What should be the seal of a government institution? Main types of seals. General concepts of using a stamp seal

To certify the authenticity of the document, a stamp is placed on it. Modern institutions use two types of seals - official or simple. The official seal is distinguished by a round shape, in the center of which there is an image of the coat of arms of Russia, and the full name of the institution is indicated around the circumference. However, we must remember that its use is regulated by the Federal Constitutional Law of the Russian Federation “On the State Emblem Russian Federation».

Basic printing requirements

Shape, dimensions, and technical requirements to the official seal are determined and established by the editors of GOST. To her distinctive features can be attributed:

  1. Be sure to have a round shape.
  2. Location in the center of the coat of arms of the Russian Federation.
  3. The full name of the company is indicated around the seal. If in constituent documents If the company's abbreviated name is indicated, then the same name will be indicated on the seal. The name may also be indicated on foreign language, if this is again stated in the constituent documents.

Who can use it?

The official seal is used by government agencies and bodies state power, as well as companies vested with such powers, for example, notaries or law firms. This seal can be used educational institutions who passed state accreditation and issue state-issued documents on the education received.

Concerning commercial organizations, they use a seal close to the stamp. It is distinguished by the presence of a logo, corporate emblem or simply the writing of the company. The seal indicates the identification number of the legal entity and the number of the state registration certificate.

Where can you put the official seal?

As already mentioned, this type of seal is used by government agencies and companies with government powers. Most often, the official seal is placed:

  • on acts, for example, examinations or when reconciling accounts payable),
  • on powers of attorney,
  • on applications, for example, when receiving currency,
  • when filing applications,
  • when concluding contracts with heads of federal government agencies,
  • on travel certificates,
  • on samples of seal impressions, signatures of employees who have the right to carry out financial and business transactions,
  • on certificates of honor and awards,
  • on orders (treasury, pension, payment, banking),
  • on official IDs,
  • in the charters of state companies and federal institutions.

Such a seal can only be used by organizations that have the necessary permits. They must be stored under strict control in fireproof cabinets or safes.

We offer stamp production

Ryazan Tax Consultation LLC offers a wide range of accounting and legal services, as well as production of seals, including stamp ones. We have everything required licenses, allowing us to create similar products. By contacting us, you are guaranteed to receive a responsible and attentive approach to the creation of official seals, because their status implies a high degree of protection against counterfeiting and manufacturing accuracy.

The official seal is created by us using special rubber, onto which information about your company is applied using laser engraving using modern and high-precision equipment. Thanks to this method, the products are reliable and protected. You can find samples of the seals we have created in the catalogue. From us you can order the production of stamp stamps of two types of equipment - plastic or metal manual or automatic with a reinforced body. The seals we create meet the modern requirements of the state standard:

  1. Printing is done only in round form.
  2. The upper circle is 1.3 mm thick with microtext no more than 0.8 mm high.
  3. The diameter of the products is 40 mm or 45 mm.
  4. Automatic seals are equipped with a protective cover.

To order a stamp seal, you need to provide us with an extract from the charter, which will indicate the full name of the company, as well as a clear sketch of the seal. We work quickly and efficiently - evaluate our skills now.

Seals have been used since ancient times, even before the advent of writing, they were made from stone, bone, and valuable wood. For example, in Ancient China they were made like real works of art, and in medieval Europe they were often in the form of rings.

Nowadays printing serves purely business purposes. This is a device that makes an imprint on paper with full name company, its location and other data. They are placed as a requisite to certify the authenticity of a signature, and only on signed documents.

They are:

  • stamp;
  • basic for enterprises, individual entrepreneurs, lawyers, doctors;
  • for separate units
  • additional, for different directions activities.

The use of official seals is determined by the law “On the State Emblem of the Russian Federation”; it can only be affixed to documents by state organizations and organizations endowed with state authority.

Information about the seal must be contained in the Charter.

Requirements in 2018

There were no significant changes in use in 2018.

And most importantly, the most controversial issue has been resolved - presence of an imprint when filling out work books. Previously, the Ministry of Labor determined that it was mandatory to affix it, even if the organization abandoned it in its activities, now only those companies that use it need to affix a stamp.

The rest of the rules and regulations did not change in 2018.

The laws on JSC and LLC determine the required details: full name, organizational and legal form, city or locality of actual location. The name must be indicated in Russian and optionally in any other language. Nothing else is spelled out in the law, so a company can additionally add a tax identification number, checkpoint, emblem or trademark, but it must be registered.

In addition to the fact that mandatory details are stipulated by law, other parameters (dimensions, sketches) are not defined, therefore, when producing them, stamp workshops are usually based on GOSTs applied to official seals.

Additional stamps indicate for which service or documents they are intended: “HR department”, “archive”, “for invoices”, “for delivery notes”, etc. You can choose a shape for them not only round.

Registration and application

Previously, there was a need to register a seal and approve its sketch. Now this is not required; no legislative acts define the registration procedure, so the company does not need to obtain permission or notify government bodies on the putting into effect of its seal.

But its use should not be mediocre, because it one of the important business attributes of the company Moreover, the state recommends developing instructions for use in accordance with GOST for document management and archiving.

The instructions may contain:

  1. List of seals – presence of main and additional ones, number of copies.
  2. Storage places.
  3. List of positions responsible for storage and authorized to use.
  4. Terms of use.
  5. Listing of documents that require the affixing of main and additional stamps.

They must be transferred and stored against a signature in the log book; when not in use, they must be locked in special boxes.

LLC activities without a seal and its cancellation

In April 2015, No. 82-FZ was issued, which introduced the wording “if available” into the laws relating to the press of LLCs and JSCs, i.e. transformed the obligation to use it into a right.

From now on, each organization determines for itself the need to use a seal, but the law may stipulate documents in which its affixing is still mandatory. These are RKO, strict reporting forms, etc.

In all other documents today, the imprint may not be placed, but only if this is stated in the Charter of the company. The seal is affixed at the discretion of the enterprise in the accounting and tax reporting, primary documents, powers of attorney, work books and other forms.

You need to pay close attention to contracts. If the agreement concluded earlier stipulated the mandatory affixing of an imprint in the PD samples, then either it must continue to be affixed, or an additional agreement must be concluded to exclude it from the mandatory details of the documents.

Overall, the cancellation is a benefit for businesses and encourages more paper-based adoption. With the development of technology, it is easier to choose modern methods identification, switch to electronic document management.

Thus, in tax reporting, an electronic signature is increasingly being affixed, and in judicial practice, the imprint is qualified as an additional requisite, and not mandatory. Moreover, since 2013, organizations have the right to independently develop forms primary documents, the main thing is that they are recorded in .

Manufacturing and methods of protection

So, when a society decides to use a seal, it is quite simple to produce one. This is what stamp shops do.

The price is small and depends on the degree of protection. Only certified organizations can produce cliches with the image of the coat of arms.

Usually the simplest cliche and equipment are made 1–3 hours, but if an organization takes its security responsibly and seriously, it is worth thinking about protecting it. Saving in this case can be costly and lead to losses.

In this case, you need to provide copies of:

  1. Charter.
  2. Certificates of state registration.
  3. Manager's powers of attorney.
  4. For JSC - the decision of the shareholders' meeting.
  5. If you plan to use a trademark in the print, then a certificate of its registration.
  6. And, of course, a statement stating the reason for production.

Many manufacturing companies meet their customers halfway and significantly reduce the list of required documents.

Ways to protect seals:

  1. Microtext – text printing 0.5-0.8 mm.
  2. "Macrame" - guilloche or tangier mesh. This complex drawing thin intersecting lines less than 0.1 mm thick.
  3. A special distortion of a font is an imitation of a defect in some letters.
  4. Raster field is a generally accepted method used in official stamps.
  5. Halftone images.
  6. "Cerberus" - UV marks that are invisible under normal lighting.

Clichés protected in this way are difficult to counterfeit using photopolymer technology, which is usually used by fraudsters. To better protect your organization, you must follow the following rules:

  • use several seals, make additional ones if necessary;
  • change the sample periodically;
  • do not use photopolymer clichés;
  • combine several methods of protection during production, contact only certified manufacturers;
  • follow the instructions for use;
  • appoint a person who will be responsible for the storage and transfer of seals.

Destruction and replacement

In cases where the seal is no longer needed, it cannot simply be thrown away. The seal must be physically destroyed, and this can be done in two ways:

Seals are subject to destruction when they are replaced with new ones or when the company is liquidated.

Replacement is carried out for several reasons:

  • renaming the company, changing its data;
  • mechanical wear;
  • planned replacement;
  • loss or theft.

In all cases, a new cliche is made only after the old one is destroyed, and if the sketch has not been changed, the sign “D” is affixed to the new one - a duplicate.

Unacceptable Violations

It must be remembered that when using printing you cannot:

  1. Depict the coat of arms in the print, unless this is specified by the law “On the State Emblem of the Russian Federation”.
  2. Indicate to avoid confusion.
  3. Include unregistered trademarks of the company in cliches.
  4. Use the old seal when changing data.
  5. Violate the instructions for use.

So, if you follow these rules, there will be no problems with printing. Well, whether to work with it or without it is up to the organization itself.

You will learn how to properly refill a seal or stamp in this video.

Organization seal: requirements and sample 2018

What should the organization's seal look like? What requirements for the seal of an LLC are prescribed by law? A sample print is attached.

Seal LLC- This is the trademark of the organization. The seal impression confirms that the document on which it is affixed actually contains information emanating from the name of a specific legal entity. But despite the popularity of this business attribute, the LLC seal is no longer mandatory in 2018.

The law that repealed mandatory seal legal entity, was published in April 2015. After this, corresponding changes were gradually introduced into other laws and regulations.

They still continue to operate mandatory requirements to the presence of the seal of an individual entrepreneur or organization on the following documents:

  • Strict reporting form (SSR) – clause 3 of the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of May 6, 2008 No. 359;
  • Receipt cash order (PKO) – clause 5.1 of Bank of Russia Directive No. 3210-U dated March 11, 2014.

True, these requirements can be challenged, because from Article 9 of the Law “On Accounting” dated December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ, that the seal does not apply to the mandatory details of primary documents (including BSO and PKO). But if you are not ready to argue, then it is better to put a stamp.

In addition to such controversial issues when preparing primary documents, there are also situations when the presence of a seal may be prerequisite . For example, such a requirement may be put forward by a counterparty who refuses to sign an agreement unless it is sealed. Sometimes banks also require an LLC stamp.

And the most interesting thing is that Article 2 of the Law “On LLC” states that federal law may provide for a company’s obligation to use a seal. This means that even after removing this attribute, there is a possibility that some new law the seal will still return.

Requirements for the seal of a legal entity

Requirements for the organization's seal were not established even when it was mandatory. An exception is made only for government institutions whose clichés use the coat of arms and mention the Russian Federation. Such prints must comply with the GOST R 51511-2001 standard.

And yet, most of the seals of commercial structures are similar to each other, and this is not accidental. The fact is that until 2005 there was an official register of prints, but only for Moscow. And it was the capital’s Registration Chamber that ensured that the requirements for the LLC seal were observed.

According to the order of the Moscow mayor No. 843-RM, only the following imprints were allowed for capital business:

  • Round– with a diameter of 38-42 mm;
  • Triangularequilateral triangle, the side length of which is 38-42 mm;
  • Rectangular- a rectangle with sides from 35-50 mm to 70-100 mm.

Choose any shape. The seal can be round, rectangular, triangular or any other shape.

In addition, the cliches had to indicate information about the full name, state registration number and location of the company.

There is no official register of stamps of commercial organizations and entrepreneurs. In order to order a company logo, you do not even need to provide copies to the manufacturer.

What does the LLC seal look like?

Samples of seals of commercial organizations can be found on the websites of stamp and cliche manufacturers. Modern technologies allow you to develop cliches with high degree protection of LLC seals from counterfeiting.

Modern printing options for the company:

  • Engraving of drawings and photographs using a laser;
  • The finest meshes less than 0.1 mm thick;
  • An original font designed specifically for the customer;
  • Security elements in accordance with GOST R 51511-2001, used for stamp images;
  • Ultraviolet, chemical and other control marks;
  • Embossing, etc.

A typical LLC seal sample looks like this:

Typically, the seals indicate the TIN, OGRN, full name of the organization, city and logo.

As we can see, although the organization’s seal does not have to comply with the requirements, all the individual characteristics that allow the identification of a legal entity are present here (company name, OGRN, locality). You can learn more about the forms and images of LLC seals from the video below:

Briefly the most important information about the organization's seal:

  1. The law does not oblige an LLC to use a company stamp, but such a requirement may be introduced at any time by a new federal law.
  2. The counterparty has the right to demand that an imprint be affixed when signing an agreement or other documents, and refusal to do so may lead to the failure of the transaction.
  3. If your company has a seal, this should be stated in the LLC charter, but there are no sanctions for violating this rule.
  4. Stamps developed for a legal entity do not need to be registered in tax office or other government agencies, because their official register is not maintained.
  5. It is recommended to develop and follow an internal procedure for the storage, use and destruction of LLC seals.
  6. Unscrupulous persons can order imprints similar to your organization’s corporate stamp, so it is worth making cliches using security measures.
  7. To reduce the risk of counterfeiting business documents It is recommended to familiarize your counterparties with the image of the company’s corporate imprint in advance.

We tried to answer all questions about LLC printing. Subscribe to our newsletter so you don't miss new publications.

A legal entity must have a seal in accordance with the requirements of the law on the relevant types legal entities:

Paragraph 5 of Article 2 of the Federal Law “On Limited Liability Companies” dated 02/08/98 N 14-FZ:

“The company must have a round seal containing its full company name in Russian and an indication of the location of the company. The company’s seal may also contain the company name in any language of the peoples of the Russian Federation and (or) a foreign language.
The Company has the right to have stamps and forms with its corporate name, its own emblem, as well as registered in in the prescribed manner trademark and other means of individualization."

Clause 7 of Article 2 of the Federal Law “On Joint-Stock Companies” dated December 12, 1995 N 208-FZ:

“The company must have a round seal containing its full company name in Russian and an indication of its location. The seal may also indicate the company name in any foreign language or the language of the peoples of the Russian Federation.
The company has the right to have stamps and forms with its name, its own emblem, as well as a trademark registered in the prescribed manner and other means of visual identification."

Clause 4 of Article 3 of the Federal Law “On Non-Profit Organizations” dated January 12, 1996 No. 12-FZ:

"Non-profit organization has a seal with the full name of this non-profit organization in Russian.
A non-profit organization has the right to have stamps and forms with its name, as well as a duly registered emblem."

The following persons have the right to place the State Emblem of the Russian Federation on the seal:

  • federal government bodies, other government bodies, organizations and institutions;
  • organizations and institutions, regardless of their form of ownership, vested with individual government powers;
  • bodies implementing state registration acts of civil status;
  • notaries;
  • justices of the peace.

Requirements for the details of seals with the coat of arms (official seals):

  • full name of the legal entity in nominative case, in brackets - its short name (if any);
  • main state registration number(OGRN);
  • taxpayer identification number (TIN);
  • code according to the All-Russian Classifier of Enterprises and Organizations (OKPO).

INN and OGRN numbers are required only on reproduction stamps State emblem RF (official seals), that is, they may not be indicated on other seals.

The legislation does not contain a ban on reflection additional information on the seal, and therefore you can, at your discretion, reflect the TIN, OGRN, trademark, logo on it.

There are no restrictions on the number of seals an organization can have. An organization may have several seals - for structural departments (HR department, secretariat, office), certification of certain documents (invoices, certificates, etc.).

Law No. 82-FZ, issued on April 6, 2015, abolished the obligation of companies to use the LLC seal and transferred it to the category of voluntary attributes. Article 2 of the Law “On LLC” now reads as follows: “The company has the right to have a seal, stamps and forms with its name, its own emblem.”

Do you need an LLC seal?

In fact, it will not be possible to abandon this attribute of a legal entity any time soon. The reasons for this are as follows:

  1. Article 2 of the Law “On LLC” now contains the following clause: “ Federal law the obligation of the company to use the seal may be provided.” This means that a newly adopted legislative act at the federal level may introduce its mandatory use in any situation.
  2. Changes to the voluntary use of stamps have been made in some regulations, but others still require their use. So, an imprint is still required in and on receipts. We must wait until the mention of the mandatory seal is removed from other acts, but for now in some situations it cannot be avoided. Of course, the departments noted the fact of cancellation, so they give own interpretation emerging controversial situations. Thus, Rostrud allowed the confirmation of entries in work books not with round imprints, but with stamps from the personnel service.
  3. If the counterparty to the transaction has not refused the seal, then when concluding the contract he has the right to demand its use from you. In this case, the transaction may not take place, because the parties must agree on all contractual terms.

Regarding documents sent to tax authorities(declarations, reports, certificates), the Federal Tax Service of Russia reports that regardless of changes to the orders of the tax service, they are accepted both with and without a company stamp (letter dated August 5, 2015 No. BS-4-17/13706@ ).

In addition, it is now recognized by default that the organization does not use a seal. If this is not the case, then the charter must contain information about its availability (Article 2 of Law No. 14-FZ). Again, it is not clear in what time frame the charter must be changed if such wording was not there. Nothing is said about liability for violating this norm or whether the organization’s seal is legitimate if the charter does not mention it. It turns out that the intention of legislators to simplify document circulation only added more questions and troubles for businessmen.

State Register

A special registration procedure is provided only when using stamp images, and official records of seals of commercial structures are not maintained. Nevertheless, for some time such a register existed, but only for Moscow. In 1998, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov issued an order to create a city register at the Moscow Registration Chamber.

All Moscow businessmen were required to register stamps in this register, for which a state fee was charged. This was a kind of arbitrariness of the capital’s mayor, because no other region of the Russian Federation had such an accounting procedure. Federal Tax Service, which is responsible for matters of registration of entities entrepreneurial activity, demanded to cancel the maintenance of the Moscow register. This happened only 7 years later - in February 2005.

For better or worse, in 2019 the state federal register of such an important attribute for a legal entity does not exist. To order a cliche, it is enough to send the company name, INN and checkpoint codes, and location via the Internet or telephone. No official paperwork is required to order, although some manufacturers request copies of the registration certificate.

Of course, with the current development of technology, you can order not only cliches according to your details, but also from any other organization according to the model. Unfortunately, an imprint on paper does not always guarantee legitimacy and belonging to a specific legal entity.

The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation establishes liability under Article 327 for forgery of documents and stamps, the punishment is up to two years in prison. If you want to guarantee the protection of business papers and the confidential information they contain, then you should use it for this.

Stamp manufacturers are also not standing still, offering the following methods of protection against counterfeiting:

  • laser engraving with halftone drawings and photographs;
  • a special font developed according to an algorithm for a specific customer;
  • multi-color flash technology;
  • guilloche grids of lines less than 0.1 mm thick;
  • protective elements in accordance with GOST R 51511-2001, which are used for official stamps;
  • control marks (micro-rotation, micro-displacement, micro-deformation of individual letters or their elements; imitation of a cliche defect, traces of dust, paint run-off, splashes, blots; inclusion of individual letters with a different font);
  • UV marks, visible only under ultraviolet light;
  • chemical labels;
  • relief cliche with embossing;
  • hidden images;
  • two-dimensional barcode of the Data-Matrix standard.

How more degrees protection, the more expensive the production will be. But while it is necessary to use this symbol of a legal entity in business, all measures must be taken to ensure its safety and the impossibility of falsifying the image.

What should the seal be like?

The legislation does not establish mandatory requirements for the organization's seal. In the previous version of Article 2 of the law on companies with limited liability it was only said about the presence in the details of a complete brand name in Russian and location (locality) of the LLC. Now the wording has been shortened to “... seal, stamps and forms with its name.” So, we can assume that there are no official requirements for the form and details of stamps of commercial structures.

However, if you look at what imprints look like on documents from different companies, you can see their obvious similarity to each other: in size and information contained. It is caused by the fact that professional manufacturers develop some of the cliches in accordance with GOST R 51511-2001, intended for stamp images. Accordingly, the equipment and operating standards for them were also applied to commercial customers.

Important: only a certain circle of persons have the right to place the coat of arms of the Russian Federation: federal authorities; government bodies, organizations, institutions; registry office authorities.

In addition, the order of the Moscow mayor No. 843-RM specified the requirements for appearance imprint:

  • round - circle with a diameter of 38-42 mm;
  • triangular - an equilateral triangle with a side length of 38-42 mm;
  • rectangular - a rectangle with sides measuring from 35-50 mm to 70-100 mm.

Regarding the information required to indicate the cliches of legal entities, the following requirements were given:

  • full name in Russian indicating the organizational and legal form;
  • location (settlement);
  • state registration number.

Corner stamps must also contain the full legal address and telephone number. The name of the enterprise in the language of the peoples of the Russian Federation or a foreign language, as well as a registered trademark, was also indicated on a voluntary basis.

A sample LLC seal, common for business in Russia, looks like this.

The identification symbol of your company can be anything you want, but it is still better to leave excessive creativity for internal use.