From March 15, 2018 financial statements in Poland are submitted only in electronic form. This is another step in the process of digitization of settlements with tax authorities. To date, 99% of companies (according to the Ministry of Justice) have submitted financial statements to tax offices in paper form. Although it was possible to submit financial statements electronically, only 1% of companies used this method – partly because it required payment of an additional charge.

From what date will financial statements be submitted in electronic form?

The new obligations for entrepreneurs came into effect from March 15, 2018. The amendment to the Act on the National Court Register in Poland significantly changed the rules governing the submission of financial statements. These changes also covered financial statements that relate to 2017 - they could only be submitted in paper form until March 14 and after this date all settlements for the previous year have been required to be submitted in electronic form.

• Financial statements in the form of a scan

The transition period of the amendment that is being implemented lasts from March 15 to September 30, 2018. During this period it will be possible to prepare statements in the traditional form, with a handwritten signature, and then to make a scan and attach a qualified electronic signature or signature, which will be confirmed by a ePUAP trusted profile, by at least one person authorized to represent the entity. The documentation prepared in this way must be attached to the application for entry of the reference in the electronic version.

• Financial statements in the form of a SAF

Financial statements submitted from October 1, 2018 will not be accepted in their current form and will be replaced by a SAF, i.e. a Standard Audit File. Importantly, after the amendment enters into force, the submission of annual statements will not require their simultaneous submission to the Tax Office - the data will go directly from the National Court Register to the Central Tax Register. However, it should be remembered that this applies only to registered entities that are required to submit settlements in the National Court Register in the new form.

Hitherto existing rules for submission of financial statements in Poland

The method of submitting financial statements to the National Court Register is specified in art. 19 of the National Court Register Act. To date the most popular method of submitting financial statements to the National Court Register was through the filling out of the proper forms. An alternative method allowed by the Act was the submission of the documents in electronic form, which requires a digital signature or a signature confirmed by a trusted ePUAP profile.

The new regulations, which have been in force since March 15, 2018, introduced significant changes, in particular for bookkeepers in Poland. Specifically, the provisions of art. 19 and 19a of the National Court Register Act were amended, and art. 19d and 19e were added. All changes and additions concern the issue of submitting requests to change the entry in the National Court Register. The most important change is undoubtedly the requirement to submit financial statements in digital form - so far this was only an option.

Who signs the financial statements?

The amendment to the Act provides for two ways of signing applications that remain unchanged from the previous version. These are:

• electronic signature (otherwise known as an e-signature or digital signature),
• signature of a trusted ePUAP profile.

However, the requirements for the persons that may be authorised to sign have been changed. The legislator specified the criteria as follows:

• at least one natural person who has been designated to represent the entity must sign the document,
• if the representative is not a natural person, then the document should be signed by a natural person appointed to represent the matters of the entity that is representing the company submitting the application.

In addition, the amendment introduces the obligation to include a statement specifying that the financial statements meet the requirements of the Accounting Act.

Electronic financial statements – who will they benefit?

The financial statements in Poland, that will now be submitted in the form of a Standard Audit File, will have to be submitted to the National Court Register. Digitization is primarily aimed at streamlining the entire documentation collection process - so far, due to the growing number of submitted documents, dealing with submissions on a current basis has proved almost impossible. The amendment to the Accounting Act means makes it possible for the tax offices to make even greater use of submitted financial statements. It makes it easier to catch businesses whose tax results differ from their financial ones, as well as to check whether businesses are avoiding paying taxes.

Additionally the process by which officials check data needed when auditing other taxpayers will also be improved – as they can learn, for example, what margins are used in particular industries, which is extremely useful when verifying transfer prices. In practice, the tax offices do not use all the information that is contained in paper versions of financial statements. Digitization is undoubtedly beneficial to businesses, because sending a file through the SAF system is easier and definitely cheaper than printing multiple copies and submitting them to several institutions.

It is also worth noting that the changes being introduced will lead to the modernization of IT infrastructure, which will reduce the probability of malfunctions of the National Court Register System.

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