National Court Register Fully Electronic

Three years from now, business owners will be able to contact the National Court Register on all matters over the Internet. This is the aim of the upcoming amendments to the act on the National Court Register prepared by the Ministry of Justice. The change, called “revolutionary” by ministry officials, is to mark the start of a new era in the relations between companies and register courts. Finally, paper documents are going to become a thing of the past.

National Court Register (Krajowy Rejestr Sądowy, or KRS) is an institution all Polish entrepreneurs are familiar with. Registering a business, changing the management board, freezing or liquidating activity – all those (and more) can only be done through filing an appropriate application to the register court competent for your company’s seat. The problem? Currently, most documents submitted to KRS are on paper. Filling out paper forms is time-consuming and poses quite a challenge for many people. Officials say as much as 25 out of every 100 paper applications contain mistakes.

To make processing and filing applications easier and swifter, the Ministry of Justice, which is responsible for KRS, wants all documents to be in electronic form. From March 2020, applicants will be obliged to use electronic forms when contacting register courts. What is more, financial statements, which companies are obliged to submit every month/quarter to KRS, will also have to be submitted online.

Electronic communication will be two-way. Register courts will contact entrepreneurs over the Internet as well. Soon, business owners will be able to check at which stage their case is and have access to the submitted documents through a dedicated online platform.

The changes will not only be advantageous to Polish companies. Courts will also benefit from the modern solution as they will be processing documents electronically and will not have to manage and store paper documentation.

The amendments are to come into effect on 1 March 2020.