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.
 

PURPOSE

Our general advice will cover Income Tax and Goods & Services Tax. It will not cover any indirect taxes such as stamp duty, land tax or payroll tax.
 

RESPONSIBILITIES

You must provide us with all information necessary for dealing with your affairs, including information which we reasonably request, in sufficient time to enable our services to be completed before any applicable deadline. We will rely on such information being true, correct and complete and will not audit the information [except to the extent we are specifically engaged to provide audit-related services]
 

You authorise us to approach such third parties as may be appropriate for information that we consider necessary to deal with your affairs.
 

You must keep us informed on a timely basis of changes in your circumstances that may affect our services.
 

INVOLVEMENT OF OTHERS

Where, as part of our engagement, the services of an external consultant or expert are required, an estimated cost and timeframe and involvement will be provided to you for your approval.
 

DETAILS OF SERVICES THAT MAY BE PROVIDED
 

• Income Tax
  If this Firm has been engaged to prepare and lodge income tax returns for your Group:This Firm will not be responsible for reviewing or verifying any financial records or statements provided to it either via manual cashbooks or prepared on accounting software such as MYOB, Xero or QuickBooks. Correct coding or classification of accounts is outside the scope of our engagement. If assistance is required on how to correctly code, or to review how you currently do so, please discuss this with us. This will entail work which is outside the scope of this letter and will be charged as additional services.
   
  

  Also please ensure that you have all source documentation available to allow this Firm to analyse the income tax implications of any transaction if we request to see it. Whilst we will not, as a matter of course, be looking at these documents, the ATO will expect you (and you are required) to have them available before any claim is made in your income tax return. We may, in some circumstances, also request to see source documents if a tax issue is particularly contentious.
   

  It is also expected that, in respect of individual income tax returns, each person will have the necessary documents so as to comply with the substantiation provisions of the Income Tax Assessment Act.
   

  We may specifically advise as to the requirements of the substantiation provisions relating to your income tax return and of the necessity to obtain acceptable receipts as specifically required by the legislation. We will not, however, be checking that the requirements of the substantiation provisions have been satisfied.
   

  This specifically means that we will not be reviewing your logbook or any calculations or information you provide us, such as a rental property schedule, either prepared by you on a spreadsheet or by a property manager. If you require assistance in completing a logbook or preparing any calculations, or you would like us to review such work, please discuss this with us. This will entail work that is outside the scope of this letter and will be charged as additional services.
   

  From time to time, this Firm prepares templates and schedules to assist with the collation of information to complete income tax returns. These will be provided free of charge.
   

  The fee for this service does not cover any inquiries made to us or investigations involving us conducted by the ATO. Substantial penalties apply for an incorrectly prepared income tax return. If you have any queries in respect to this, please contact our office for assistance.
   

• Financial Statements
  If this Firm has been engaged to prepare the annual financial accounts of the Entities in your Group: This service includes the preparation of:
  • a profit and loss statement;
  • a balance sheet; and
  • notes for the above accounts.
     

  This work will be conducted in accordance with the relevant professional and ethical standards issued by the Accounting Professional & Ethical Standards Board Limited (APESB) and with applicable legislation.
   

• Activity Statements (BAS/IAS)
  We will prepare and lodge your Business Activity Statements (BAS) and/or Instalment Activity Statements (IAS) as required, ensuring compliance with Australian Taxation Office (ATO) regulations. This service includes reviewing data provided by you for accuracy and completeness. If any amendments or clarifications are required, we will notify you before lodgement.
   
• Bookkeeping
  Our bookkeeping services include:
  • Accurate and timely recording of financial transactions in your accounting software.
  • Reconciliation of bank accounts, credit card accounts, and other financial statements.
  • Maintenance of accurate and up-to-date records for tax and compliance purposes.
     
• Payroll Processing
  We will not be responsible for the accuracy or compliance with any payroll-related matters for which we are engaged but which occurred prior to the commencement of our engagement. Sometimes, our ability to perform our services will be hindered by prior mistakes or inaccuracy of information prior to the commencement of our engagement, with some common examples being:
  • Payroll software that has been set up incorrectly by a party other than our Firm
  • Incorrectly completed TFN Declarations or Superannuation Guarantee Choice forms
  • Employees who have been set up incorrectly in the payroll software
  • Deficient payroll software
  • Underpayment of PAYG withholding in prior periods
  • Underpayment of Superannuation Guarantee in prior periods
  • Deficient record-keeping
     

  We will not conduct an audit of prior period payroll records unless instructed. If we identify any such issues, we will discuss these with you and if you choose to have our Firm investigate and resolve the issue for you, we will be only too pleased to assist; however, our time in resolving the issues will be fully and separately charged as independent assignments in their own right.
   

• Fringe Benefit Tax
  We can assist in the preparation and lodgement of FBT returns, including guidance on eligible benefits and applicable exemptions. If required, we can provide support to ensure compliance with FBT reporting obligations.
   
• Corporate Secretarial
  As part of our corporate secretarial services, we ensure compliance with statutory obligations, including:
  • Maintenance of company registers.
  • Preparation and lodgement of ASIC forms.
  • Assistance with minutes and resolutions for company meetings.
     
• General Advice and Assistance
  We provide general business advice, including:
  • Guidance on financial and tax matters.
  • Support for business planning, budgeting, and cash flow management.
  • Recommendations to optimise compliance and operational efficiency.
     

INFORMATION SHARING

We share basic information with other entities part of the Firm’s group for referral purposes. By accepting this engagement, you consent to your information being passed on for referral to either our internal provider or an external business.
 

RELIANCE ON ADVICE

We will endeavour to record all advice on important matters in writing. Advice given verbally is not intended to be relied upon unless confirmed in writing. If we provide verbal advice (for example during a meeting or telephone conversation) that you wish to rely on, you must ask us to confirm the advice in writing.
 

INVESTMENT AND FINANCIAL ADVISORY ADVICE

We will not provide you with investment or financial advice regulated under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) unless we have expressly agreed to do so in writing, specifying an applicable Australian Financial Services Licence number.
 

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’. Where any such non-compliance poses substantial harm (such as serious adverse consequences to investors, creditors, employees, auditor, or the public), we may be required to disclose the matter to an appropriate authority.
 

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.
 

FEES

We charge by reference to the time we spend to complete the services identified within the engagement letter.
 

Fees are estimates based on our experience with clients of similar size in your industry and our understanding of the job, should circumstances be different, we reserve the right to revise the estimates, however if a revise is needed, we will seek your written consent as soon as possible.
 

Further details around fees may be provided to you in the form of a fee estimate document or service plan document.
 

Our Firm will issue an invoice to you for services performed. Payment will be due in full no later than 14 days from the issue of the invoice.
 

If the amount payable on the invoice is not paid within the due date, at our discretion, the amount owing may be referred to an external collection agency. You agree to be responsible for any collection costs, including commission fees, relating to the collection of any overdue amounts owed to the Firm.
 

For all year-end work that comes into our Firm, we will lodge the relevant tax returns with the ATO once one of the following has been completed:

a. Payment has been received in full
b. If you are on a monthly agreement, payments must be up to date, or
c. A payment plan has been agreed.
 

If we have been engaged to act as your ASIC agent, in addition to our professional fees, you will be responsible for the payment of expenses that we incur on your behalf (together with the GST that we pay in relation to such expenses as set out below). Certain government charges and fees included in some matters undertaken in the scope of our engagement are effectively “GST free” to the applicant but will attract the 10% GST if paid by this Firm and then passed on to you as part of our services. Accordingly for certain disbursements in this category, namely:

a. ASIC fees
b. Incorporations and set up of entities
c. Other specific disbursements notified from time to time
 

For all other disbursements (couriers, searches etc) the treatment will be the same as for professional fees – this Firm will incur the costs at first instance and invoice them to you after making allowance for any GST input tax credits received by us on the acquisition. These invoices will include GST for which you may be entitled to claim an input tax credit.
 

Director’s Personal Liability for Unpaid Fees
If invoices are issued in the name of a company and remain unpaid, the director(s) will be personally liable for the outstanding debt. The unpaid fees will be transferred to the director(s) in their personal capacity, and debt recovery actions, including reporting to credit agencies, may be pursued in their name.
 

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.
 

CLIENT MONIES

Where we maintain a trust account for dealing with client monies on their behalf, we can only accept money into our trust account on your behalf if you have provided us with a written trust account authority, which details the authority given to us in relation to that trust money.
 

CONFIDENTIALITY

We will take all reasonable steps to keep your information confidential, 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 & 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 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 retain your information during and after our engagement to comply with our legal requirements or as part of our regular IT backup and archiving practices. We will continue to hold such information confidentially.
 
We may mention that you are a client for promotional purposes.
 

PRIVACY

You must make all necessary notifications and obtain any necessary consent for us to process the 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.
 

OWNERSHIP OF MATERIALS

The final Financial Statements, Income Tax Returns and any other documents which we are specifically engaged to prepare, together with any original documents given to us by you, shall remain your property. However, we reserve the right to make a reasonable number of copies of the original documents for our records. All other documents produced by us in respect of this agreement will remain our property.
 

LIMITED LIABILITY

We hold professional indemnity insurance of at least the minimum amount prescribed in the CA-ANZ or CPA Australia By-Laws or as required by law.
 

LIMITATION OF THIRD-PARTY RIGHTS

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

TERMINATION

The terms of this engagement will have continuous effect unless superseded by a new engagement or termination. We will not continue to act for you if you:

• Do not pay our invoice
• Fail to give us adequate documentation or instructions
   

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.
 

We reserve the right to issue you a final invoice for work undertaken up until termination. By signing this letter, you agree to pay all unpaid invoices upon termination.
 

COMMUNICATION

You must advise of any changes to your contact details. We may send any 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.
 

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.
 

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. To resolve your concerns, we have policies and procedures in place to deal appropriately with complaints and will use our best endeavours to resolve a complaint or dispute to the mutual satisfaction of the parties involved. We may require you to detail your complaint in writing to allow us to fully investigate any concerns that you raise.
 
Where your complaint concerns a tax agent service that we have provided, you also have the right to make a complaint to the Tax Practitioners Board in accordance with their complaints process described here: https://www.tpb.gov.au/complaints
 

THIRD-PARTY RESPONSIBILITIES

We may utilise outsourced service providers and cloud computing service providers.
 

To perform the services, we may provide these third parties with access to your data to the extent this is required to perform the services.
 

Your data will be stored securely in Australia (unless otherwise specified) and in accordance with the security practices of the third-party service provider and our Privacy Policy.
 

CONSUMER DATA RIGHTS

You may consent for an Accredited Data Recipient under the Consumer Data Right (CDR) to disclose your CDR data to us. You may nominate us as your Trusted Adviser for this purpose. As your Trusted Adviser, we will only access the data necessary to provide the services in this engagement letter.
 

CONFIRMATION/ACCEPTANCE

There are many matters to consider in this agreement, and we ask that you consider all aspects of these terms to ensure that you are satisfied with the scope of our agreement. Please contact us if you have any queries about these Terms and Conditions.
 

We now provide SMS delivery alongside the standard email delivery for the digital signing of documents. This will give you the choice to sign by using your mobile phone or computer. Please notify us if this is not something you would like to receive via SMS.
 

We thank you for the opportunity to provide accounting and taxation services to you and your Group.
 

Yours sincerely,
 

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