Terms of Engagement (TE) for Public Accounting Services

1. Purpose

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

2. Term

This TE will commence at the time you indicate acceptance and will continue until revoked by us or you or at the conclusion of the scope of work specified.

3. Scope of Service

We will provide you with taxation services 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, as outlined on the cover sheet and within the agreed timeframes.

• If we are requested to provide other specific service(s) they will be the subject of a separate engagement letter and thus a separate fee.
• We will provide the scope of work output within the specified timeframe or within a reasonable period considering the context of the services.
• We acknowledge that you may authorise an Accredited Data Recipient under the Consumer Data Right (‘CDR’) to provide CDR data to us via a Trusted Adviser Insight. We confirm that for this purpose you may nominate a Trusted Adviser and that they comply with the definition of a Trusted Adviser under the Competition and Consumer (Consumer Data Right) Amendments Rules (No. 1) 2021.
• Unless otherwise specified in this TE or letter of engagement, audit and assurance or review are not included in this engagement.

 

4. 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 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. Any information pertaining to your affairs, whether it be provided by you, or through a Trusted Adviser Insight via the CDR, will be utilised and stored in an appropriate manner to maintain our professional standards and obligations.
• We will document sufficient and appropriate records of the procedures performed for the TE, which may be subject to quality review by CPA Australia under APES 320 Quality Control for Firms.

 

5. Our obligations

• 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.
• 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 are responsible for maintaining records for a period of 7 years unless otherwise required by legislation.
• If this TE involves taxation services, we will inform you:
  • of your (or your employer’s) 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.
• If the TE includes financial reporting, we have a duty to identify non-compliance that may materially impact your business’s financial integrity. We will first discuss our concerns with you, your internal auditor, management or governance office holders.  We may also decide, based on the imminence of a breach likely to cause substantial harm to third parties including the public, to notify a regulatory authority without raising our concerns with you first.
• During the course of our engagement, if we identify or suspect that Non-Compliance with Laws or Regulations (NOCLAR) has occurred or may occur, which may have a direct effect on material amounts or disclosures in the financial statements or compliance and may be fundamental to your entities ability to continue its business or to avoid material penalty, we will:
  • discuss the matter with the appropriate level of management, those charged with governance or the internal auditor, as appropriate
  • consider whether to communicate the non-compliance or suspected noncompliance with your external auditor, unless prohibited by law or regulation
  • disclosing the matter to an appropriate authority even when there is no legal or regulatory requirement to do so; or
  • withdraw from the engagement and the professional relationship where permitted by law or regulation
• 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 general public, we may immediately disclose the matter to an appropriate authority in order to prevent or mitigate the consequences of such imminent breach of law or regulation.

 

6. Your obligations

• You are responsible for full disclosure of all relevant information.
• You are responsible for your own record keeping relating to your affairs.
• You provided us with the appropriate information required to complete the tax records relating to your affairs.
• 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.
• You are responsible for retaining paperwork 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 paperwork 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.

 

7. 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.
• We will seek your consent if third party involvement is likely to exceed the fixed price (if applicable).
• We currently have no outsourcing arrangements with any third party based overseas. In the event that this changes you will be notified of the nature and extent of the services being outsourced and who the outsourced third party is and where they are located.

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8. Fees and Billing

• If the engagement involves the use of trust monies, we will manage those funds in accordance with APES 310 Dealing with Client Monies and as authorised by you.
• Our fees, which will be billed as work progresses, are based on the time required by the individuals assigned to the engagement plus direct out-of-pocket expenses.
• Any additional fee for an additional service not covered in the scope of this engagement will be the subject of a separate engagement letter under separate fee arrangements.
• Accounts for services provided will be forwarded to you as work in progress. Payment of any account is required to be made within 14 days, unless special alternative arrangements are made with us prior to the due date.
• It is our requirement that the owners/directors of the business personally guarantee the payment of all accounts for professional fees, including out-of-pocket expenses rendered by us from time to time.
• Our invoices may also include disbursements paid by us. These may include software fees, registration fees or fees for other professionals. These may be in addition to the fixed engagement price.

 

9. Ownership of materials

• You own all original materials given to us.
• We own all materials produced by us that resulted from our skill and attention to the extent that the materials produced by us incorporate any original materials you give to us.
• 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.

 

10. 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 disclose PI about you with your implied consent for the primary purpose of this TE or to third parties by express consent or as required by law. If you would like to access any PI we might hold about you contact us on 5382 3001 or mail@wattsprice.com.au.
• 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).
• 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 by CPA Australia as outlined in the CPA Australia Privacy Policy.

 

11. 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 by law. Specifically, and as required by subsection 114 of the Code, we will:
      • be alert to the possibility of inadvertent disclosure, including in a social environment, and particularly to a close business associate or an immediate or a close family member;
      • maintain confidentiality of information within our firm;
      • not disclose confidential information acquired as a result of our professional and business relationship outside the firm without proper and specific authority, unless there is a legal or professional duty or right to disclose;
      • not use confidential information acquired as a result of our professional and business relationship for our personal advantage or for the advantage of a third party;
      • not use or disclose any confidential information, either acquired or received as a result of our professional or business relationship, after our relationship has ended; 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.
    • We may disclose your personal and confidential information details of the services provided to you, to CPA Australia Ltd (if requested), as part of our working papers, 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, 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.

 

13. 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.

 

14. Disclosures

• In relation to the taxation services we will provide, we advise that:
  • The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) maintains a register of tax agents and BAS agents which can be accessed and searched here. The register contains details of registered, suspended, and deregistered tax and BAS agents.
  • if you have a complaint about a tax agent service that we provide, we encourage you to seek to resolve it with us by phoning 03 5382 3001 or emailing mail@wattsprice.com.au. You can also make a complaint to the TPB in accordance with their complaints process set out here.
  • Our registration as a tax agent is not subject to any conditions
  • In the last 5 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) (as currently proposed to be amended), or other matters required to be disclosed under other laws.

 

15. Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF)

• As a reporting entity operating in strict compliance with Australian regulatory standards, including the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth), we are required to maintain an active AML/CTF Program.
• If your engagement involves “designated services” or captured activities under the Act—such as creating companies, establishing trusts, managing transactional funds, or providing a registered office—we must perform Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures before and during the provision of these services.
• This legally obligates us to verify your identity (and, where applicable, the identities of ultimate beneficial owners, controlling persons, trustees, or corporate officers) and understand the nature of the transaction or your source of funds/wealth. You agree to promptly provide all requested identification and verification documents (such as government-issued photo identification) required by law.
• We respect your privacy, and any information collected under these obligations will be handled securely and strictly in accordance with our Privacy Policy and relevant data minimisation principles.
• Your cooperation with our AML/CTF obligations is a condition of our engagement; we are unable to commence or continue providing services, and reserve the right to suspend or terminate our engagement, if the requested compliance documentation is not provided.

 

16. Use of technology and artificial intelligence

• We may use digital tools, including tools that use artificial intelligence (AI), to help us provide the services covered by this engagement.  For example, tools that assist with data processing, calculations, document drafting or workflow management.  A registered tax practitioner will remain responsible for the tax agent services provided to you, and all advice issued will continue to be based on our professional judgment.
• We take a cautious approach to AI use when personal information is involved.  We will not enter your personal or sensitive information into AI tools, and we will only use AI features in third-party products where appropriate privacy and security safeguards are in place.  Our use of AI-enabled tools forms part of our broader use of outsourced and cloud computing services and is subject to our privacy and confidentiality obligations.
• By entering into this engagement, each client in the Group provides permission to our firm to enter their information into AI tools, as required for the purposes of our engagement.

 

17. Other

• This letter will be effective for future years unless we advise you of its amendment or replacement, or the engagement is terminated.
• Please note that failure to provide timely information to us may result in late lodgement of your return, which could lead to ATO fines and an early lodgement date for any future returns. Also, if you cease communicating with us, you may also be temporarily or permanently removed from our lodgement list.

 

Disclosure Statement
As a Tax & BAS Agent, our work for you is performed in accordance with the Tax Agent Services Act 2009. Under this Act, the Tax Agent Services (Code of Professional Conduct) Determination 2024 requires that we make certain disclosures to you. Please visit our website at https://wattsprice.com.au/disclosure-statement/ or contact our office to obtain a copy.