Regarding the provision of electronic documents during a tax audit

Letter of the Federal Tax Service dated 07/05/2017 No. 967/6/99-99-15-02-02-15/IPK

08/08/2017

The State Fiscal Service of Ukraine considered the letter regarding the possibility of keeping primary documents by taxpayers in electronic form and, guided by Art. 52 of the Tax Code of Ukraine (hereinafter - the Code), informs.

According to clause 44.1 of Art. 44 of the Code, for the purposes of taxation, taxpayers are required to keep records of income, expenses and other indicators related to the determination of objects of taxation and/or tax liabilities, based on primary documents, accounting registers, financial statements, other documents , related to the calculation and payment of taxes and fees, the management of which is provided for by law.

Clause 2 of Art. 9 of the Law of Ukraine dated July 16, 1999 No. 996-XIV "On Accounting and Financial Reporting in Ukraine" (hereinafter - Law No. 996) stipulates that primary and consolidated accounting documents can be drawn up in paper or electronic form and must have mandatory details specified in this clause. Primary documents drawn up in electronic form are used in accounting, subject to compliance with the requirements of the legislation on electronic documents and electronic document management.

Also, Clause 6.4 of the Regulation on documentary support of accounting records, approved by the order of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine dated 24.05.1995 No. 88, stipulates that primary documents, accounting registers and accounting and other reports created in the form of an electronic document must be stored on electronic media information in a form that makes it possible to check their integrity on these media, and within a period that should not be shorter than the period established for the corresponding documents on paper.

Article 1 of the Law of Ukraine dated May 23, 2003 No. 852-IV "On Electronic Digital Signature" defines that an electronic digital signature is a type of electronic signature obtained as a result of cryptographic transformation of a set of electronic data, which is added to this set or logically combined with it and makes it possible to confirm its integrity and identify the signer.

Therefore, an electronic document, which is drawn up in accordance with the requirements of current legislation and which contains all the necessary details, has the same legal force as a document drawn up in paper form.

At the same time, it should be noted that in the case of compiling and storing primary documents and accounting registers using electronic means of information processing, the enterprise is obliged to make copies of them on paper media at its own expense at the request of other participants in economic transactions, as well as law enforcement agencies and relevant bodies within the limits of their powers provided by laws (Clause 6, Article 9 of Law No. 996).

In addition, the official (officer) of the control body conducting the inspection, in the cases provided for by the Code, has the right to receive from the taxpayer or his legal representatives copies of documents belonging to the subject of the inspection. Such copies must be certified by the signature of the taxpayer or his official and sealed (if available) (clause 85.8 of article 85 of the Code).

Therefore, taxpayers who maintain records of income, expenses and other indicators related to the determination of objects of taxation (tax liabilities), primary documents, accounting registers, financial statements, other documents related to with the calculation and payment of taxes and fees in electronic form, are obliged to provide the officials of the controlling body at their request with copies of the documents that belong to the subject of the inspection.

At the same time, a copy of a document on paper for an electronic document is a visual presentation of an electronic document on paper, which is certified in accordance with the procedure established by law (Article 7 of the Law of Ukraine dated May 22, 2003 No. 851-IV "On Electronic Documents and Electronic Document Management").

According to clause 52.2 of Art. 52 of the Code, individual tax advice has an individual character and can be used exclusively by the taxpayer to whom such advice was provided.