Terms of Engagement – Taxation Services

Dear valued customer,

Thank you for selecting iCanTax to assist you to prepare your income tax lodgement.

We realize 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:

If you want more information on the Scheme you can go to: CPA Australia's Professional Standards Scheme, or visit Professional Standards Council's website for additional consumer information.

Alternatively, if you want to clarify anything in the TE please call us on 02 9649 8899.

1. Purpose

This Terms of Engagement for Taxation Services (TE) confirms our understanding of the engagement and the nature and limitations of the services provided.

2. Term

2.1 This TE will commence at the time you indicate acceptance and will continue until revoked by you or us. Either party can terminate this TE unilaterally.

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 returns for the current financial year or previous financial years.
• Preparation and lodgement of your company/individual Business and Instalment activity statements for the current financial year or previous financial years.
• Liaise with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) on your behalf for your taxation lodgement and payment obligations.

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 to manage and meet your taxation and superannuation lodgement obligations.

3.3 You can access all the work we have done from your individual MyGov account and see all the copies of tax lodgements, Notice of assessments, and Payment clips. Upon request, we can email you any copies of the work we have done for you.

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, 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) 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 with services confidentially and professionally. Any information about your affairs, whether it be provided by you, or your representative, will be utilized and stored appropriately to maintain our professional standards and obligations. Further privacy information is noted in section 10 of this letter.

4.3 We will document sufficient and appropriate records of the procedures performed for the TE, which may be subject to the CPA Australia Best Practice Program assessment 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 You are responsible for maintaining records for at least five years 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, we may terminate or work and remove ourselves from your ATO file.

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 public, we may immediately disclose the matter to an appropriate authority 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 record-keeping relating to your affairs.

6.3 You provide us with your tax file number (TFN) and your valid ID 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 to facilitate the preparation of accurate returns.

6.7 You must retain substantiation documents for 5 years after the assessment as you may be subject to an ATO 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 do not have any outsourcing arrangements with another party, and we do not share your information with other parties unless requested by you.

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

8.1 Our tax preparation fees vary from $88 to $550 including GST per lodgement per year, based on your sources of income, work-related expenses (WRE), and your risk determination in the ATO's bell chart.

8.2 Our fees may vary in different circumstances, and we will quote our professional fees before we start preparing your work. In the circumstances you have small business income, sole trader income, capital gain income (loss), and rental property income, we will quote our fees before commencing your work.

8.3 Unless other payment terms are agreed upon, our fee is payable before tax lodgement is sent to ATO.

9. Ownership of Materials

9.1 You own all original materials given to us.

9.2 We own all materials produced by us that result 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

If your personal information 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.

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.

10.2 We may collect PI about you, your representatives, your clients, and others when we provide services to you. If we do, you agree to work with us to ensure that we 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 In providing our services to you, we utilize MYOB AO Tax using cloud computing provided by MYOB Australia which is based in Australia, and we rely on their security measures. We also store client information in a data server managed in Australia, which may be subject to Australian privacy law.

10.4 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.

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 your personal and confidential information details, as part of our working papers of the services provided to you to CPA Australia Ltd, (if requested) for the purposes of conducting a CPA Australia Best Practice Program assessment aimed at maintaining high industry professional standards. Any such disclosure of confidential information does not change any of our commitments to safeguard your information, and the information remains subject to any existing confidentiality obligations. We advise you by signing this letter you acknowledge, that our engagement files relating to this assessment will be made available under this program.

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 Express Insurance.

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, and 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. We assume, you have read, understood, and agree to the provisions of this Terms of Engagement when after making a booking with iCanTax and its employees.

Contact Us

If you have questions about these Terms: