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The Bill №4496 – is a huge step in establishment of foreign trade agreements in electronic form. Now we just have to wait for the President's signature.

On November 3, 2016 the Parliament voted for the Bill number 4496, which can radically change the work of service exporters, including representatives of the IT sector. If this Bill is signed by the President of Ukraine, the artificial barriers to the import of foreign currency earnings by the service exporters (mostly IT sector) will be removed.

The Bill introduces the possibility to conclude foreign trade agreements (contracts) in electronic form. So in the case of export of works (services), foreign trade agreement (contract) can be concluded by acceptance of a public arrangement proposal (formal offer) or by electronic messaging or other means, including invoicing, including in electronic form, for the performed works and rendered services.

Changes to Article 9 of the Law of Ukraine "On Accounting and Financial Reporting" provides that primary and consolidated accounting documents can be written in a paper form or in electronical form.

One of the essential details of the documents to be established, in addition to a personal signature, equivalent of a handwritten signature, is additional electronic signature or digital signature and electronic signature by one-time identifier.

For operations with export of works (services) the invoice containing the details of the exporter serves as a primary document and is sufficient confirmation for economic operations.

In this case, the business will be able to conclude agreements quickly and legally, and banks will be able to conduct the identification of foreign exchange earnings as such, that has been obtained from the export of services.

The Bill also introduces a ban for the banks to require translation of documents from English language, which should facilitate the conclusion of agreements by the residents because the capacity of commercial banks to provide document translation is much wider than the capacity of small and medium enterprises.

Recognition of the invoice as a primary accounting document should simplify procedures for accounting and financial reporting, as well as democratize relations between business and fiscal authorities.