Overview of working with electronic signatures in 2022: receipt, validity periods, new powers of attorney, employee signatures

To the head of the legal entity

The new rules are already in effect: from January 1, 2022, electronic signatures for managers are issued at the Federal Tax Service certification center and at the authorized representatives of the Federal Tax Service CA.

An authorized person (DL CA) is a certification center that has been re-accredited and meets the additional requirements of regulatory authorities.

Currently, there are only three such authorized representatives of the Federal Tax Service Center:

1. PJSC Sberbank of Russia;
2. JSC Analytical Center;
3. VTB Bank (PJSC).

Such a certification center is allowed to issue electronic signatures to legal entities and individual entrepreneurs.

Procedure for receiving an electronic signature from the tax office:

1. Submitting an application for receipt. This can be done in two ways:

• Fill out a paper application in person at the Federal Tax Service office;
• on the official website of the tax service in the Personal Account of the taxpayer (individual) in the “Life Situations” section or through an online registration with the tax office.

2. Selecting and purchasing the media on which the certificate will be recorded.

The electronic signature certificate must be recorded on a token certified by the FSB or FSTEC of Russia. If you already have a token, you can use it. The tax office may request a certificate of conformity for the token, so we recommend that you immediately request it from the CA upon purchase or download it from the manufacturer’s website.

3. A visit to the tax office by the head of the company to identify the recipient. A personal visit is required; it is not possible to send a representative, including by proxy.

According to the law, you can contact any nearest tax office for identification, even if the organization is registered in another place. But often the tax office still requires me to visit “my” inspectorate, so it would be safer to go straight to the Federal Tax Service at the place of registration. The list of Federal Tax Service branches where you can obtain an electronic signature is published on the official website of the tax office. Find out if your branch is there!

Required documents:

• manager's passport;
• SNILS;
• token and certificate for it.

4. Purchase CryptoPro CSP or other crypto provider and install it on your computer. Without a cryptographic protection tool on your computer, working with an electronic signature is impossible.

How to easily connect CryptoPro? Kaluga Astral specialists will select a suitable license and help you install the program and set up work with electronic signatures.

Leave a request or request a call back

If you previously purchased a perpetual CryptoPro license, the program will continue to work - the changes did not affect crypto providers.

Issuing a signature to the Federal Tax Service is free, i.e. you only buy a token and a license for the crypto provider.

At Kaluga Astral JSC, tokens start from 1,450 rubles. - buy at a profit!

Important Features:

• The Federal Tax Service EP for the manager is issued in a single copy.
• The signature has copy protection.
• The Federal Tax Service confirms that any crypto provider for working with a signature can be, the main thing is a valid certification. But in practice, users are faced with different opinions of regional Federal Tax Service and even technical problems when connecting, so it will be safer to use CryptoPRO to work with CEP.

Each employee who is allowed to sign electronic company documents must receive a separate electronic signature certificate. We will describe the procedure for obtaining signatures for employees below in the article.

Procedure for obtaining signatures from authorized persons:

If you choose this option, you must contact one of the Federal Tax Service's RTC - you will be advised on the procedure. The documents required to obtain a signature are similar - a passport and SNILS. However, the token and CryptoPro CSP can be immediately purchased at the DTC, i.e. all necessary actions are done in one place.

The methods of obtaining a signature that we described above are suitable for heads of commercial organizations, individual entrepreneurs and notaries.

Certain categories of officials must obtain signatures in other places:

• officials of budgetary organizations - Federal Treasury;
• managers of the banking sector and other financial organizations - Central Bank.

The deadline for introducing changes is the same - from January 1, 2022, i.e. the new rules are already in force.

How can I use a manager’s electronic signature?

Traditionally, electronic signatures are used to send electronic reports, but there are a number of other cases when electronic signatures are useful to you:

• Making changes to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities or Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs - when sending documents electronically, an enhanced qualified signature is required.
• Changing information in government databases, for example, in the Unified Federal Register of legally significant information about the facts of the activities of legal entities. individuals, individual entrepreneurs and other economic entities (Fedresurs).
• Submitting applications and claims to courts (arbitration, magistrate, federal) in electronic form.
• Registration of cash register equipment with the tax office;
• Participation in tenders and purchases as a supplier or customer and much more.

The electronic signature of the Federal Tax Service is not yet suitable for many trading platforms that require special extensions (OIDs) to work with government procurement. Venues are already moving away from these requirements in accordance with the law, but some still retain them. To work on an ETP, where OIDs are still required, you will have to use the signature received earlier at the ATC. Explanations on this topic are expected from the Federal Tax Service and the trading platforms themselves.

The procedure for obtaining UKEP from the Federal Tax Service of Russia

To obtain a signature key certificate for a director or individual entrepreneur, you will need to submit an application, passport and SNILS to the Federal Tax Service. You can also send documents through the personal account of an individual.

When the certificate is issued, the director or individual entrepreneur will have to pick it up from the tax service themselves. Personal presence is required only for the first time. When the CEP is reissued, it will be possible to confirm your identity remotely. For example, using an electronic signature generated using a valid certificate. That is, you won’t have to visit the Federal Tax Service again.

The Federal Tax Service will provide the CEP free of charge. It will be valid for 15 months. The signature is suitable for internal document flow, as well as for endorsing reports submitted to the tax authority electronically.

The Federal Tax Service will issue a CEP certificate to the director of an organization or individual entrepreneur in a single copy on a special medium, the data from which cannot be copied. It is understood that only the person to whom the signature is issued should sign documents. If other employees need to have documents endorsed, they are issued a CEP for individuals and issued electronic powers of attorney.

To a company employee

To obtain a new signature, an employee of an organization can still contact an accredited certification center - these rules have not changed.

The main thing is that the certification center must undergo re-accreditation.

The requirements for re-accreditation are established by Law 63-FZ on electronic signatures. You can familiarize yourself with the new requirements and find the nearest ATC here.

How will new and old signatures differ for employees?

Previously, electronic signature files for employees indicated the full name of the employee and the name of the company on whose behalf he was acting. Such a signature can still be obtained until the end of 2022.

The new employee electronic signature sample will contain only the full name . This means it will be possible to accept such an electronic signature in different organizations.

At Kaluga Astral Group of Companies you can receive an electronic signature on the day of application! Choose a profitable and convenient solution - Astral-ET (comprehensive solutions including a Crypto PRO license, root token and integration with services) or 1C - ETP (electronic signature from 900 rubles).

The old-style employee signature indicating the full name and name of the organization is valid until December 31, 2022 . Even if the electronic signature is received in December 2022, the deadline will not change, so it is better to think about switching to the new rules in advance.

The transition to a new type of electronic signatures will be carried out gradually - from March 1, 2022 to January 1, 2023. During the transition phase, a new type of electronic signature is obtained at the request of the employee, or at the suggestion of the portal or system with which the company works. From January 1, 2023, the use of such a signature will become mandatory.

To obtain a signature, the employee must provide a passport and SNILS. A personal visit to a certification center will be required to confirm your identity. The signature for the employee will not have copy protection, and there will be no ban on enabling extensions.

What electronic signatures will work after July 1, 2021?

After July 1, nothing will change for owners of electronic signatures. All signatures will work until they expire.

How to check the validity period of an electronic signature?

Electronic signature validity period

. Typically the signature is valid for 12 months from the date of receipt. If you took a signature for another period and do not remember it, then find the electronic signature certificate in the CryptoPro CSP program on the Certificates tab. Open it and on the “Properties” tab, check the expiration date in the “Valid by” line.

If the certificate expires after January 1, 2022, then the signature will work until January 1, 2022. If the validity period ends before this date, you will need to obtain a new signature before it expires. We will explain below where to apply for a new signature for the employee and manager.

Validity period of CA accreditation

. If a CA’s accreditation has expired, then all electronic signatures issued by it stop working. Check that your CA's accreditation does not expire until January 1, 2022 - then you will not need to renew your signature before that date.

CA clients of our online accounting service do not need to update their signature ahead of schedule. Our previous accreditation is valid after 2022.Get an electronic signature.

Powers of attorney

To prove the rights to sign documents on behalf of the company and perform other actions on behalf of the organization, a new document is being introduced - a machine-readable power of attorney (MRP).

A machine-readable power of attorney is a power of attorney in electronic form, giving the employee the right to perform actions on behalf of the organization and signed with the electronic signature of the head of the company.

In order for the employee’s signature on the document to be valid, it is necessary to attach the MCD to it. It is planned to create a general register of such powers of attorney in the Federal Tax Service, from which it will be possible to obtain information about the relevance and validity of the MCD.

Kaluga Astral is developing a special service for working with powers of attorney “Astral.Power of Attorney”. Currently, Astral.EDO users are testing the new function. As new regulations and clarifications from the Federal Tax Service appear, the service will be improved and supplemented. Subscribe to our blog, we will notify you when the service is ready for use.

The use of MSD has been permitted by law since August 2021 , but in practice they have not yet been used (there is no established interaction yet and electronic services are not ready to work with MSD). For now, the law establishes a transition period - until December 31, 2022, so that everyone can understand the rules and get comfortable with the new power of attorney format.

A separate type of electronic power of attorney exists to transfer the rights to submit tax reports to a third-party organization or an authorized person. In this case, you can generate an electronic power of attorney to provide reporting to the Federal Tax Service in XML format, approved by Federal Tax Service Order No. ED-7-26 / [email protected] dated April 30, 2022. Such a power of attorney is equivalent to a paper one and does not require notarization. The duplicate is signed by the CEP of the head of the company or individual entrepreneur for whom the reporting will be submitted, and is sent to the Federal Tax Service before the first reporting is submitted.

Where can managers and individual entrepreneurs obtain signatures?

From January 1, 2022, heads of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs will be required to use the signatures of the Federal Tax Service. Managers can receive such a signature as early as July 1, 2022.

To obtain it, you need to contact the tax office directly or its authorized representatives: CAs accredited according to the new rules and who have passed additional selection. The list of authorized representatives will become known in July 2022 - the Federal Tax Service and the authorized representatives themselves will tell about it.

We recommend waiting for the final list of authorized persons and signature issuance points. This way you can choose the point where it will be most convenient for the manager to get a signature. Perhaps this will be the same CA in which employees will receive their signatures - authorized representatives of the Federal Tax Service will be able to issue signatures to both managers and employees.

At the Federal Tax Service, managers will be able to obtain only one signature per legal entity. All employees who also sign documents on behalf of the company will need their own individual signature and electronic power of attorney.

Get an electronic signature for reporting and doing business.

Who and how to receive EP?

Private individual:

required for signing an electronic signature by an individual (individual); Where to get EP: Accredited CA (AUC).

An employee of the organization or an authorized person:

required for signing the ES of the individual + a power of attorney signed by the ES of the legal entity (LE); Where to get EP: AUC.

Head of a commercial organization:

necessary for signing the electronic signature of the legal entity, in which the manager is indicated; Where to receive electronic signature: Federal Tax Service and authorized representatives.

Individual entrepreneur (IP):

necessary for signing an EP; Where to receive electronic signature: Federal Tax Service and authorized representatives.

IP employee:

required for signing the ES FL + power of attorney signed by ES IP; Where to get EP: AUC.

Notary:

necessary for signing the electronic signature by a notary; Where to receive electronic signature: Federal Tax Service and authorized representatives.

Automatic signing from the organization:

necessary for signing an electronic signature of a legal entity without instructions from the manager; Where to receive electronic signature: Federal Tax Service and authorized representatives.

To an individual

For individuals, the rules for obtaining an electronic signature have not changed - an electronic signature must be obtained from an accredited certification center.

An application for obtaining an electronic signature for an individual can be sent electronically to the AUC. After verification, you will have to visit the office of the certification center to identify yourself and receive a signature certificate.

If there is a valid electronic signature, then a new one can be obtained remotely (provided that the individual’s data has not changed).

Required documents: passport.

Why does an individual need an electronic signature?

• Quick confirmation of your account on the government services portal (registration at the clinic and other regulatory authorities, filing applications for benefits and payments, etc.).
• Applying for a mortgage or loan.
• Registration of a real estate transaction in Rosreestr.
• Filing a tax return and filing a tax deduction on the Federal Tax Service website.
• Registration of an employment contract in electronic form and more.

Receive an electronic signature for an individual in one day. All you need is a passport!

Order a signature

Where to obtain signatures for employees and authorized persons. Electronic powers of attorney.

From January 1, 2022, employees of organizations and authorized persons must use their personal signature for both work and personal documents. Such a signature is called an “electronic signature of an individual” - it contains only the full name of the employee and no information about the legal entity in which he works.

Also, starting from 2022, signatures of individuals will need to be obtained from CAs that are accredited according to the new rules - their accreditation order was signed later than July 1, 2022.

It will be possible to use an individual’s signature for organizational documents only together with an electronic power of attorney (the official name is a power of attorney in machine-readable form). It will take time to implement this power of attorney: develop the principles of its operation, approve the necessary regulations, teach information systems and services to accept powers of attorney. Work is already underway, but is unlikely to end before July 1, 2022.

Therefore, before changing your signature to that of an individual, make sure that the system or portal you need accepts electronic powers of attorney. And only after that contact the CA.

The first news about powers of attorney will probably appear towards the end of 2021. To be the first to know them, follow the news of your information systems (Federal Tax Service, Federal Customs Service, etc.), as well as major EDI and reporting operators.

Electronic signature for providing information to the EGAIS system

Companies whose activities are related to the sale of alcoholic products use electronic signatures for the EGAIS system. This system takes into account all alcohol produced and sold in the Russian Federation. The procedure for providing information is specified in Law 182-FZ on amendments to the federal law on state regulation of the production and sale of alcoholic beverages. To work in the system, a qualified electronic signature is required.

As was done before: we used several electronic signatures per manager; in fact, the signatures were used by different employees. Now this is impossible, because the Federal Tax Service issues a signature for the manager in a single copy.

What to do? In a letter dated August 19, 2021 No. EA-3-26/ [email protected] , the Federal Tax Service named which electronic signatures for the Unified State Automated Information System can be used in 2022:

• KEP of the head of the enterprise or individual entrepreneur;
• CEP of an individual who has the authority to act on behalf of the company on the basis of an ordinary and machine-readable power of attorney. As for the issuance of a CEP for a representative of an individual entrepreneur, despite the fact that Law 63-FZ allows for the receipt of such a certificate, FSB Order No. 795 of December 27, 2011 does not contain the form of such a certificate, therefore, for now, a representative of an individual entrepreneur cannot obtain such a CEP.

Which CAs will no longer be able to issue electronic signatures

Centers that have not been accredited according to the new, more stringent rules will not be able to issue CEP certificates. We can only hope that large CAs will be able to ensure compliance with the new requirements and undergo accreditation again.

Those certification centers that are accredited will be able to continue working, but will issue signatures only for individuals. From 2022, they can also be used by employees to sign documents. But only together with an electronic power of attorney issued by the company and signed by the Director’s EPC (IP) from the Federal Tax Service.

Is it necessary to re-issue an electronic signature if its validity period has not yet expired?

The conditions for using a previously obtained signature depend on who and when it was issued:

• If the electronic signature was received in 2022 at a certification center that has been re-accredited, then the use of this signature is possible until the end of 2022 or longer (if the validity period goes beyond December 31, 2022).
• If the center that issued the signature has not undergone re-accreditation, then the use of this electronic signature is prohibited .
• If you have already received a Federal Tax Service electronic signature in 2022, then in 2022 you can use it until the end of its validity period .

Electronic signature validity period

An electronic digital signature is information encrypted using a special character encoding that helps identify its owner.
The period of operation of the digital signature is assigned by the certification center, which is in charge of the process of production and cancellation of the digital signature (usually 1 year). The period of validity of the digital signature may be extended if a justified need arises. For more information about obtaining an electronic signature, read the material “Obtaining an electronic signature verification key certificate” .

How does UKEP for individuals differ from other types?

Federal Law “On Electronic Signatures” No. 63 defines three types of electronic signatures:

1. A simple electronic signature for an individual (ES) is a tool with the lowest level of security, which is a combination of login and password to enter your personal account, password and SMS login and other similar mechanisms - USSD messages, etc. The ES confirms the identity of that person , who uses it, but does not protect against changes to documents that are signed. Access to the owner's phone or email is enough for hacking.
2. Enhanced unqualified electronic (UNEP) contains cryptographic protection algorithms (CIPF) - a certificate and a UNEP verification key. This mechanism not only confirms the identity of the person using it, but also protects the document that is signed from being altered by an attacker.
3. Enhanced Qualified Electronic Signature (ECES) is the most reliable way to approve documents. Cryptographic protection means (CIPF) of UKEP are certified by the FSB. Installing them will require additional software. Only accredited certification centers issue certificates. UKEP is a complete analogue of a handwritten signature, which is reliably protected from intruders.

Who and how to receive CEP after July 1: summary table