Terms of Engagement

Thank you for choosing Future Advisory to attend to your accounting and taxation requirements. We are excited to share with you a new way of working, and we look forward to helping you on your financial journey.

We realise how important it is to understand your needs and we have prepared this letter of engagement to clarify the scope of work as well as the nature and limitations of the services that we provide. Please read it carefully and if you have any queries or wish to discuss any aspect do not hesitate to contact us.

By booking a Tax Return Appointment/s with Future Advisory and accepting these Terms of Engagement, you acknowledge that we act on your behalf with respect to the ATO and these Terms of Engagement apply to those in which the Tax Return Appointment/s have been booked for.

This engagement will commence at the time you indicate acceptance, and will be effective for future years unless we advise you of its amendment or replacement, or the engagement is terminated.

As a client of Future Advisory you will be added to our mailing list and receive informative content and updates via email.

Purpose and Scope of Engagement

We will provide you with taxation services in compliance with APES 110 Code of Ethics, APES 220 Taxation Services and the Code of Professional Conduct pursuant to Tax Agent Services Act 2009, which includes the preparation of Income Tax Return/s.

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 lodgement obligations.

We will provide the scope of work output within the specified timeframe or within a reasonable period considering the context of the services.

Unless otherwise agreed, we will prepare the above work on an ongoing basis, in relation to the period following that for which the work has most recently been finalised, and for each subsequent period.

This letter relates only to the abovementioned 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 subject to additional charges.

Unless otherwise specified in this letter of engagement, audit and assurance or review are not included in this engagement. Accordingly, we will not express an opinion as to the truth and fairness of those financial statements and our usual form of disclaimer will be attached to the financial statement.

Each business entity and family member listed in the schedule engages us on the terms set out in this letter and is bound by those terms. The business entities and family members listed are all jointly and severally liable to pay our accounts, regardless of which of the listed individuals or entities those accounts are addressed to and regardless of which of the listed individuals or entities received the benefits of the work performed.

Our Promise

We will perform the 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.

We will seek to understand your requirements and provide you services confidentially and professionally.

We will document sufficient and appropriate records of the procedures performed for the terms of engagement, which may be subject to Best Practice Program assessment by CPA Australia under APES 320 Quality Control for Firms.

Our Obligations

We are obliged to consider whether our clients create any threats to compliance with our Fundamental Principles and where we cannot reduce risk to an acceptable level we are obliged to cease the engagement under the Code (section 320) 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 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

We are responsible for maintaining records for a period of 5 years unless otherwise required by legislation.

Your Obligations

You are responsible for full disclosure of all relevant information.

You are responsible for your own record keeping relating to your affairs, and you are responsible for maintaining and regularly balancing all books of accounts, and the maintenance of an adequate accounting and internal control system.

You are responsible for the reliability, accuracy and completeness of the particulars and information provided to us, and if the terms of engagement include 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 of your particular circumstances.

You are responsible for retaining documentation for as long as legally required.

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

You must retain documentation for a period of 5 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.

Privacy

We may collect Personal Information 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 the obligations that we each may have under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (as amended) (Privacy Act). The obligations may include notifying the relevant person to whom the personal information relates who we are and how we propose to use their personal information. Where you have collected personal information, you confirm that you have collected the personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act, that you are entitled to provide this personal information to us and that we may use and disclose the personal information for the purpose/s we provide our services to you. We will handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act.

Ownership of Documents

The final financial statements, tax returns and any other documents which we are specifically engaged to prepare, together with any original documents given to us by the directors, shall be the property of the company. Any other documents brought into existence by us including general journals, working papers, the general ledger, draft financial statements and tax returns remain our property at all times.

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.

Third Party Involvement

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.

In accordance with APES GN 30, we have outsourcing arrangements with Connect OS Pty Ltd in the Philippines, Seamless SMSF and Odyssey Accountants in Vietnam who we engage to assist us. The nature and extent of the services that we utilise are assistance with preparation of financial statements and tax returns for all entities including Self Managed Superannuation Funds, preparation of BAS/IAS, and other ad hoc tasks as and when required.

In providing our services to you, we utilise Cloud Computing provided by Xero and AWS, both of which have worldwide centres.

Acceptance of our services in conjunction with this engagement document indicates your acceptance of the use of outsourced services as described above. Where the outsourced service requires the disclosure of personal information to an overseas recipient, a consequence of your consent is that Future Advisory Pty Ltd will be required to take reasonable steps to ensure that the Australian Privacy Principles are complied with by the overseas recipients of the personal information.

Where, as part of our engagement, the services of an external consultant or expert are required, an estimated cost and time frame and involvement will be provided to you for your approval.

Fees, Billing & Trust Monies

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 (if applicable) or as otherwise instructed by you.

Any additional services or advice that you request are outside the scope of this letter and not included in any agreed fee. These services will be charged on the basis of the time and degree of skill and acumen required to complete the task undertaken by us.

Our invoices may also include disbursements paid by us. These may include stamp duty and fees paid to third parties such as couriers, registration fees, or fees for other professionals, which may be in addition to the fixed price.

Unless other payment terms are agreed, each invoice is payable within 7 days of receipt.

Confidentiality

We have an ethical duty of confidentiality, which means we must not share or disclose your details of these terms of engagement to anyone, except as otherwise specified in this clause, without your consent unless required to by law.

We may disclose details and records of the services provided to you by CPA Australia Ltd (if requested) for the purposes of conducting CPA Australia Best Practice Program assessment aimed at maintaining high industry professional standards.

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.

Other Services

At your request we can organise:

Tax Audit Insurance;

Additionally, our partners offer:

• A review of your Will/Succession plan.
• Financial Health Reviews;
• Investment Services;
• Risk Insurances – Income Protection, Life, Trauma and TPD;
• Strategic Financial Planning Advice;
• Advice in relation to Government Benefits;
• SMSF and Superannuation Strategies;
• Wealth Creation Strategies.
• Investment Property Advice

Professional Fees and Payment 

Our professional fees for the services provided to you will be based on the time and degree of skill and acumen required to complete the tasks undertaken by us plus any direct out-of-pocket expenses.

Unless otherwise stated in writing, any estimates which we provide to you of our anticipated fees, disbursements and charges for any work are only indicative of the amounts you can expect to be charged. Estimates are not quotes or caps and are not binding on us.

Where an estimate is given and the scope of the work changes, or if it becomes apparent that the work involves matters which were not taken into account in the estimate, we will endeavour to advise you and provide an amended estimate as soon as it is practicable to do so.

Please note payment of invoices for Income Tax Return services are due and payable prior to the lodgement of your Income Tax Return/s with the ATO, unless otherwise agreed.

Limitation of Liability

Our liability is limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation. Further information on the scheme is available from the Professional Standards Councils’ website: http://www.professionalstandardscouncil.gov.au

Acceptance of Terms of Engagement and Appointment of Future Advisory as your Tax Agent

By booking your Tax Return Appointment with Future Advisory you confirm you agree and accept the following items:

• You have read and accept our Terms of Engagement contained within the above document.
• You provide your consent for Future Advisory to add you to our Tax Agent Listing and liaise with the ATO on your behalf.
• Payment of any associated invoices for the preparation of your Income Tax Return/s is due and payable prior to the lodgement of your return, unless otherwise agreed.

We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with you.

Yours sincerely

Future Advisory
for Future Advisory Pty Ltd