Terms and Conditions

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 partner

We will advise you and your 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. 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.

4. Your responsibilities, rights and obligations

You are responsible for full disclosure of all relevant information. You are responsible for your own record keeping relating to your affairs. You are responsible for the reliability, accuracy and completeness of the particulars and information provided to us.

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.

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.

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. You must retain your paperwork for a period of five years after the assessment as you may be subject to an Australian Taxation Office review. 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.

Certain time limitations may exist for you to exercise these rights. Should you wish to exercise these rights at any time you should contact us so that we can provide you with the relevant time frames and to discuss any additional requirements that may exist.

5. Qualifications on our services

To the extent our services involve the performance of services established by law, nothing in the engagement 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.  Unless otherwise specified in the engagement document, 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 in any regard.

Where our engagement is recurring, we may amend our engagement 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 section 19 below and those amendments will not apply prior to such termination. 

6. 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.

7. Investment and financial advisory advice

We will not provide you with investment or financial advice regulated under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) as we are not licensed to provide any investment or financial advice. Should you need any investment or financial advice, we suggest you seek it from an independent, experienced and licenced financial planning professional.

8. Audit and Assurance services

In providing these services, it is agreed that we will not undertake any independent audit of the financial statements or income tax returns prepared. Our involvement in this type of engagement will not disclose fraud, defalcations or other irregularities which may occur. Our role will be limited to assistance in the compilation of the financial statements and preparation of the relevant tax lodgements based on the information and records provided by you to us. You and your employees are responsible for the maintenance of internal control for all business entity owned or controlled by you. The financial statements prepared will contain an appropriate disclaimer that identifies the extent and limitation of our role. We are entitled to rely on the records provided as being both accurate and complete. Consequently, no person should rely on the financial report without having an audit or review conducted by an independent, experienced and licenced audit or assurance professional.

While our engagement does not include the audit of your financial statements or income tax returns, we are required by the Tax Agents Services Act 2009 to satisfy ourselves as to the reasonableness of the information and claims being made in the income tax returns.  The legislation provides the basis for this and may require us to make further enquiries of you or your nominated representatives from time to time.  Where possible, we will endeavour to identify the information required in advance.

We will not provide you with any audit, assurance or review services in relation to services performed under this engagement. Should you need any audit or assurance service, we suggest you seek it from an independent, experienced and licenced audit or assurance professional.

9. Professional obligations

We will comply with the professional and ethical standards of the Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards Board, available at apesb.org.au.

We will perform procedures (guided by the APES suite of standards) required that are directly related to the engagement consistent with our Fundamental Principles of integrity, objectivity, professional competence and due care, confidentiality, professional behaviour, and identifying, avoiding and dealing with conflicts of interests. We will seek to understand your requirements and provide you services confidentially and professionally.  We will document sufficient and appropriate records of the procedures performed for this engagement which may be subject to quality review by Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand under APES 320 Quality Control for Firms.

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.

We are responsible for maintaining records for a period of five years unless otherwise required by legislation.

10. 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 document 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.

11. Fees and payment

Our fees will be charged on the basis set out in the engagement document and have been set based on the level of skill, responsibility, importance and value of the advice, as well as the level of risk. 

If we have provided you with an estimate of our fees for any specific work, this is an estimate only and our actual fees may vary.

We may provide a fixed fee for the provision of specific services. If it becomes apparent to us, due to unforeseen circumstances, that a fixed fee is inadequate, we may notify you of a revised figure and seek your agreement to it.

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 will remain liable for our fees regardless of whether all or part are to be paid by someone else.

We will bill as mentioned in our engagement document and our invoices are due for payment within 7 days of issue or mentioned otherwise. Our fees set out in our engagement document and annexure scope and fee for services 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.

Unless otherwise agreed to the contrary, our fees do not include the costs of any counsel, or other professionals or third parties engaged with your approval.

Where you have opted to pay our fees via direct debit service, we may charge you an additional direct debit fee of up to 2% of the invoiced amount. In case of dishonour of direct debit payments, an admin fee of $25 plus GST will be charged for each dishonoured event.

Where you have opted to pay our fees via POS/online terminal using a debit/credit card, we may charge you an additional fee of up to 2% of the invoiced amount.

Each entity/individual of your group is jointly and severally liable to pay our fee in respect of all work performed for all entities and individuals of your group. Acceptance of this engagement document is a guarantee by one or more persons who are associated with the group but are not themselves our clients (for example, company directors) to pay our fees. If you fail to provide this required guarantee, we may suspend work or terminate engagement.

We may charge interest on late paid invoices at the rate of 4% 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.

12. 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.

13. Client monies

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 letter which details the authority given to us in relation to that trust money. Where requested, this service is provided at an additional charge of $20 per transaction.

For treatment of tax refunds, any tax refunds owing to any of your entity/individual will be directed to the nominated bank account of respective entity/individual. You also authorise us to direct any tax refunds to our tax agent trust bank account from the ATO if any of our professional fees is outstanding by any entity/individual of your group. In such case, the refund for any entity/individual of your group will be applied as a payment against our outstanding professional fees and the balance, if any, will be transferred to the nominated bank account of respective entity/individual.

14. 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 or best practice program of 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 9 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 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

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 document 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. 

From time to time, we may be asked to provide copies of the financial statements, income tax returns or other information produced in the course of this engagement for the entities or individuals involved. 

If we are requested to provide this information (including to a third party such as a financial institution), any one person subject to this engagement can provide this authorisation. For example, if one person subject to this engagement requests information regarding an entity or other individuals of your family group then we have authority to provide this information to them without seeking further authorisation.

Where you provide personal information to us, you confirm that the provision of this information is compliant with the Privacy Act, you have authority to provide this information to us, and you are aware that this information is being provided to us and why.

16. Ownership of materials

We own the copyright and all other intellectual property rights in everything we create in connection with this engagement. Unless we agree otherwise, anything we create in connection with this agreement may be used by you 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.

You agree not to bring any claim against any of our principals, partners, directors, owners 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 document 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 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.

21. Applicable Law

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

22. Interpretation

If any provision of the engagement document 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 document and these terms, these terms prevail.

23. 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 document.  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 detail your complaint in writing to allow us to fully investigate any concerns that you raise.

Where your complaint concerns a tax agent service or BAS 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.

24. Third party responsibilities

We may utilise outsourced service providers and cloud computing service providers to perform services.

To perform the services, we may provide these third parties or any other necessary staff/contractor/professional with access to your data to the extent this is required to perform the services.

Your data may be stored in servers managed by abovementioned service providers, some of these providers may store data on servers domiciled in countries other than Australia, in accordance with the security practices of the third party service provider and our Privacy Policy. We take all reasonable measures to protect your privacy.

Currently, we utilise the services of our back office based in India. This back office is under our direct supervision and control. All work is monitored, reviewed and completed by us. By engaging us, you confirm your acceptance for use of our back office to perform services. If you do not want us to use our back office to perform services, please notify us beforehand.

25. 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.

26. 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.