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E-financial statements – how to file them?

by Piotr Derylak

6 March 2023

Financial statements contain basic financial information about an entity's business activity for a given year. The obligation to prepare financial statements applies to all entities, regardless of the form of their business, that are obliged to keep books of account, and entities that voluntarily opted for keeping books of account.

The bookkeeping obligation applies to all companies and partnerships and sole proprietorships that earn sales revenues of at least 2 million euro.

E-financial statements are statements prepared in electronic form. How to prepare and file them correctly?

E-financial statements filed with the National Court Register (KRS) – from when are they obligatory?

Since 1 October 2018 all financial statements must be prepared and signed electronically. Since 2020 the structure of the e-financial statements is strictly defined, i.e. they have to be prepared using an appropriate logical structure and format, depending on the entity's size and legal form.

You will find the standards set by the Ministry of Finance for the structure of e-financial statements on the following website: https://www.gov.pl/web/kas/struktury-e-sprawozdan.

Electronic financial statements – step by step

What documents are to be attached to the e-financial statements?

The e-financial statements are composed of:

the balance sheet showing assets and equity & liabilities as of the last day of the current and the previous financial year,
the income statement showing separately revenues, expenses, profit and loss and obligatory appropriations of profit (loss) for the current and the previous financial year,
the notes containing, among other things, the description of accounting principles, including valuation methods, and changes as compared to the previous year,
the statement of changes in equity (if needed),
the cash flow statement (if needed).

In addition, the following documents must be attached to the e-financial statements:

a resolution on the approval of the above documents,
a management report (if needed),
a resolution on the distribution of profit or covering of loss,
a statutory auditor’s opinion/report (if the financial statements had to be audited).

E-financial statements – where to file them?

Depending on the type of the conducted business activity, the e-financial statements must be filed:

1. with the Head of the National Revenue Administration:

personal income tax payers keeping books of account and obliged to prepare financial statements,
corporate income tax payers who are not entered in the register of enterprises of the National Court Register (KRS) and are obliged to prepare financial statements,

2. with the National Court Register (KRS): entities entered in the register of enterprises of the National Court Register (KRS) that do not compile financial statements in line with the International Accounting Standards.

Companies filing the e-financial statements with the National Court Register and those filing them with the National Revenue Administration may use free platforms for this purpose:

National Revenue Administration – application or interface webAPI,
National Court Register (KRS) – eKRS system.

The e-financial statements are reported and sent to the Head of the National Revenue Administration by a taxpayer or a person authorised by the taxpayer. The e-financial statements are reported and sent to the National Court Register (KRS) on behalf of the entity by:

the entity's manager
a professional attorney: a Polish attorney at law (adwokat or radca prawny), a foreign lawyer
a commercial attorney (prokurent), an official receiver, an administrator in restructuring proceedings, or a liquidator.

According to the Accounting Act, the following entities are managed by:

sole proprietorship – the sole proprietor
companies – a management board member
general partnerships and civil law partnerships – partners managing the partnership’s affairs,
professional partnerships – partners managing the partnership’s affairs,
limited partnerships or partnerships limited by shares – general partners managing the partnership’s affairs.

If the entity is managed by a management board composed of several members, the e-financial statements are filed with the National Court Register by at least one individual (e.g. a management board member) whose Polish personal identification number PESEL is disclosed in the National Court Register (KRS) and who is entered as a person authorised to represent the entity independently or jointly with other persons.

How to send the e-financial statements to the National Court Register (KRS)?

To file the e-financial statements with the eKRS system, you have first to create an account there. You have to enter your e-mail and password. The account must be authorised using the electronic qualified signature or the signature authenticated by the ePUAP trusted profile.

After logging into the account in the eKRS-system, you may file the e-financial statements with the Repository of Financial Documents.

How to sign the e-financial statements with the electronic qualified signature or the signature authenticated by the ePUAP trusted profile?

The prepared e-financial statements must be signed by:

a person or a company that keeps the books of account of the entity on its behalf
entity's managers, i.e. management board members or partners in a partnership.

In the case of a management board composed of several members, the e-financial statements may be signed by one management board member, provided that the other management board members submit a statement that the e-financial statements meet the requirements of the Accounting Act.

The e-financial statements must be signed using one of the following methods:

a qualified electronic signature issued in or outside the EU provided that it matches the XAdES algorithm,
personal electronic signature,
signature authenticated by the ePUAP trusted profile.

Summary

The e-financial statements do not solely mean red tape and limitations, but they also bring measurable digitalisation advantages in accounting and taxes. Now, without the need to leave the office, you can prepare and sign the electronic financial statements and send them in the appropriate electronic form to the National Court Register or the National Revenue Administration. Moreover, the described changes offer financial benefits and time-savings to organisations who know how to effectively apply them.

If you have questions about filing the e-financial statements, please contact us.

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Piotr Derylak

Auditor (Poland), Licensed appraiser

Associate Partner

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