In its ruling of 22 June 2010, VIII R 38/08, the Federal Supreme Finance Court (Bundesfinanzhof) ruled that actions with a scanned signature of the authorised representative comply with the written form requirements of section 64 (1) FGO at any rate if they are emailed by the authorised representative to a third party with the actually executed instruction to print them out and send them to the court by fax.
It is true that case law has different opinions as to whether a signature that has only been scanned in complies with the requirement of written form for determining pleadings. Regardless of this dispute, however, such a statement of claim must be considered effective, just as an unsigned statement of claim, if, despite the absence of a signature or a formally insufficient signature, its content as well as the declarant and the declarant's unconditional intention to declare can be inferred from the objective overall circumstances from the relevant perspective of the court. It is also sufficient if the declaration and its content are evident through the intervention of third parties. This is because the sole purpose of the written form requirement is to be able to reliably determine the content of the declaration as well as the person making the declaration and his or her unconditional intention to send it.
Ruling of the Federal Fiscal Court (BFH) of 22.06.10 VIII R 38/08
Source: BFH press release
Goldberg Attorneys at Law
Attorney at Law Michael Ullrich, LL.M. (Information Law)
Specialist lawyer for information technology law (IT law)
E-mail: info@goldberg.de
