Every day, our support team receives questions such as: “Can I sign a contract using my company’s tax ID?” or “How can I make only the company tax ID appear in the signatures?”

From a legal perspective, any contract or document signed on behalf of a company must identify the representative responsible for that act. In other words, it must identify the individual who is acting on the company’s behalf.

This is because a legal entity, such as a company, is a legal construct. It is not a natural person and therefore cannot express its own will. For this reason, a company can only act through an individual representative, who must be clearly identified in the contract and/or in the signature.

What does a contract signed on behalf of a legal entity look like?

You may have seen contracts that include the expression “hereby represented by…” after the company’s identification details.

Maria Distribuições ME, headquartered at Rua Beta, no. 765, Beta district, São Paulo/SP, registered with the CNPJ under no. 12.345.678/0001-12 and with the state registry under no. 1234567, hereby represented by Maria Soares, Brazilian, married, businesswoman, holder of identity card no. 9.876.543 and registered with the CPF under no. 101.202.303-45, residing at Rua Delta, no. 432, Lual district, São Paulo/SP.

The party signing this contract is not “Maria Distribuições ME” itself, but Maria Soares, the company’s legal representative. As an individual, she has the authority to sign on behalf of the company, a legal entity registered with a Brazilian company tax ID, for that specific act. Both the company and its representative are properly identified in the contract.

Why specify a representative?

Another reason to always identify a representative in contracts is signature auditability.

Suppose several years have passed since a contract was signed and it is later challenged. In that case, it must be possible to determine who was responsible for signing it, whether that person had the authority to do so, and who may be held responsible for the act.

That is why including the details of the individual responsible for the signature is not just good practice. It is also essential for signature auditability.

Autentique helps you get it right: the platform requires all signer details to be completed and displays them on the signature page. Start signing your documents with Autentique for free today!