From Next Year, 'Private Electronic Signatures' to Be Introduced in Year-End Tax Settlement, Government24, and 국민신문고

Ministry of the Interior and Safety and 9 Electronic Signature Providers Sign Agreement to Expand Adoption in the Public Sector

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Starting next year, year-end tax settlement will be possible using private electronic signatures in addition to the public certification. Unlike the existing public certification, private electronic signatures do not require annual renewal, and the issuance and authentication procedures are simpler, which is expected to enhance convenience for the public.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 21st that from January 2021, various private electronic signature services will be available on major public websites such as 'Hometax Year-end Tax Settlement Simplification Service', 'Government24 Year-end Tax Settlement Resident Registration Copy Issuance Service', and 'People's Petition and Proposal Application Service' in addition to the existing public certification.

This follows the enforcement of the revised Electronic Signature Act on the 10th, which abolished the public certification system and granted equal legal effect to various private electronic signatures.

Since September, the government has been conducting a 'pilot project for expanding electronic signatures in the public sector', and as a result, nine companies including Kakao, telecommunication company PASS (ATON, KT, LGU+, SKT), Korea Information Certificate Authority (Samsung PASS), KB Kookmin Bank, and NHN Payco were selected as the final pilot project operators.

On the 21st, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety will sign a business agreement with these nine electronic signature operators to establish a cooperative system for the smooth introduction of private electronic signatures in the public sector, aiming to gradually expand the scope of the project so that the public can use various private electronic signatures on more public websites.

According to the agreement, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety will actively support the contracted electronic signature operators to smoothly provide electronic signature services through the common electronic signature authentication infrastructure. The operators must cooperate to ensure that the public can safely use various electronic signature services on major public websites and strive for stable service introduction and quality improvement.