1. Who may instruct us

You confirm that you, and any other person you nominate in writing from time to time (provided we have acknowledged such nomination), are authorised to give us instructions and information on behalf of all persons we are acting for and to receive our advice and documents on their behalf.

 

If we are acting for a business, and we receive conflicting advice, information or instructions from different persons, we may refer the matter to the board of directors, partners or proprietors (as applicable) and act only as requested by them.

 

2. You and your spouse/partner

We will advise you and your spouse/partner on the basis that you are a family unit with shared interests.  We may deal with either of you and may discuss with either of you the affairs of the other. If you wish to change these arrangements, please let us know.

 

3. Joint and several liability of related entities and family members

Where this engagement covers more than one business entity or family member (as set out in the engagement letter), each of those entities and individuals engages us on the terms set out in the engagement letter and is bound by those terms. All entities and individuals listed are jointly and severally liable to pay our fees, regardless of which of them our invoices are addressed to and regardless of which of them received the benefit of the work performed.

 

4. Know your customer

We may be required to verify your identity for the purposes of the anti-money laundering laws. We may request from you such information as we require for these purposes and make searches of appropriate databases.

 

5. Your responsibilities

You must provide us with all information necessary for dealing with your affairs, in sufficient time to enable our services to be completed before any applicable deadline. Our capacity to complete work on time depends on receiving it in a reasonable period before the relevant due date (we recommend at least 30 days) and receiving timely answers to any queries we raise. We will rely on such information being true, correct and complete and will not audit the information.

 

You authorise us to approach such third parties as may be appropriate for information that we consider necessary to deal with your affairs, and you must arrange reasonable access for us to relevant individuals and documents.

 

You must keep us informed on a timely basis of changes in your circumstances that may affect our services, and you are responsible for maintaining an adequate accounting and internal control system. Under the self-assessment system, you must keep full and proper records to enable accurate returns to be prepared and retain those records for five (5) years.

 

6. Your Obligations & Rights​

The Tax Agents Services Act 2009 requires us to advise you of your rights and obligations where we are acting for you on taxation matters.  In relation to the taxation services provided:

• You are subject to the self-assessment system in relation to any of your income tax returns.  The Commissioner is entitled to rely on any statements made in your income tax returns.  Where those statements are later found to be incorrect, the Commissioner may amend your income tax assessments and, in addition to any tax assessed, you may also be liable for penalties and interest charges.

• You have an obligation to keep proper records that will substantiate the taxation returns prepared and which will satisfy the substantiation requirements of the Income Tax Assessment Act.  Failure to keep such records could result in claims being disallowed, additional tax being imposed, and the imposition of penalty or general interest charges.

• You are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the particulars and information required to comply with the various taxation laws.  We will use this information supplied in the preparation of your returns.

• Your rights as a taxpayer include:

• The right to seek a private ruling;

• The right to object to an assessment by the Commissioner;

• The right to appeal against an adverse decision by the Commissioner.

 

7. Qualifications on our services

To the extent our services involve the performance of services established by law, nothing in the engagement letter or these terms reduce our obligations under such law.

 

You must not act on advice given by us on an earlier occasion without first confirming with us that the advice is still valid.

 

Our services are limited exclusively to those you have engaged us to perform.  Our services cannot be relied upon to disclose irregularities and errors, including fraud and other illegal acts, in your affairs. Neither an audit nor a review will be conducted and, accordingly, no assurance will be expressed.

 

Where our engagement is recurring, we may amend our engagement letter and these terms where we consider it is necessary or appropriate to do so.  If you do not accept such amendments, you must notify us promptly in which case you may terminate our engagement in accordance with the Termination clause below and those amendments will not apply prior to such termination. 

 

8. Reliance on advice

We will endeavour to record all advice on important matters in writing. Verbal advice (for example, given in a meeting or phone call) is not intended to be relied upon unless we confirm in writing. If you wish to rely on verbal advice, you must ask us to confirm the advice in writing.

 

9. Investment and financial advisory advice

We will not provide you with investment or financial advice regulated under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). We do not hold an applicable Australian Financial Services Licence number.

 

10. Professional obligations

We will comply with the professional and ethical standards of the Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards Board, available at apesb.org.au. This includes APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (including Independence Standards), which among other things contains provisions that apply if we become aware of any actual or potential ‘non-compliance with governing laws or regulations’ (NOCLAR). Where any such non-compliance poses substantial harm (such as serious adverse consequences to investors, creditors, employees, auditor, group auditor or the public), we may be required to disclose the matter to an appropriate authority.

 

11. Conflicts of interest

We will inform you if we become aware of any conflict of interest in our relationship with you (including between the various persons this engagement letter covers) or in our relationship with you and another client. Where conflicts are identified which cannot be managed in a way that protects your interests then we will be unable to provide further services to some or all of the persons to whom this engagement applies. If this arises, we will inform you promptly.

 

We may act for other clients whose interests are not the same as or are adverse to yours, subject to the obligations of conflicts of interest and confidentiality referred to above.

 

12. Fees and payment

Our fees will be charged on the basis set out in the engagement letter and have been set based on the level of skill, responsibility, importance and value of the advice, as well as the level of risk. Any fee estimate we provide is an estimate only; actual fees may vary. Where we quote a fixed fee, and unforeseen circumstances make that fee inadequate, we may notify you of a revised figure and seek your agreement to it.

 

We will bill periodically for ongoing work and upon completion of other work. Our invoicing occurs monthly at the end of every month. Any time spent working on your affairs will be progress billed at the end of the month, regardless of stage of completion. Invoices are due for payment within 14 days of issue. Our fees set out in our engagement letter are exclusive of GST which will be added to our invoice where it is chargeable. Any disbursements and expenses we incur in the course of performing our services will be added to our invoices where appropriate.

 

In some cases, you may be entitled to assistance with your professional fees, particularly in relation to any investigation into your tax affairs by the ATO. Assistance may be provided through insurance policies you hold or via membership of a professional or trade body. Other than where such insurance was arranged through us, you will need to advise us of any such insurance cover that you have. You remain liable for our fees regardless of whether all or part are to be paid by someone else.

 

Our fees do not include the costs of any counsel, or other professionals or third parties engaged with your approval, unless otherwise agreed.

 

We may charge interest on late paid invoices at the rate of 2% above the RBA cash rate. We may also suspend our services or to cease to act for you on giving written notice if payment of any fees is unduly delayed. We intend to exercise these rights only where it is fair and reasonable to do so.

 

13. Lien

If permitted by law or professional guidelines, we may exercise a lien over all materials or records in our possession relating to all engagements for you until all outstanding fees and disbursements are paid in full.

 

14. Confidentiality

We will treat as confidential, and take all reasonable steps to maintain the confidentiality of all information and records you provide to us, except where:

• we need to disclose your information to our service providers (including auditors of client monies if applicable) or regulatory bodies in performing the services, our professional advisers or insurers or as part of an external peer review from time to time. Our files may also be subject to review as part of the quality review program of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and Certified CPA Australia. By accepting this engagement you acknowledge that, if requested, our files relating to this engagement will be made available under this program. We will take reasonable steps to ensure any such recipient (other than a regulatory body) keeps such information confidential on the same basis;

• we are required by law, regulation, a court of competent authority, or those professional obligations referred to in section 8 above, to disclose the information;

• we provide limited information (but only to the extent reasonably necessary) to potential purchasers (or their professional advisors) of our practice but we will take reasonable steps to ensure that any such recipient keeps the disclosed information confidential; or

• you give us permission to disclose the information.  

 

We may, from time to time, engage staff or contract personnel we consider appropriate to complete your work. Those personnel will have access to your accounting and taxation records only for the purpose of completing the agreed engagement and they will remain subject to our supervision and control at all times.

 

We may retain your information during and after our engagement to comply with our legal requirements or as part of our regular IT back-up and archiving practices. We will continue to hold such information confidentially. We may mention that you are a client for promotional purposes.

 

15. Privacy and storage of personal information

You must make all necessary notifications and obtain any necessary consents for us to process personal information you provide to us. We collect and use that personal information for the purposes of providing the services described in the engagement letter to you and we will comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) when processing that personal information. Our privacy policy provides further details of our privacy practices. 

 

By signing this letter and accepting our services, you acknowledge and agree that your personal information may be stored overseas. Our Privacy Policy outlines in detail our commitment to being responsible data custodians.

 

16. Ownership of documents and materials

All original documents obtained from you in the course of this engagement remain your property. We reserve the right to retain a reasonable number of copies for our records.

 

This engagement will result in the product of certain output documents, such as income tax returns or financial statements, which will be supplied to you, whether in hard copy or electronic form. Ownership of these output documents vests in you.

 

All other documents and materials we produce in connection with this engagement, including working papers, models, and internal analysis, remain our property and we own the copyright and all other intellectual property rights in them. Unless we agree otherwise, you may use such materials only for the purpose for which you have engaged us.

 

17. Limitation of liability

Our liability is limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation. Further information about the scheme is available from the Professional Standards Councils’ website at psc.gov.au. We hold professional indemnity insurance that meets the requirements of that scheme; details of our cover are available from us on request.

 

You agree not to bring any claim against any of our partners, directors, shareholders or employees in their personal capacity. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable to you for indirect, special or consequential losses or damages of any kind; or liability arising due to the acts or omissions of any other person or circumstances outside our reasonable control, or your breach of these terms.

 

18. Limitation of third party rights

Our advice and information is for your sole use, and we accept no responsibility to any third party, unless we have expressly agreed in the engagement letter that a specified third party may rely on our work. 

 

19. Termination

Each of us may terminate this agreement by giving not less than 21 days’ notice in writing to the other party except where a conflict of interest has arisen, you fail to cooperate with us or we have reason to believe that you have provided us or any other person with misleading or factually inaccurate information, in which case we may terminate this agreement immediately. Termination will not affect any accrued rights.

 

20. Communication

You must advise us promptly of any changes to your contact details.  We may send communications to the last contact details you have provided. Unless you instruct us otherwise we may, where appropriate, communicate with you and with third parties via email or by other electronic means. The recipient is responsible for virus checking emails and any attachments. There is a risk of non-receipt, delayed receipt, inadvertent misdirection or interception by third parties in any form of communication, whether electronic, postal or otherwise.  We are not responsible for any such matters beyond our control.

You can expect to receive a returned phone call or a response to an email within 24 hours, if not the same day, of contacting us.

 

21. Turnaround times

Turnaround time on your file is governed primarily by lodgement due dates set by the Australian Taxation Office. For year-end compliance and taxation preparation, our benchmark is a maximum of eight weeks from the date we receive full and complete information required to finalise your file, although this may vary depending on workload and client priorities. We will communicate in advance any change to this or any other agreed completion date.

 

22. Applicable Law

Our engagement is governed by Tasmanian law.  The courts sitting in that State will have non-exclusive jurisdiction in relation to any dispute between us.

 

23. Interpretation

If any provision of the engagement letter or these terms is void, that provision will be severed and the remainder will continue to apply.  If there is any conflict between the engagement letter and these terms, these terms prevail.

 

24. Disputes and complaints

If you have any concerns about our costs or services, please speak to the person responsible for this engagement, who is identified in our engagement letter.  We ask that complaints be put in writing so that the responsible partner can review the matter fully and decide on the appropriate course of action. We will provide a response within 14 days of receiving a written complaint. To resolve your concerns we have policies and procedures in place to deal appropriately with complaints and will use best endeavours to resolve a complaint or dispute to the mutual satisfaction of the parties involved. We may require you to further detail your complaint in writing to allow us to fully investigate any concerns that you raise. If, after following this process, you remain dissatisfied with our response, you may refer your complaint to our professional body or, where applicable, the Tax Practitioners Board at www.tpb.gov.au.

 

25. Third party responsibilities

We may use outsourced service providers and cloud computing service providers and other third parties from time to time and as separately notified to you, and may provide them with access to your data to the extent this is required to perform the services. Your data will be stored in servers physically located in Australia, unless otherwise specified, and in accordance with the security practices of the third party service provider and our Privacy Policy.

 

26. Australian Taxation Office communication

By signing this agreement, you give us express written authority to designate our preferred address(es) for service of ATO communications for all your associated business, family members and associates covered by this engagement. You acknowledge and have received an explanation that some ATO communications may be sent or retrieved digitally and others by post.

 

27. Register of Tax Agents and BAS Agents available for you to search

The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) maintains a register with details of registered, suspended and deregistered tax and BAS agents.  This register is available to the public to search at https://www.tpb.gov.au/public-register.

 

We are obliged to advise clients of certain events which may influence your decision to engage us as your tax agent registration.  There are no current issues of which we are obliged to advise you.

 

We are also obliged to advise you whether there are any conditions attached to our registration. 

There are no current conditions attached to our registration.