Officials responsible for drafting contracts should pay attention to the specifics of the use of facsimile signatures. Ignoring the requirements of the law in this area may well lead to legal costs and large financial losses.
What is a facsimile signature
A facsimile is a stamp that faithfully reproduces a person's handwritten signature. Usually it serves to certify the authority of an official. Such artificial reproduction of a signature is recognized by the civil legislation of Russia as a complete analogue of a handwritten signature. However, the exact meaning of the term “facsimile” is not spelled out in the legislation.
A facsimile signature may well be used for the execution of individual documents - along with a handwritten signature. In some cases, the use of facsimiles is expressly prescribed by law. But the number of such situations is small. Therefore, in practice, the question often arises: when is the use of this type of certifying signature permissible, and in what cases is it better to refrain from using facsimiles?
Legal force of a facsimile signature
As a general rule, an official has the right to use a facsimile signature if it is directly provided for by law or a separate agreement of the parties to the transaction. But if we are talking about registration of tax or accounting documents, “live” signatures of authorized persons are required.
Here's an example. Russian tax legislation does not provide for the use of invoices that are sealed with a facsimile signature. This is considered a violation of the established procedure for processing such documents. An invoice signed by facsimile cannot be the basis for accepting tax amounts for deduction.
Civil transactions are a different matter. When making them, you can use one of the types of signature copies. But this must be provided by law or written into the agreement of the parties.
The very procedure for the use of facsimiles in the legislation is not specified. For this reason, the agreement drawn up by the parties is the basis on which an agreement is reached on the right to use a facsimile signature when concluding an agreement.
An agreement on the procedure for using a copy of a signature can be drawn up in a separate document. It is also allowed to include such a condition in the text of the main contractual document. In order for a facsimile signature to be legally binding, it is necessary to list the documents that the parties consider it possible to sign by means of facsimiles. The court will accept the contracts certified in this way as written evidence.
A variant is possible when the possibility of using facsimiles is not spelled out in the main agreement, but the company has drawn up an additional agreement to this document and certified it with a copy of the signature. The court may well rule on non-compliance in this case with the written form of the supplementary agreement. It will not be considered a prisoner.
