Basildon Business Accounting Taxation and Accounting Services Standard Engagement Terms

1. Scope

Please review and agree to the following Terms of Engagement prior to accepting any quote from Basildon Business Accounting or instructing Basildon Business Accounting to perform any professional services on your behalf. We endeavour to act in the best interests of our clients at all times and offer professional, high-quality services. Our Tax Agent number is 0082 4003.

Our standard engagement terms are set out below .

We will:

Please note that our engagement cannot be relied upon to discover any irregularities including fraud, illegal acts and errors that may exist. However, we will inform you of any such matters that come to our attention.

If the scope does not meet your requirements or you would like to discuss the scope with us further, please inform us.

We consider that we have the necessary expertise to perform the services we offer. However, any changes to the scope of the services required may require us to reconsider the terms of our engagement and/or make new arrangements with you.

If you wish to change the scope of our instructions please contact us.

2. Your disclosure and record keeping obligations

You are required by law to keep full and accurate records relating to your tax. It is your obligation to provide us with all information that you reasonably expect will be necessary to allow us to perform work contemplated under this engagement within a timely manner or as requested. This includes providing accurate and complete responses to questions asked of you by us within a reasonable time frame. Inaccurate, incomplete or late information could have a material effect on our services and/or our conclusions and may result in additional fees. We will not verify the underlying accuracy or completeness of information you provide to us.

You are also required to advise us on a timely basis if there are any changes to your circumstances that may be relevant to the performance of our services. Specifically, if any subsequent event results in the information you provided to us being inaccurate, incomplete or misleading, then you are obliged to advise us as soon as possible. We take no responsibility to the extent that our advice or work is inaccurate, incomplete or misleading if this is due to it being based on inaccurate, incomplete or misleading information being provided to us.

By accepting these terms, you will be taken to have agreed that the performance of our services is dependent on the performance of your obligations relating to disclosure and record keeping.

The Taxation Administration Act 1953 contains specific provisions that may provide you with “safe harbours” from administrative penalties for incorrect or late lodgement of returns if, amongst other things, you give us “all relevant taxation information” in a timely manner (the safe harbour provisions apply from 1 March 2010). Accordingly, it is to your advantage that all relevant information is disclosed to us as any failure by you to provide this information may affect your ability to rely on the “safe harbour” provisions and will be taken into account in determining the extent to which we have discharged our obligations to you.

You are also required to advise us if you become aware of any conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest. Generally, a conflict of interest is any event which may result in us becoming unable to remain objective in the performance of our services to you. Some examples of events which could give rise to a conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest during this engagement are changes to your business circumstances, events affecting your family (e.g. death and/or marriage breakdown) or a legal action commencing against you.

3. Your rights and obligations under the taxation laws

You have certain rights under the taxation laws, including the right to seek a private ruling from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) or to appeal or object against a decision made by the Commissioner. As relevant, we will provide further information to you concerning your rights under the Australian taxation laws during the conduct of the engagement contemplated by these terms.

You also have certain obligations under the taxation laws, such as the obligation to keep proper records and the obligation to lodge returns by the due date.

4. Our obligation to comply with the law

We have a duty to act in your best interests. However, the duty to act in your best interests is subject to an overriding obligation to comply with the law even if that may require us to act in a manner that may be contrary to your interests. For example, we could not lodge an income tax return for you that we knew to be false in a material respect.

We also have an obligation to ensure that we manage conflicts of interest as they arise. We have internal arrangements in place to ensure that we properly manage potential or actual conflicts of interest. The effective operation of these arrangements depends, in part, on you complying with your obligation to disclose any potential conflicts of interest to us (see section 2 above).

Our advice and/or services will be based on Australian taxation law in force at the date of the provision of the advice and/or services. It is your responsibility to seek updated advice if you intend to rely on our advice at a later stage. We note that Australian taxation laws are subject to frequent change and our advice will not be updated unless specifically requested by you at the time of the change in law or announced change in law.

5. Confidentiality

We will not disclose any information relating to your affairs to any third party without your consent, unless required by law. You may provide us with permission to disclose your confidential information in certain circumstances, or place conditions on the disclosure of certain confidential information. If you do so, we will have permission to disclose the relevant information accordingly, in the performance of our services, unless you instruct us otherwise in writing.

6. Fees for professional services

Our fees are quoted up front, and are an estimate, based on the amount of time and the level of staff required to complete the services identified and any other additional costs that we expect to incur in providing these services.

Typically we will quote

Additional services (extra work) are not included in the fixed fee, and will be charged at the hourly rate as current at the time of the work being carried out. Additional services include

We will not charge you for

The actual time and cost of completing work may be influenced by matters outside our control such as unforeseeable delays, the level of co-operation of third persons, inadequate or insufficient documentation being provided, changes in your instructions, other changes in circumstances that come to our attention and/or increased statutory costs. Any quote we provide will be based on our current understanding of the nature and scale of the activities of the entities and individuals the engagement relates to.

Additionally, where we have quoted for ongoing work, we may from time to time review the quote, and may at our discretion increase the fee to account for inflation and any other similar factors.

It should be noted that in general we depend upon the provision of accurate and timely information and documentation to allow us to properly carry out our engagement obligations. As such, any rectifying work that is required as a result of incorrect or late information will be work which is outside the scope of a fixed quote unless it is specifically included on the quote. Such work will be charged as additional services.

Unless we have made other arrangements, a fee invoice will be issued upon completion of the provision of the agreed services. Unless other terms have been agreed to, our terms of payment are 30 days from the date of each invoice.

7. Limitation of liability

Our liability is limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation. Further information on the scheme is available from the Professional Standards Council – www.psc.gov.au.

8. Ownership of documents

All original documents obtained from you arising from this engagement will remain your property. However, we reserve the right to make a reasonable number of copies of the original documents for our records.

If our engagement will result in the production of Financial Statements, Business Activity Statements, Instalment Activity Statements and/or Income Tax Returns, ownership of these documents will vest in you. All other documents produced by us in respect of this engagement will remain our property.

9. Previous accountant

As a matter of professional courtesy, and in line with professional requirements, we are required to notify your previous accountant that we have been engaged to provide you with accounting and taxation services and to receive from them information on any outstanding issues and any relevant documentation. By agreeing to these engagement terms you are agreeing to us contacting your previous accountant for this purpose.

10. Previously lodged returns

Please note that, unless we notify you in writing, we are not being engaged to review the accuracy or completeness of any returns already lodged at the date of our engagement letter and/or any returns not prepared by us.

11. Notification to relevant authorities

It is implied by accepting our service you accept these engagement terms and that you consent to us informing the Australian Taxation Office that we are to act on your behalf.

12. Consent

Acceptance of our services in conjunction with this information indicates that you understand and accept the arrangement. You also acknowledge that we may vary these terms from time to time in which case we will inform you and make available to you the latest terms and conditions of our relationship.

Should you have any further queries in relation to the above, please do not hesitate to contact us via any of the contact details on our website.