Terms of Engagement

Engagement Terms

This page confirms our understanding of the terms of our engagement (TE) and the nature and the limitations of the services we will provide.

Purpose, Scope and Output of the Engagement

Financially Sorted will provide Taxation Return services to you in compliance with APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (including Independence Standards) (the APES Code).  APES 220 Taxation Services and the Code of Professional Conduct pursuant to the Tax Agent Services Act 2009.  Unless otherwise specified audit and assurance or review are not included in this engagement.

Our Promise

We will perform procedures (guided by the APES suite of standards) required that are directly related to the engagement consistent with our Fundamental Principles or integrity, objectivity, professional competence and due care, confidentiality, professional behaviour, and identifying, avoiding, and dealing with conflicts of interests.

We 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.

Our Obligation

We are obligated to consider whether our clients create any threats to our compliance with our Fundamental Principles and where we cannot reduce the risk to an acceptable level we are obligated to decline or cease the client engagement.

We have a duty to act in your best interests, unless this duty is inconsistent with our duty to act in the public interest.

We will inform you of your rights and obligations available and of any possible penalties and other legal tax consequences to enable you to make an informed decision.

We are responsible for maintaining records for a period of five year unless otherwise required by legislation.

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 evaluate the significance of the issue, discuss the matter with the client, disclose the matter to an appropriate authority and/or withdraw from the engagement.

Your Obligation

You are responsible to keep full and accurate records relating to your tax affairs in order to facilitate the preparation of accurate Tax Returns. The responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the particulars and information provided to us by you rests with you. Any advice given to you by us is only an opinion based on our knowledge of your circumstances. It is your obligation to provide us with all information that you reasonably expect will be necessary to allow us to perform work specified under this engagement within a timely manager or as requested. This includes providing accurate and complete responses to questions asked of you by us. Inaccurate, incomplete, or late information could have a material effect on our services and/or our conclusions and may result in additional fees.

You are also required to advise us on a timely basis if there are any changes to your circumstances. 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.

You have obligations under self-assessment to keep full proper records in order to facilitate the preparation of accurate returns.

You must retain records for a period of five years after the assessment as you may be subject to an Australian Taxation Office review.

You are responsible for checking the assessment before submission to ensure accuracy.

Third Party

Acceptance of our services in conjunction with the TE indicates your acceptance of the use of outsourced services.

We have outsourced arrangements with TOA Global in the Philippines. The nature and extent of the services that we may utilise includes bookkeeping and general taxation services.

Fees

Our professional fees will be calculated on a fixed fee basis. Our invoices may also include disbursements paid by us. We may invoice you for our fees as work progresses, and not necessarily on completion of the Services, or on completion of a particular component of the Services.

Payment of our invoice is required within 7 days of the date of the invoice.

If the amount payable on the invoice is not paid in full by the due date, we may elect to not continue to provide our Taxation Services to you or suspend work until further payment is made.

Documents

All materials developed, modified, designed, or created by us while carrying out the Services belong to us. Any correspondence or documents we provide to you during the engagement belong to you unless we specify otherwise.

Our engagement may result in the production of Income Tax Returns and other electronic documents or files which will be supplied to you. Ownership of these documents will rest with you.  All other documents produced by us in respect of this engagement will remain our property.

Unless otherwise agreed between you and us, all original documents you have provided to us during this engagement will belong to you.

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.

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.

Period of Engagement

This engagement will start upon acceptance of the terms of engagement by the Client.  The first period for which we will be providing Taxation Services is the year of the return to which the Client has communicated. We will not deal with earlier periods unless the Client specifically asks us to do so and we agree.

Privacy

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 use and disclose PI about you for the primary purpose of providing taxation services to you, as well as for other purposes required or authorised by or under law (including purposes for which you have provided your consent).

Where an outsourced service requires the disclosure of PI to an overseas recipient, we take care to ensure that other third parties outside Australia to whom we 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 purpose stipulated by us.

If your PI is disclosed to CPA Australia for the purpose of conducting a CPA Australis Best Practice Program assessment on the Services provided, your personal information will be handled by CPA Australia as outlined in the CPA Australia Privacy Policy.  Should this occur, we will advise you.

Confidentiality

Under the APES Code, we have an ethical duty of confidentiality, meaning 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 be law.  Specifically, and as required by subsection 114 of the Code, we will be alert to the possibility of inadvertent disclosure, maintain confidentiality of information within our firm, not disclose confidential information acquired, unless there is a legal or professional duty or right to disclose, not use confidential information acquired as a result of our professional relationship for our personal advantage or for the advantage of a third party and take reasonable steps to ensure that personnel under our control, and individuals from whom advice and assistance are obtained, respect our duty of confidentiality.

Conflicts of Interest

You are required to advise us if you become aware of any conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest.  Generally, a conflict of interest is an event which may result in us becoming unable to remain objective in the performance of our services to you.  If we do, you agree to work with us to ensure that we both meet the obligations that we each may have under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (as amended) (Privacy Act). We also have an obligation to ensure that we manage conflicts of interest as they arise.  In this regard, we have arrangements in place to ensure that we manage potential or actual conflicts of interest.

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.

Professional Standards Scheme & Limitation of Liability

Pursuant to s33 of the Professional Standards Act 1994, our liability is limited by a scheme approved under professional standards legislation.

Disclosure

In relation to the taxation services we will provide, we advise that the Tax Practitioners Board maintains a register of tax agents and BAS agents which can be accessed via their website.  If you have a complaint about a tax agent service that we provide, we encourage you to seek to resolve it with us by contacting our office.  You can also make a complaint to the TPB in accordance with their complaints process.  In the last five years we have not been subject to any of the events described in subsection 45(1)(d) of the Tax Agent Services (Code of Professional Conduct) Determination 2024 (the Determination), or other matters required to be disclosed under other laws