one is a real electronic document:

a letter signed with an electronic signature is a real electronic document;
a message sent by e-mail is not a document, but it can be one, provided that the participants in the communication have agreed on this;
a scanned copy of a letter on paper is not an electronic document, but if the sender and recipient have agreed that the exchange of such copies has legal effect, then such a copy sent by e-mail can be equated to an e-mail. We will talk about this in more detail in the answer to the third question.

QUESTION 2: WHICH MEDIA TO WORK WITH ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS ON?

Work with electronic documents can be carried out both online and on paper. Of course, it is easier and faster to exchange electronic documents using e-mail or an electronic document management system (hereinafter referred to as EDMS), but this is not always possible. The result is paper copies of electronic documents.

print email to work on it, you can, but do not forget: if you are exchanging letters with an addressee on an electronic platform, then the answer to this letter must be electronic. Moreover: a citizen may demand to send him an answer to his appeal by e-mail.

The internal rules of the organization may state that a certain document exists only in electronic form. As a rule, memos are the first to be displayed online. Employees exchange them in EDMS, cloud services or by e-mail.

However, there are rules prescribing that electronic documents be printed out in order to be placed in the case on paper.

QUESTION 3: HOW TO MAKE LEGALLY SIGNIFICANT DOCUMENT FLOW USING ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS?

Electronic documents are signed with electronic digital signatures (hereinafter - EDS). At the same time, only an enhanced qualified EDS, that is, registered in a certification center accredited by the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of Russia, is an absolute analogue of a handwritten one. It can be used in communications with government agencies. Organizations can communicate with each other using documents signed by any type of EDS: enhanced qualified, enhanced unskilled or simple. What kind of EDS to use must be fixed in the agreement.

A fragment of the agreement on the use of electronic signatures by its parties is given in Example 1.

If desired, the parties may stipulate in the agreement that messages in mail clients and instant messengers, sms messages have legal force.

QUESTION 4: HOW DO I ATTACH AN ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT TO A PAPER LETTER?

Packages of documents are sent from the organization with cover letters. Electronic documents are no exception. But sometimes you need to send a cover letter with several paper and several electronic attachments. In this case, you first need to prepare an electronic application: burn it on a CD or flash card. Then write a cover letter. Lastly, place an insert in an envelope with a disk or flash drive.

Main props cover letter- requisite 19 "Application mark".

Let's give examples of designing a cover letter (Example 2) and a disc cover (Example 3).

QUESTION 5: HOW TO STORE ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS?

The main principle of storing electronic documents is no discrimination by media! The archival rules are the same for both paper and electronic files. However, there are some features for storing electronic documents. They are specified in the Rules for the organization of storage, acquisition, accounting and use of documents of the Archival Fund of the Russian Federation and other documents in the bodies state power, local governments and organizations (hereinafter - the Rules 2015).

An electronic document is unloaded from the program in which it was created and saved in an immutable format before being sent to storage: The 2015 Regulations recommend PDF/A, but the organization will have to purchase software to work with him. The optimal format for saving electronic documents, which is suitable for many organizations, is PDF.

An electronic file is recorded on a separate electronic medium. The best option is a CD with the ability to write once. The 2015 rules require recording an electronic file on two disks: one copy is a working copy, the second is the main one. This applies only to cases of permanent and long-term (over 10 years) storage periods. If the file has a five-year retention period, then it can be left out of the archive by simply saving it in an unchanged format. If such a file still needs to be transferred for storage, then it will be enough to burn it on one disk.

A cover is drawn up for each case (Example 4).

Electronic cases on disks are transferred to the archive in accordance with the procedure adopted by the organization.

SUMMARY

Electronic documents from creation to destruction exist in electronic form.
You can work with electronic documents on any medium.
Organizations establish the rules for the exchange of electronic documents in an agreement among themselves.
An electronic document may be attached to a paper letter. The application is drawn up in accordance with GOST R 7.0.97. System of standards on information, librarianship and publishing. Organizational and administrative documentation. Documentation requirements.
Electronic documents are transferred to the archive of the organization on CDs, issued in accordance with the Rules 2015.

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 legislation of the Russian Federation, except if federal laws or adopted in accordance with their regulatory legal acts establish the requirement for the need to draw up a document exclusively on paper.

(see text in previous edition)

3.1. If federal laws and regulatory legal acts adopted in accordance with them provide that a document must be signed by several persons, an electronic document must be signed by the persons (authorized officials of the body, organization) who prepared this document, with the type of signature that is established by the legislation of the Russian Federation for signing the prepared electronic document with an electronic signature.