Mancell Pty Ltd operates under the standards of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (‘ICAA’). The ICAA has issued standards and recommendations regarding the Terms of Engagement between accountants and their clients.

This document is prepared in accordance with those standards and recommendations. It sets out the terms of the engagement, the nature of the services we will provide to you and how we will work with you in providing those services. It is intended to ensure there is a common understanding of how our relationship will work

Mancell Pty Ltd is a registered tax agent under the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (‘TASA 2009’). As a registered tax agent, we are required to abide by the Code of Professional Conduct and the civil penalties provisions under the TASA 2009.

The terms as described in the following pages will be effective for future years unless superseded by mutual agreement. The terms may be updated from time-to-time. This will be communicated in your Service Disclosure Statement and it updates the terms of our engagement.

Scope of our services

 

Purpose of Engagement

We provide a broad range of services to our clients. Please discuss with us if you would like to know more about our range of services and what works best for you.

Specifically, our engagement is to provide the services as listed in your current Service Disclosure Statement. In your Service Disclosure Statement, further details as to the estimated fees, the timeframe, the specific team allocated to this engagement and the entities covered may also be included. From time-to-time, your Service Disclosure Statement will be updated and this updates the terms of our engagement.

 

Scope and the Limitation of Scope

These services will be conducted in accordance with the relevant professional and ethical standards issued by the Accounting Professional & Ethical Standards Board Limited (APESB). The extent of our procedures and services will be limited exclusively for this purpose only and no audit or review will be performed. We are not engaged to conduct a statutory audit of the financial records of any of your entities and we will not express an auditor’s opinion as to the truth and fairness of the financial statements. Our involvement in this type of engagement will not disclose fraud, defalcations or other irregularities which may occur. However, any material weaknesses in the accounting or internal control systems which come to our notice will be drawn to your attention.

Reports and/or returns will be prepared for distribution to those charged with governance of the entities covered by the engagement (referred to herein as ‘you’ or ‘yourself’). There is no assumption of responsibility for any reliance on our reports by any person or entity other than yourself and any other parties as notified by you. The report shall not be inferred or used for any purpose other than for which it was specifically prepared. Accordingly, our report may include a compilation report or a disclaimer to this effect.

The scope of our engagement will be limited to the performance of the services listed in your Service Disclosure Statement. If the scope does not meet your requirements or if you would like to discuss on varying the scope, please let us know. As it stands, the scope excludes the following services:

 

Advisory Business services Administration

  • Taxation law interpretation

  • Estate planning

  • Estate administration matters

  • Stamp duty advice

  • Social Security legislation

  • State revenue matters

 

Business Services

  • Business purchase and sale

  • Internal control systems

  • Preparation of one-off financial statements for presentation to your financier

  • Provision of a platform for Family Council meetings

  • Audit of your accounts

  • Fraud detection or prevention

 

Administration

  • Banking administration including handling banking correspondence, processing cheques and accounts payable.

  • Investment administration including liaising with your financial adviser, handling all documents relating to your investment portfolios.

Fees and Payments

Estimated Fees and our Charge-out rates

All Professional fees for the services provided to you will be based on the time and degree and skill and acumen required to complete the task, including out of pocket expenses and statutory charges, unless otherwise agreed between the parties.

Our estimated fees for the engagement with you is detailed in your Service Disclosure Statement.

As at the date of this document, our charge-out rates are:

Director $400.00                                 Senior Accountant $250.00

Senior Consultant $350.00                 Intermediate Accountant $220.00

Manager $280.00                               Consultant $140

Administration Support $130.00

                   

The above hourly rates are exclusive of the 10% GST. GST is charged on all services and disbursements rendered.

For work undertaken for periods less than an hour, the rates are charged in 6 minute blocks.

These charge-out rates are reviewed in the first quarter of each financial year to ensure they are competitive with comparable Chartered Accountants practices. We shall endeavour to keep you informed of the time and cost involved in servicing you as a client. We encourage you to inquire as to the likely cost of our range of services if you are at all unsure. Invoices shall be raised periodically so as to keep you abreast of the fees incurred and allow for you to manage cash flow more easily.

 

Interim Invoices

We are aware of the impact irregular bills may have on your cashflow. In an attempt to alleviate this pressure, Mancell will bill monthly amounts. Your monthly amounts will be the result of twelve equal payments on your Service Disclosure Statement amount.

The interim bills will relate to work completed for all compliance but does not include any special work, this will be billed separately, at the completion of the work.

 

Credit policy

The credit policy of Mancell is to offer clients fourteen (14) day terms from the date of this fee note. Where the 14 day terms are not adhered to, Mancell reserve the right to apply the following conditions:

  • All accounts should be paid within fourteen days unless alternative arrangements have been agreed to by the Directors of Mancell.

  • Where alternative arrangements have been agreed to in respect of accounts in excess of $200.00 and the account remains outstanding for more than fourteen days then interest at the rate prescribed in the Penalty Interest Rates Act 1983 will be charged with a minimum charge of $10.00 per month.

  • Where alternative arrangements have been agreed to in respect of accounts of $200.00 or less, then a monthly administration fee of $10.00 per month will be charged after the first 14 days.

If you unable to meet these credit policy conditions, please telephone this office immediately and we will be pleased to discuss alternative arrangements for payment of the account.

 

Fee Queries, Disputes and Mediation

We do insist upon you contacting us immediately should you have a fee query. It is important for you to fully understand the scope, complexity, value provided, fees raised etc. in order to sustain a relationship based upon Trust. A meeting to discuss this is important.

Any dispute in respect of services provided that is not resolved within a reasonable period of time shall be referred (at our discretion) to the Institute of Chartered Accountants for mediation at your expense.

 

Debt Collection

Should an agreeable arrangement not be met and payment agreement not negotiated, the matter will be placed in the hands of our debt collection agency.

In the event of a debt collection agency becoming involved it is inevitable that extra costs will be incurred by you, once the procedure is put in place.

Disclosure, Rights and Obligations

 

Your Disclosure and Record Keeping Obligations

It is your obligation to provide us with all information that you reasonably expect will be necessary to allow us to perform the work contemplated under this engagement within a timely manner or as requested. This includes providing reliable, accurate and complete responses to questions asked of you by us. It is also your obligation to disclose all material and relevant information to us. Inaccurate, incomplete or late information could have a material effect on our services and/or our conclusions and may result in additional fees. We are not responsible for verifying the underlying accuracy or completeness of information you provide us.

You are also required to advise us on a timely basis if there are any changes to your circumstances that may be relevant to the performance of our services. Specifically, if any subsequent event results in the information you provided us being inaccurate, incomplete or misleading, then you are obliged to advise us as soon as possible. We take no responsibility to the extent that our advice is inaccurate, incomplete or misleading because it is based on inaccurate, incomplete or misleading information being provide to us.

You are responsible for the maintenance of your own accounting systems and internal controls for all the entities. That includes the keeping and maintenance of all required books of account. It is understood that you will generally ensure that a reconciliation of the bank accounts, debtors and creditors are performed at the end of each month and a stock-take will be performed during the last weekend in June for each entity that has trading stock.

This firm will not be responsible for reviewing or verifying any financial records or statements provided to it either via manual cashbooks or prepared on accounting software such as MYOB or QuickBooks. Correct coding or classification of accounts is outside the scope of this engagement and if assistance is required with the review of your internal accounting system, please discuss with us on enlarging the scope of this engagement.

This engagement does not cover a review or verification of whether all the substantiation provisions in the tax legislation have been satisfied. If assistance is required to do a review of your documents, please discuss with us on an enlarge scope of this engagement.

 

Your Rights and Obligations under the Taxation Laws

The Taxation Administration Act 1953 contains specific provisions that may provide you with ‘safe harbours’ from administrative penalties for incorrect or late lodgement of returns if, you give us ‘all relevant taxation information’ in a timely manner (the safe harbour provisions apply from 1 March 2010). Accordingly, it is to your advantage that all relevant information is disclosed to us as any failure by you to provide this information may affect your ability to rely on the ‘safe harbour’ provisions and will be taken into account in determining the extent to which we have discharged our obligations to you.

You are responsible under the self-assessment system to keep full and proper records in order to facilitate the preparation of a correct tax return. Whist the Commissioner of Taxation will accept claims made by a taxpayer in an income tax return and issue a notice of assessment, usually without adjustment, the return may be subject to a later review. Under the taxation law such a review may take place within a period of up to 4 years after tax becomes due and payable under the assessment. Furthermore, where there is fraud or evasion there is no time limit on amending the assessment. Accordingly, you should check the return before it is signed to ensure that the information contain therein is accurate.

Where the application of a taxation law to your particular circumstances is uncertain you also have the right to request a private ruling which will set out the Commissioner’s opinion about the way a taxation law applies, or would apply, to you in those circumstances. As relevant, we will provide further information to you concerning your rights under the Australian taxation laws during the conduct of the engagement contemplated by this document.

 

Our obligation to comply with the Laws

We have a duty to act in your best interests. However, the duty to act in your best interests is subject to an overriding obligation to comply with the law even if that may require us to act in a manner that may be contrary to your interests. For example, we could not lodge an income tax return for you that we knew to be false in a material aspect.

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. The effective operation of these arrangements depends, in part, on you complying with your obligation to disclose any potential conflicts of interest to us.

Unless otherwise stated, this opinion is based on the Australia tax law in force and the practice of the Australian Taxation Office (the ATO) applicable as at the date of this letter.

Our advice and/or service will be based on Australian taxation law in force at the date of the provision of the advice and/or services. It is your responsibility to seek updated advice if you intend to rely on our advice at a later stage. We note that Australian taxation laws are often subject to frequent change and our advice will not be updated unless specifically requested by you at the time of the change in law or announced change in law.

 

Tax Investigations and Audits

This engagement does not cover any inquiries made to us or investigations involving us conducted by the Australian Taxation Office (‘ATO’). Work of this nature will be charged to you based on the time spent and the level of personnel involved. This cost may be covered by an annual Tax Audit Insurance that you can purchase through Kings Insurance. If you do not have Tax Audit Insurance cover and would like to obtain that, please contact us for more details.

 

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 at the following link, http://www.professionalstandardscouncil.gov.au

Privacy

Confidentiality

In conducting this engagement, information acquired by us in the course of the engagement is subject to strict confidentiality requirements. That information will not be disclosed by us to other parties except as required or allowed for by law, or with your express consent.

We wish to draw your attention to our firm’s system of quality control which has been established and maintained in accordance with the relevant APESB standard. As a result, our files may be subject to review as part of the quality control review program of the Institute of Chartered Accountants which monitors compliance with professional standards by its members. We advise you that by accepting our engagement you acknowledge that, if requested, our files relating to this engagement will be made available under this program.

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.

 

Involvement of others

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

 

Outsourced Services

We may utilise outsourced services from Active Outsourcing Pty Ltd (locally based with support staff located in India) to assist us in the performance of professional and administrative services for Self-Managed Super Funds and Bookkeeping. In this event, confidential information may be shared between our offices. Ultimate responsibility for the provision of these services and confidentiality will rest with us.

 

Storage of Personal Information

When you sign the letter relating to this topic, and accept these services, you acknowledge and agree that your personal information may be stored by third-party service providers that are located in Australia and/or outside Australia. We may utilise a variety of Cloud Computing software services for file storage, backup, web-bases email access, share, store and secure information in the cloud. Examples of such cloud services may include but not limited to Microsoft 365 and Xero Accounting.

 

Access to and ownership of documents

You are required to arrange for reasonable access by us to relevant individuals and documents, and shall be responsible for both the completeness and accuracy of the information supplied to us.

All original documents obtained from you arising from the engagement shall remain the property of yourself. However, we reserve the right to make a reasonable number of copies of the original documents for our records.

Our engagement will result in the production of reports. Ownership of these documents will vest in you. All other documents produced by us in respect of this engagement will remain the property of the firm.

The firm has a policy of exploring a legal right of lien over any client documents in our possession in the event of a dispute. The firm also has an established dispute resolution process.

Acceptance of the Terms of Engagement

The Terms of Engagement in the preceding pages will be effective for future years unless superseded by mutual agreement.