Starting on 1 August 2016, Act 305/2013 Coll. on e-government requires all legal entities to have electronic mailboxes created on www.slovensko.sk automatically activated for delivery. Activating an electronic mailbox enables public authorities to use it for electronic transmission. The entire process for a legal entity to activate an electronic mailbox has been gradual and there is a transition period that ends on 1 January 2017. Both legal entities and registered branches are required to activate their electronic mailboxes. Activation of an electronic mailbox remains voluntary for individuals and proprietors.
Electronic mailboxes are created by the national government at no charge on www.slovensko.sk. The Slovak Government automatically creates an electronic mailbox for all legal entities that are entered in the Commercial Register, the Register of Associations and any other official records. Even newly-formed legal entities will not have to report their registration and they will automatically be assigned an electronic mailbox.
Social insurance, courts, employment offices and other institutions and public authorities will be sending various notices, calls, warnings, decisions and many other documents to businesses at their electronic mailboxes. These will contain the same documents that are currently being sent in paper form through the post and the electronic mailboxes will be in the form of official e-mail boxes. Businesses can use their electronic mailboxes to communicate with public authorities and can file applications, report trades, obtain an extract from the Commercial Register, establish a company and use other electronic services through them.
If a company is logging in its own electronic mailbox for the first time during the transition period – between 1 August and 31 December 2016, it will be activated and the authorities will be serving documents also electronically to the company. Starting on 1 January 2017, all electronic mailboxes will be automatically activated and the authorities will be able to send all official documents to companies also at their electronic mailboxes. Electronically received documents will be equivalent to a written document. An electronic mailbox can only be closed when the company itself ceases to exist and is deleted from the Commercial Register.
Either a legal entity’s statutory body or a member of its statutory body is entitled to access the legal entity’s electronic mailbox. After logging onto the Central Government Portal, the option of using it either as an individual or on behalf of a legal entity is displayed. The electronic mailbox can be entered only with an electronic identification card. The electronic identification card contains an electronic chip and a personal security code (PSC). Company Executives should applyas soon as possible to have an electronic identification card issued to them by the Documents Department of the District Police Directorate. A card reader is needed for identification cards and both the free eID client application and the reader control panel should be downloaded. Company Executives can sign electronic documents either with their electronic identification card, which they create at no charge, or with a qualified electronic signature.
Access to a legal entity’s electronic mailbox is automatically given to its statutory representative, who can grant access privileges to other people. If the legal entity’s statutory representative is not a citizen of the Slovak Republic, full access to the electronic mailbox belonging to the legal entity will then have to be granted to an authorized individual (a citizen of the Slovak Republic who has an identification card with an electronic chip).
Any official message sent electronically will be considered as having been received, even if the company does not read it. For this reason, in order for a company to avoid potential problems due to unread e-official documents, the statutory body or member of the statutory body has the option to set up an e-mail notification of incoming messages from the electronic mailbox. This can be done in the electronic mailbox settings and a notice will be sent to the person at a designated e-mail address which is regularly checked.
If anybody is interested in legal entity electronic mailbox services, we will be glad to provide them, and if authorised, we will monitor the mailbox and regularly inform you of its contents or ensure further related steps are taken or services rendered.
