Terms of Engagement
Our terms of engagement and the scope of the work to be performed.
Please read it carefully and if you have any queries or wish to discuss any aspect, do not hesitate to contact us.
Since 1 March 2010, tax practitioners have been regulated in accordance with the requirements of the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (TASA) and the accompanying regulations. The TASA regime has implications for registered tax agents and also for their clients.
An important feature of TASA is the provision of a “safe harbour” protection from penalties in certain circumstances for taxpayers who engage registered tax agents.
To obtain the benefits of safe harbour protection, the legislation requires the taxpayer to provide the registered tax agent with “all relevant taxation information” to enable accurate statements to be provided to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). This requirement may be important to both parties in identifying and understanding the purpose and scope of the engagement as set out below and may also affect other matters discussed below.
You will find further discussion on the safe harbour protections by clicking Clients’ rights and obligations under the taxation laws.
We may become ethically required to disclose non-compliance with laws or regulations to a regulatory authority if the non-compliance has a material effect on the work that we perform under this engagement.
Purpose and scope of engagement
You have engaged us to
- Setup Self-Managed Superfund and related entities as agreed (if applicable)
- Preparation of Annual Financial Statements
- Preparation and lodgement of annual tax returns for your Self-Managed Superannuation Fund
- Organising annual audit
- Any other administrative work required for preparation and lodgement of your Self-Managed Superfund financials and Tax return
Our services will be provided to you on a fee for service basis. This letter relates only to the above mentioned services and details the basis and terms of this engagement. Unless otherwise agreed, our engagement will be limited to the matters described in this letter. Work that is performed or disbursements that are incurred which are outside the scope of this letter will be the subject of additional charge.
Our engagement commences as soon as you agreed either in writing or verbally to our terms. In addition to any other rights you might have, you can terminate this engagement at any time by telling us in writing or verbally. We also reserve the right to do so.
Accounting and Taxation Services
In engaging us to provide accounting and taxation services, it is important for you to understand the following:
You are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the particulars and information provided to us by you. Any advice we provide is only an opinion based on our knowledge of your circumstances. You have obligations under the self-assessment regime to keep full and proper records to facilitate the preparation of accurate returns. We cannot provide taxation services if we find that information on which those services are to be based contains false or misleading information, or omit material information, and you are not prepared to appropriately amend that information.
We are not financial advisers and none of our advice should be taken as financial advice. Contact a licenced financial adviser for all type of financial advice.
Superannuation advice
We do not hold an Australian Financial Services Licence and are not an authorised representative of such a licence holder.
As a result, we are generally prohibited from providing you with any advice, recommendation or opinion that is intended to influence you in making any decision in relation to superannuation (including whether to establish, contribute to or draw benefits from a superannuation fund, or any investment decision by an superannuation trustee), or that could reasonably be regarded as being intended to have such an influence (Financial Advice). However, we are able to provide you with superannuation advice that is of a factual nature only (e.g., to explain how superannuation rules would apply to you and what options are available to you).
Where you request us to undertake superannuation-related work (e.g., to arrange for the establishment of a self-managed superannuation fund), we will be obliged to perform that work in accordance with your instructions, even if we believe those instructions may not be in your best interest.
Where you request Financial Advice concerning superannuation, we will endeavour to assist you in obtaining that advice from an appropriately licensed advisor. Depending on the circumstances, this may involve us outsourcing the provision of Financial Advice (in which case we would seek your prior authorisation), or referring you to a licenced provider directly.
Documentation
Before we lodge any returns on your behalf, we will forward the documents to you for approval. We will endeavour to ensure that the returns are lodged by the due dates and will advise you at the beginning of the financial year when documentation should be provided to us. If you are late in providing information, we will do our best to meet the time limits, but we will not be responsible for any late lodgement penalties or interest charges you may incur.
Ownership of documents
The financial statements, tax returns and any other documents which we are specifically engaged to prepare, together with any original documents given to us by you, shall be your property. Any other documents brought into existence by us, including general working papers, the general ledger and draft documents will remain our property at all times.
Professional Fees and Goods and Services Tax (GST)
Our professional fees are inclusive of GST. Refer to our website for our professional charges. All charges are subject to CPI increase.
Information relating to your affairs
Our firm may, from time to time, use the services of third party contractors (Australian based) to perform some of the services we are engaged to perform for you.
You hereby authorises us to disclose information relating to your SMSF affairs to such third party contractors as we may choose to engage to perform such work.
From time to time, our firm and our third party contractors may engage external IT service providers (including in relation to “cloud computing” services) in the performance of services under this engagement.
Non-compliance with Laws and Regulations (NOCLAR)
During the performance of our work under this engagement, we may detect conduct or a transaction that is considered to constitute NOCLAR, which has a material effect on any documents or information that might be required to be provided to a regulatory authority (RA), such as the ATO.
If we detect any NOCLAR, we may have an ethical requirement to make a disclosure to a RA. We will follow a formal process which will include advising you of our concerns, and if necessary, seeking legal advice. If we do seek legal advice we reserve the right to ask you to pay or reimburse us for our reasonable costs.
If we are required to make a disclosure to a Regulatory Authority, you agree to forever release us from any claim for costs or losses you incur in responding to or dealing with anything that arises from our disclosure.
Losses from unauthorized cyber-activity
We will take all reasonable precautions to ensure that any electronic data that contains your private information is securely stored and that any email transmissions are protected and are not able to be intercepted by third parties. However, we cannot be held liable for any loss that you might incur as a consequence of any third party intervention that accesses, procures or copies any data that contains your private information from any medium or device we use to store or transmit such information.
In the event that, despite our firm having taken reasonable precautions to securely store your private information, you suffer any losses arising from unauthorised cyber-activity, you agree to forever release us from any claim for your losses.
Limitation of liability
Our firm’s liability may be limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards legislation and applicable regulations of the Professional Body.
Confirmation of engagement
Obviously, there are many issues to consider in this engagement and we ask that you consider all aspects of this document to ensure that you are satisfied with the scope of our engagement. Please contact us if you have any queries about this document.
We thank you for the opportunity to provide accounting and taxation services to your SMSF and we look forward to developing a close accounting relationship with you for many years to come.
Thank you,
Bimal Sekhon
Director
autoSMSF Pty Ltd