The last call for preparing financial statements in the “old fashioned” way

In the nearest future, the undergoing computerisation of proceedings before the Polish registry courts will cross another line. 30 September 2018 is the last day when financial statements may be prepared on paper and signed “by hand”. 30 September 2018 is also the last day to submit such scanned financial statements to the National Court Register (NCR).

Starting from 1 October 2018 financial statements will have to be prepared in electronic form only. No paper versions will be allowed. It means also that, as a rule, starting from 1 October 2018 all members of management board of companies as well as their chief accountants will need to possess valid electronic signature or a signature confirmed with an ePUAP trusted profile in order to sign financial statements prepared in electronic form.

This is a huge difference when comparing to current state, where it is sufficient to have only one member of the management board whose PESEL number is revealed in the NCR with valid electronic signature or a signature confirmed with an ePUAP trusted profile to proceed with submission of the financial statements to the NCR.

It seems that companies which already prepared its financial statements for FY2017 but has not submitted it with the NCR, need to hurry up. After 30 September 2018 financial statements for FY 2017 will need to be prepared once again, this time in electronic form. Submission of such electronic financial statements to the NCR may encounter new, unforeseen obstacles as well.