Electronic digital signature (EDS) in Ukraine is nothing new. Every day entrepreneurs use it when working with the Bank, and for electronic reporting to the tax office and other authorities. Now the scope of EDS is expanding, and one of these new opportunities is the signing of contracts, acts and various documents in electronic form, writes AIN.
EDS is an analogue of the usual signature in the digital world of the Internet. Electronic signature saves time and money: it is not necessary to print the contract and agreed to forward the paper version, and then buy large cupboards for storage of all documents in the folder.
In Ukraine, the use of electronic signature is regulated by two main legal acts: the Laws of Ukraine “On electronic digital signature” and “On electronic documents and electronic document circulation”. There are still regulations, but they mostly relate to issues of certification centers on the issuance of keys and the use of electronic signature in government.
The tax there is no legitimate reason to require paper copies of documents as required by law to provide copies without specifying their type. Therefore, electronic copies will be sufficient.
Moreover, the courts clearly understand that a paper copy of an electronic document — only its graphical display and not the original. The electronic document is data that can be read by electronic means (article 5 of the Law of Ukraine “On electronic documents and electronic document flow”). Therefore, all of the printouts, on the contrary, is a violation of the law: such “copy”, in fact, are not copies of electronic documents.
It is not so. First of all, it is necessary to distinguish documents with digital signature and without such signature. As a rule, difficulties arise with documents without a digital signature because it is difficult to determine who sent a particular document, and given this person the appropriate authority.
But with the documents certified by a digital signature, such problems do not arise. Indeed, at first, the courts have treated the practice of application of such documents is skeptical, pointing out that the written form and the electronic form is not the same thing. And since the Civil code requires to sign documents in original (hard copy) in electronic form they are unacceptable. However, an appeal against the results of such a position treats that contracts with the use of EDS is an appropriate means of securing the will of the parties. Thus, the problems with use of DS today, no.
If at the beginning really had problems in the practical application of EDS, now no problem. Besides individual initiatives, there are free alternatives that you can use in their business activities. Moreover, no need to download specialized software (although this option exists, too), but rather to take advantage of existing online services.
We will remind, earlier “Today” figured out how to get digital signature in Ukraine.
