Terms of Engagement – Taxation Services
Thank you for selecting us to conduct your professional accounting – taxation needs. We look forward to working with you.
We realise how important it is to understand your needs and we have prepared the attached Terms of Engagement (TE) to clarify the scope of work and other important terms. It is important that you read the TE before you indicate that you agree, which you can do by letting us know that you are happy to proceed.
The scope of work may fall within the CPA Australia Ltd Professional Standards (Accountants) Scheme (Scheme), which facilitates improvements to industry professional standards and protects consumers. Accordingly, we need to notify you of the following:
“Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.”
If you want more information on the Scheme you can go to:
· CPA Australia's Professional Standards Scheme, or visit
· Professional Standards Councils’ website for additional consumer information.
Alternatively, if you want to clarify anything in the TE please call us on 0472 553 404. Terms of service.
Terms of Engagement for Taxation Services
Between Adroit Accounting & Taxation Pty Ltd (us or we or our) and new client (you or your) for the Term specified.
1. Purpose
This Terms of Engagement for Taxation Services (TE) confirms our understanding of the engagement and the nature and limitations of services provided.
2. Term
2.1 This TE will commence at the time you indicate acceptance and will continue until revoked by us or you.
3. Objectives and Scope of work
3.1 We will provide you with taxation services in compliance with APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (including Independence Standards) (the Code), APES 220 Taxation Services and the Code of Professional Conduct pursuant to Tax Agent Services Act 2009, which include:
· Preparation and lodgement of your company/individual tax return and financial statements
· Review and assist in preparation of your BAS/GST, PAYGW and PAYGI obligations to the ATO as necessary
· Preparation of any WorkCover and Payroll Tax obligations
· Preparation of your FBT Return and any FBT Declarations
· Preparation and lodgement of Single Touch Payroll (STP) reports
3.2 Based on the above scope of work, you have given us with the authority to use the tax agent portal and other tax portal related activities for the purpose of managing and meeting your taxation and superannuation lodgement obligations.
3.3 We will provide you with the following output Business Activity Statement submission reports, Taxation Return submission report, or other as specified.
3.4 We will provide the scope of work output within the specified timeframe or within a reasonable period considering the context of the services.
3.5 Unless otherwise specified in this TE or letter of engagement, audit and assurance or review are not included in this engagement.
4. Our Promise
4.1 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.
4.2 We will seek to understand your requirements and provide you services confidentially and professionally.
4.3 We will document sufficient and appropriate records of the procedures performed for the TE, which may be subject to Best Practice Program assessment by CPA Australia under APES 320 Quality Control for Firms.
5. Our obligations
5.1 We are obliged to consider whether our clients create any threats to compliance with our Fundamental Principles and where we cannot reduce the risk to an acceptable level we are obliged to cease the TE under the Code (section 320) to decline or cease the client engagement.
5.2 We have a duty to act in your best interests, unless this duty is inconsistent with our duty to act in the public interest.
5.3 We will inform you:
· of your rights and obligations available under taxation law, including any rights that might be available to seek a private ruling and the lodging of objections and appeals against adverse positions adopted by revenue authorities
· of any possible penalties and other legal tax consequences to enable you to make an informed decision.
5.4 We are responsible for maintaining records for a period of at least five-year period unless otherwise required by legislation.
5.5 During the course of our engagement, if we identify or suspect that Non-Compliance with Laws or Regulations (NOCLAR) has occurred or may occur, which may have a direct effect on material amounts or disclosures in the financial statements or compliance and may be fundamental to your ability to continue its business or to avoid material penalty, we may:
5.5.1 discuss the matter with the appropriate level of management, those charged with governance or the internal auditor, as appropriate
5.5.2 communicate the non-compliance or suspected non-compliance with your external auditor, unless prohibited by law or regulation
5.5.3 disclose the matter to an appropriate authority even when there is no legal or regulatory requirement to do so; and/or
5.5.4 withdraw from the engagement and the professional relationship where permitted by law or regulation
5.6 Where appropriate we will inform you of our intention to disclose the matter to an appropriate authority before disclosing the matter. However, if we have reason to believe that the actual or intended conduct would constitute an imminent breach of a law or regulation that would cause substantial harm to the general public, we may immediately disclose the matter to an appropriate authority in order to prevent or mitigate the consequences of such imminent breach of law or regulation.
6. Your obligations
6.1 You are responsible for full disclosure of all relevant information.
6.2 You are responsible for your own record keeping relating to your affairs.
6.3 You provided us with your records relating to your affairs.
6.4 You are responsible for the reliability, accuracy and completeness of the particulars and information provided to us, and, if the TE includes financial reporting, the accounting records and disclosures of all material and relevant information provided to us. Accordingly, any advice given to you is only an opinion based on our knowledge or your particular circumstances.
6.5 You are responsible for retaining paperwork for as long as legally required.
6.6 You have obligations under self-assessment to keep full and proper records in order to facilitate the preparation of accurate returns.
6.7 You must retain paperwork for a period of five years after the assessment as you may be subject to an Australian Taxation Office review.
6.8 You are responsible for checking the assessment before submission to ensure accuracy.
7. Third Party Involvement
7.1 We may from time to time engage third party specialist professionals and other public practitioners, where warranted to obtain the advice you need or to assist us to provide our service to you. These may include cloud service providers and outsourced service providers.
7.2 We will seek your consent if third party involvement is likely to exceed the fixed price (if applicable).
7.3 We don’t have any outsourcing arrangements at current.
7.4 Acceptance of our services in conjunction with this engagement document indicates your acceptance of the use of outsourced services as described above.
8. Fees, Billing & Trust Monies
8.1 If the engagement involves the use of trust monies, we will manage those funds in accordance with APES 310 Client Monies and as authorised by you in the Trust Account Authority Letter or as otherwise instructed by you.
8.2 Our professional fees will be calculated on a fixed fee or time-cost basis as agreed, which will be specified in the letter of engagement. If no method is specified, our fees will be calculated on a time-cost basis at a rate of current charge out rate per hour.
8.3 Our invoices may also include disbursements paid by us. These may include photocopying charges, telephone and facsimile transmission charges, travel fares and expenses, stamp duty and fees paid to third parties such as couriers, registration fees or fees for other professionals. These may be in addition to the fixed price (if applicable).
8.4 Unless other payment terms are agreed, each invoice is payable within 30 days of receipt.
9. Ownership of materials
9.1 You own all original materials given to us.
9.2 We own all materials produced by us that resulted from our skill and attention to the extent that the materials produced by us incorporate any original materials you give to us.
9.3 We may exercise a lien of your documents in our possession in the event of a dispute, which will be handled in accordance with our firm’s dispute resolution process.
9.4 Subject to the payment of all outstanding professional fees and disbursements owing to us, we will provide you with materials produced by us for you in the event you engage the services of another practitioner and the materials are required by your new practitioner.
10. Privacy
10.1 Our collection use and disclosure of your personal information (PI) may be subject to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and accordingly we will only collect PI about you that relates to the TE. We may disclose PI about you with your implied consent for the primary purpose of this TE or to third parties by express consent or as required by law. This PI may be stored overseas. If you would like to access any PI we might hold about you contact us on 0472 553 404.
10.2 In providing our services to you, we utilise Xero using cloud computing provided by Xero which is based in New Zealand and we rely on their security measures. We also store client information in a data server managed in Microsoft, which may subject to privacy laws.
10.3 If your PI is disclosed to CPA Australia for the purpose of conducting a CPA Australia Best Practice Program assessment on the services provided, your personal information will be handled as outlined in the CPA Australia Privacy Policy and the member collection notice.
11. Confidentiality
11.1 We have an ethical duty of confidentiality, which means we must not share or disclose your details of this TE to anyone, except as otherwise specified in this clause, without your consent unless required to by law.
11.2 We may disclose details and records of the services provided to you to CPA Australia Ltd, (if requested) for the purposes of conducting CPA Australia Best Practice Program assessment aimed at maintaining high industry professional standards. Any such disclosure of personal information does not change any of our commitments to safeguard your information, and the information remains subject to any existing confidentiality obligations.
12. Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII)
We hold professional indemnity insurance of at least the minimum amount prescribed in the CPA Australia Ltd By-Laws or as required by law. Our PII cover at the time of this TE is $2mil.
13. Professional Standards Scheme & Limitation of Liability
13. 1 We participate in the CPA Australia Ltd Professional Standards Scheme (Scheme), which facilitates the improvement of professional standards to protect consumers and may limit our liability to you in a cause of action.
13. 2 The Scheme applies to professional accounting services including accounting, bookkeeping, taxation, auditing and assurance, insolvency and corporate reconstruction, management accounting, management consulting, forensic accounting, valuation services.
14. Other
This letter will be effective for future years unless we advise you of its amendment or replacement, or the engagement is terminated.