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, or the
conclusion of the scope of work output.
3. Objectives and Scope of work
3.1 I 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 tax returns for
the above named taxpayers.
3.2 Based on the above scope of work, you have given us the authority to use the tax agent portal and other tax
portal related activities for the purpose of managing and meeting your taxation obligations.
3.3 I will provide you with the tax returns prepared from the information supplied by you.
• I will provide the scope of work output within the specified timeframe or within a reasonable period considering
the context of the services.
• I acknowledge that you may authorise an Accredited Data Recipient under the Consumer Data Right (‘CDR’) to
provide CDR data to us via a Trusted Adviser Insight. I confirm that for this purpose you may nominate me
as your Trusted Adviser and that I comply with the definition of a Trusted Adviser under the Competition
and Consumer (Consumer Data Right) Amendments Rules (No. 1) 2021.
• Audit and assurance or review are not included in this engagement.
4. Our Promise
4.1 I 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 I will seek to understand your requirements and provide you services confidentially and professionally. Any
information pertaining to your affairs, whether it be provided by you, or through a Trusted Adviser Insight via the CDR,
will be utilised and stored in an appropriate manner to maintain our professional standards and obligations. Further
information on privacy is noted at section 10 of this letter.
4.3 I will document sufficient and appropriate records of the procedures performed for the TE, which may be subject
to CPA Australia Best Practice Program assessment under APES 320 Quality Control for Firms.
5. Our Obligations
5.1 I am obliged to consider whether our clients create any threats to compliance with our Fundamental Principles
and where I cannot reduce the risk to an acceptable level I am obliged to cease the TE under the Code (section
320) to decline or cease the client engagement.
5.2 I 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 I 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 I am responsible for maintaining records for a period of five years unless otherwise required by legislation.
5.5 During the course of our engagement, if I 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 a taxpayer’s ability to continue its business or to avoid
material penalty, I 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 ’s 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 I will inform you of our intention to disclose the matter to an appropriate authority before
disclosing the matter. However, if I 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, I 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 provide us with 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 I 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 my service to you. These may include cloud service
providers and outsourced service providers.
7.2 I will seek your consent if third party involvement is likely to exceed the fixed price (if applicable).
7.3 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 and Trust Monies
8.1 If the engagement involves the use of trust monies, I will manage those funds in accordance with APES 310
Client Monies and as authorised by you in the Trust Account Authority Letter (if applicable) or as otherwise instructed
by you.
8.2 My professional fees will be calculated on a fixed fee which will be agreed to via email. If no method is specified,
our fees will be calculated on a time-cost basis at a rate of $330 rate including GST per hour.
8.3 My 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 and due on presentation of invoice.
9. Ownership of materials
9.1 You own all original materials given to me.
9.2 I 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 me.
9.3 I 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, I will provide you
with tax returns 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 My collection use and disclosure of your personal information (PI) may be subject to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)
and accordingly I will only collect PI about you that relates to the TE. I may disclose PI about you 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 in the
United States. If you would like to access any PI I might hold about you contact us on 0426 923 669.
10.2 I may collect PI about you, your representatives, your clients and others when I provide services to you. If I
do, you agree to work with us to ensure that I both meet our respective obligations under the Privacy Act 1988
(Cth). Your obligations may include ensuring your privacy policy and contracts include a reference to your collection
practices, how you will use the PI and that you may disclose the PI to an agent for public accounting services.
10.3 Where an outsourced service requires the disclosure of PI to an overseas recipient, I take care to ensure that
other third parties outside Australia to whom I disclose PI are subject to contractual obligations relating to privacy
and the handling of your personal information and can only use the information for the purposes stipulated by me.
10.4 In providing our services to you, I utilise Xero and Google; using cloud computing provided by Xero Inc which is
based in New Zealand and Google Inc which is based in the United States of America and I rely on their security
measures. I also store client information in a data server managed in Australia, New Zealand and the United States
of America which may subject to their relevant privacy law.
10.5 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.