Letter of Engagement
The purpose of this schedule is to set out the standard terms of business that apply to all engagements accepted. All work carried out is subject to these terms except where changes are expressly agreed in writing.
These terms and conditions shall remain in force unless and until they are replaced by updated terms and conditions.
These standard terms of business are applicable to all types of entities (e.g. companies, LLPs, charities, friendly societies, academies, pension schemes, sole trader etc.). Any reference therefore to ‘director’ or ‘company’ should be interpreted as appropriate for the entity type (e.g. partner, trustee, governor, charity, LLP, etc.)
DEFINITIONS AND INTERPRETATION
In this letter of engagement, unless the context otherwise requires, the following expressions have the following meanings:
“We/Us/Our/VALES ACC | means VALESBIZ TAX & ADVISORY LTD | Madeleine Salariu |
“Services” | means the services which are to be provided by Us to you as specified in ‘SCOPE OF SERVICES ‘ section |
“Client/Customer” | means the legal entity whether limited company, LLP, LLC, sole trader or any other type of legal person engaging in coaching, accounting and business services with us |
The Client agrees to abide by, and be bound by, the Letter of Engagement as set out below at all times without alteration, exclusion and/or adaptation. The headings in this Letter of Engagement do not affect its interpretation.
INTRODUCTION
We are pleased to accept the instruction to act as your accountant and we are writing to confirm the terms of our appointment, and we accept you to be the Nominated Person for your business. We are bound by the ethical guidelines of AAT and CIMA and accept instructions to act for you on the basis that we will act in accordance with those ethical guidelines. A copy of these guidelines can be viewed at our offices on request or at www.aat.org.uk and www.cimaglobal.com.
CONFIRMATION
This letter supersedes any previous engagement letter. Once it has been agreed, this letter will remain effective until it is replaced. You or we may vary or terminate our authority to act on your behalf at any time without penalty. Notice of variation or termination must be given in writing with 1 months’ notice, to cease at the end of your next billing cycle. If this letter is not in accordance with your understanding of the scope of our engagement or your circumstances have changed, please let us know.
IMPORTANT INFORMATIONS
CONTACTING US
Madeleine Salariu will be the Principal in Charge of this engagement. She will be your main contact, responsible for dealing with your day-to-day affairs and from whom you’ll get the swiftest response.
WHO WE ARE ACTING FOR
This engagement is made between VALES ACC and the individual or legal entity (you/the client) who has purchased our services.
We are acting solely for you, the named taxpayer or company director as identified in your submitted form or Fiverr account. If you are acting on behalf of another party (e.g. a company, trust, or another individual), you must confirm that you have full legal authority to do so and provide supporting documentation if requested.
We do not act for other shareholders, business partners, or family members unless expressly agreed in writing.
All communications, documentation, and responsibilities will relate only to the party named in this engagement and will be treated confidentially under data protection and accounting standards.
SCOPE OF SERVICES
This engagement covers the services included in the package selected at the time of purchase. Each service tier is defined below:
You are responsible for providing complete, accurate, and timely information and documentation required to prepare and submit your tax return. If you withhold, omit, or misstate any relevant data, VALES ACC cannot be held liable for any errors, omissions, penalties, or delays that may arise as a result. We rely entirely on the information you supply and do not perform an audit or independent verification unless expressly agreed in writing. Final responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the submitted tax return remains with you as the taxpayer.
CLIENT CARE
To ensure that we provide you with the best quality service we like to ensure that all our clients know who will be in charge of their affairs. The principal in charge of your assignment will be Madeleine Salariu. Please feel free to contact us on 0204 577 0969 at any time, particularly if you have any queries on the service that is being provided or have any queries on other services that may be of interest.
We are committed to providing a high standard of customer service. We welcome suggestions on how our service to you could be improved. We hope that you will not have the need to complain but if you do, we will look into your complaint carefully and promptly and do all we can to explain the position to you and address your concerns.
PRIMARY POINT OF CONTACT
It is our policy for our clients to designate a primary point of contact in their business. In most cases, this is the Director (for incorporated entities) or individual (for non incorporated entities) who has signed the contract with VALES ACC. Where there is more than one Director or individual who is authorised to have access to the accounting records and information, we require written authority from the primary point of contact in order to authorise this.
You have agreed that you will be our main contact in respect of your engagement. By confirming your agreement to the terms of this engagement letter, you confirm that you are the Nominated Individual who is authorised to give instructions and information to us and to receive our advice and work produced on your behalf. Any change to the Nominated Individual should be notified to us in writing and needs to be signed by all partners or officers. The change will not be effective until acknowledged by us in writing.
CLIENT IDENTIFICATION
As with other professional services firms, we are required to identify our clients for the purposes of the UK anti-money laundering legislation. We may request from you, and retain, such information and documentation as we require for these purposes and/or make searches of appropriate databases.
AUTOMATIC EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION (AEOI), INCLUDING FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act)
Unless covered by a separate engagement letter or another schedule to this letter, we will not be responsible for compliance with the International Tax Compliance Regulations 2015, produced as a result of AEOI.
However, if required to do so, we can provide advice on requirements under these Regulations. We can also provide advice on setting up the appropriate systems to identify and report on your clients or beneficiaries affected by AEOI.
FAIR TAX PLEDGE OR OTHER SIMILAR INITIATIVE
Unless you have advised us before engaging us that you have signed up to the Fair Tax Pledge or other similar initiative, we will not be obliged to advise you of any additional obligations imposed by the terms of the pledge. If you subsequently wish to sign up to the Fair Tax Pledge, you must inform us so that, if appropriate, we may agree appropriate variations to these terms of engagement. Unless we are so informed, we shall be entitled to assume that you have not signed up to the Fair Tax Pledge and unless a variation is specifically agreed with us in writing, our terms of engagement will remain in full force.
CONDITIONS
We are providing the services quoted only. If you need additional services, please ask for a further/amended quote. As a courtesy to you, we think you deserve to know in advance how much the job will cost and what it entails. As a modern & progressive firm we have moved all of our engagements to a fixed price agreement model.
What does this mean for you?
HMRC AND COMPANIES HOUSE LETTERS
Please be aware that HMRC and Companies House do not always send us copies of the letters that they send out. Please always send us a scanned copy/photograph of any letters you receive from HMRC or Companies House. (Especially if you have questions for us regarding the letter. We cannot help if we don’t know exactly what they are saying to you.)
THIRD PARTIES
All accounts, statements and reports prepared by us are for your exclusive use within your business or to meet specific statutory responsibilities. They should not be shown to any other party without our prior consent. No third party shall acquire any rights under this agreement to provide professional services.
APPLICABLE LAW
Our engagement with you and the provision of the services provided are governed by the law and practice of England & Wales. Accepting the letter of engagement and these terms confirms both of our agreements that the courts of England & Wales will have exclusive jurisdiction over any claim or dispute over any matter in respect of the engagement.
Each party irrevocably waives any right it may have to object to any action being brought in those courts, to claim that the action has been brought in an inappropriate forum, or to claim that those courts do not have jurisdiction.
FEES
Hourly Billing for Services with an Undefined Scope
While VALES ACC will try to always provide a fixed price agreement, particularly in the instance where services are ongoing. However, there are some services that we offer where an estimate based on an hourly rate is the only method of billing that applies. We’ll quote an hourly rate in cases of project work where it is difficult to define the scope of the service required. In the case where you have been quoted an estimate based on an hourly rate, we will inform you of the amount of time used before we issue the final bill and collect payment. If possible, we will convert any hourly services into a fixed price agreement, if or when, the scope of the service becomes more apparent.
Unanticipated Services
While your fixed price agreement entitles you to unlimited communication, if your question or issue requires additional research and analysis beyond the services agreed in this contract, any additional work will be quoted to you before the commencement of said additional work. Once the scope of the additional work is agreed upon, we will issue a Change of Service Request via our online proposal system and will ask you to sign the new agreement before we commence the new work. Furthermore, you will agree that if an unanticipated need arises (such as an audit, an amended tax return or a personal financial statement required as part of a loan agreement), this additional work will be performed only after arriving at a mutually agreed-upon price and a Change of Service Request is accepted with a digital signature. Our fees for all other work are based on time spent. We can provide you with an estimate for each assignment before it commences if you so wish. If it is necessary to carry out work outside the agreed work outlined in “in “‘Scope of Services’” Section of this Letter of Engagement, it will involve additional fees. These fees will be computed on the basis of time spent by principals and our staff, and on the levels of skill and responsibility involved. A full list of the time spent and the charge out rates used is available on request.
Invoices are payable in full (including disbursements) upon receipt. If you do not accept that an invoiced fee is fair and reasonable you must notify us within 7 days of receipt, failing which you will be deemed to have accepted that payment is due.
We reserve the right to charge interest on overdue accounts at the current rate under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. We also reserve the right to terminate our engagement and cease acting if payment of any fees billed is unduly delayed.
If a client company, trust or other entity is unable or unwilling to settle our fees, we reserve the right to seek payment from the individual (or parent company) giving us instructions on behalf of the client, and we shall be entitled to enforce any sums due against the group company or individual nominated to act for you.
Insofar as we are permitted to so by law or by professional guidelines, we reserve the right to exercise a lien over all funds, documents and records in our possession relating to all engagements for you until all outstanding fees and disbursements are paid in full.
In the event that we cease to act in relation to your company’s affairs you agree to meet all reasonable costs of providing information to the company’s new advisers. In particular you agree to meet these costs where we are required by law to provide information to a successor firm.
Service and Price Guarantee
VALES ACC will always stand behind the quality and professional nature of the services that we offer. If at any point you are not completely satisfied with the services we have performed, we encourage you to bring this to our attention immediately. We’d love the opportunity to correctly address your concerns and allow us a chance to win your trust back and prevent similar problems from happening in the future.
CATCH-UP PAYMENTS, MISSED PAYMENTS AND DISENGAGEMENT OF SERVICES
If you have missed any payments you owe to us or provided unauthorised payment or other details and we are unable to collect payment from you, then we reserve the right to pass the debt to a third-party debt collection agency. Payments are due to VALES ACC on the agreed direct debit date in your payments schedules. On day 31 late compensation payment will be applied under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts Act 1998 and the debt passed to our external debt collection agency where interest will also be charged.
We reserve the right to instruct our partner Select Credit Management Ltd, to assist with our late-stage credit control and commercial debt recovery if invoices or payments default on the agreement between Parties, in which case the full balance of the agreement will be demanded.
If we cannot collect missed payments then we can suspend or cancel provision of our services and/or cease to act as your agent with HMRC, without giving you notice – this is called disengagement of services. This does not affect our right to end this contract as otherwise stated within these terms and conditions and will not cancel any outstanding debt to VALES ACC under the terms of the contract.
RE-JOINING VALES ACC
If you have left VALES ACC or been disengaged and decide to re-join, you will be issued with a new contract at the most up to date prices for new clients. This may be result in a higher fee being payable then your original contract.
FAIR USAGE POLICY
VALES ACC strives to provide the best services possible for the best price possible. In order to maintain a good level of service for all of our customers we have a fair usage policy. This policy applies to all of the products and services that VALES ACC offers but the areas where there are more commonly breaches of this policy are outlined below.
VALES ACC’s policy towards Fair Usage is that Customers should be able to use the service in an appropriate manner to meet their needs.
A very small number of customers use an excessive amount of VALES ACC’s time, to the extent that it could impair the level of service provided to others. VALES ACC’s Fair Usage Policy is designed to provide the most effective service to all Customers.
The fair usage policy will identify the very small number of customers who use the service beyond what VALES ACC regards as fair. We will communicate with these users to try and establish what is driving the high usage and how individual usage patterns and habits can be modified to the benefit of all. In extreme cases, VALES ACC may be required to apply management techniques to reduce the impact the heavy users have to the service provided to other customers.
What level of use is allowed?
With all of VALES ACC’s monthly subscription services, the service is designed to be used monthly as a maximum. If a customer began to send in one envelope a week instead of one a month documents we would regard this usage as unfair as it would have a detrimental effect on the level of work performed for other customers.
Whilst we accept that the occasional phone call to clarify accountancy issues and pass on important information is required in the nature of our business, we do regard excessive calls to VALES ACC with regards to accountancy matters as unfair usage. In circumstances where we feel a customer is spending an excessive amount of time phoning any VALES ACC office we would regard the usage as unfair as it detrimentally affects the level of service that VALES ACC can provide to its other customers.
How can I make sure that I am using the service fairly?
If you are sending VALES ACC one envelope with documents a month and do not spend more than 15 minutes a month on the phone to VALES ACC with regard to accountancy related queries then you would have no need to worry. The majority of our customers easily fall within these boundaries. Whilst 15 minutes a month may not seem like a long time to be on the phone this equates to 180 minutes a year which is 3 hours. As our services are provided monthly this will reduce the number of accountancy related questions that occur leaving you with 3 hours of accountancy advice by phone each year. Naturally, if VALES ACC calls you to discuss an issue or a piece of advice we have identified that we feel would be beneficial to you then this is not counted towards unfair usage.
If you do have questions regarding your monthly accounts then please use the email address that we have given to you for accountancy queries. All emails will be responded to in one working day and most of our customers find this the most efficient way of contacting VALES ACC. Using the email service does not impact upon your fair usage as we can respond to you at a time when our staff can give your query their full attention rather than having the work they are doing for another customer interrupted by a phone call. This means that all our customers receive our full attention at all times and receive the best service possible.
TREATING CUSTOMERS FAIRLY
VALES ACC ensures customers are at the very heart of all that we do. We are fully committed to providing the highest standards of customer service. Our customers are our most valuable asset and our aim is to ensure we deliver a consistently fair, honest and professional service. As part of our overall approach we are fully committed to treating our customers fairly and as such we endeavour to meet their expectations of high quality service.
Our Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) policy is centred on the recommendations provided by the AAT and the CIMA to ensure we consistently deliver fair outcomes to our customers. We will operate on a culture of openness and transparency. As an organisation, we take the recommendations of our Accounting bodies seriously, in particular, the requirements to treat customers fairly.
We recognise that our employees are critical to delivering a positive customer experience and ensuring our customers are treated fairly. Our culture and values encourage and support our employees to deliver this.
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
We specifically draw your attention to paragraphs 39 to 44 of our standard terms and conditions that set out the basis on which we limit our liability to you and to others. You should read this in conjunction with paragraphs 63 and 64 of our standard terms and conditions that exclude liability to third parties. These are important provisions which you should read and consider carefully. There are no third parties that we have agreed should be entitled to rely on the work done pursuant to this engagement letter.
PERIOD OF ENGAGEMENT
This engagement starts today. We will not deal with earlier periods unless you specifically ask us to do so and we agree. This engagement covers the specific piece of work mutually agreed and as detailed in the ‘Scope of Services’ Section of this Letter of Engagement. We will not deal with any earlier work unless you specifically ask us to do so and we agree. In conducting this engagement, information acquired by us in the course of completing this job 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
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND USE OF OUR NAME
We will retain all intellectual property rights in any document prepared by us during the course of carrying out the engagement except where the law specifically states otherwise. You may only use such rights to the extent we agreed when engaged to provide services to you and may not resell or sublicense such rights without our further prior consent.
You are not permitted to use our name in any statement or document that you may issue unless our prior written consent has been obtained. The only exception to this restriction would be statements or documents that in accordance with applicable law are to be made public.
DRAFT/INTERIM WORK OR ORAL ADVICE
In the course of our providing services to you we may provide advice or reports or other work products in draft or interim form, or orally. However, final written work products will always prevail over any draft, interim or oral statements. Where you request it, we will provide you with written confirmation of matters stated orally. Advice is valid as at the date it was given.
We will endeavour to record all advice on important matters in writing. Advice given orally is not intended to be relied upon unless confirmed in writing. Therefore, if we provide oral advice (for example during the course of a telephone conversation) and you wish to be able to rely on that advice, you must ask for the advice to be confirmed by us in writing.
ELECTRONINC AND OTHER COMUNICATION
Unless you instruct us otherwise we may communicate with you and with third parties via email or by other electronic means. The recipient is responsible for virus checking emails and any attachments.
With electronic communication there is a risk of non-receipt, delayed receipt, inadvertent misdirection or interception by third parties. We use virus-scanning software to reduce the risk of viruses and similar damaging items being transmitted through emails or electronic storage devices. However electronic communication is not totally secure and we cannot be held responsible for damage or loss caused by viruses nor for communications which are corrupted or altered after despatch. Nor can we accept any liability for problems or accidental errors relating to this means of communication especially in relation to commercially sensitive material. These are risks you must accept in return for greater efficiency and lower costs. If you do not wish to accept these risks please let us know and we will communicate by hard copy, other than where electronic submission is mandatory.
Any communication by us with you sent through the post is deemed to arrive at your postal address two working days after the day that the document was sent.
INTEPRETATION
If any provision of our engagement letter or terms of business is held to be void for whatever reason, then that provision will be deemed not to form part of this contract, and no other provisions will be affected or impaired in any way. In the event of any conflict between these terms of business and the engagement letter or appendices, the relevant provision in the engagement letter or schedules will take precedence.
OWNERSHIP OF DOCUMENTS
All original documents obtained from the client arising from the engagement shall remain the property of the client. 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 financial statements, tax returns and supporting documents in electronic format. 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 or non-payment and withhold documentation until such time as payment of our invoice(s) is received if full and/or disputes have been resolved. In the event of non-payment of our fees, we may exercise a right of lien over the books and records in our possession and withhold the documents until such time as payment of our invoice is received in full.
FILE DISTRUCTION
Whilst certain documents may legally belong to you, unless you tell us not to, we intend to destroy correspondence and other papers that we store which are more than seven years old, other than documents which we think may be of continuing significance. If you require the retention of any document, you must notify us of that fact in writing. If we do not hear from you then after a period of 7 years we will securely destroy correspondence and papers that we have stored for you.
You have a legal responsibility to retain documents and records relevant to your financial affairs. During the course of our work we may collect information from you and others relevant to your tax and financial affairs. We will return any original documents to you if requested.
You must keep copies of any digital records shared with us. Documents and records relevant to your tax affairs are required by law to be retained as follows:
Individuals, trustees and partnerships:
• with trading or rental income: five years and 10 months after the end of the tax year;
• otherwise: 22 months after the end of the tax year.
Companies, Limited Liability Partnerships, and other corporate entities:
• six years from the end of the accounting period.
Whilst certain documents may legally belong to you we may destroy correspondence and other papers that we store, electronically or otherwise, which are more than 7 years old. You must tell us if you require the return of any specific document or their retention for a longer period. From time to time, if we identify a need, we may keep certain documents for longer than 7 years.
DISCLAIMER
We will not be liable for any loss suffered by you or any third party as a result of our compliance with the Anti Money Laundering Legislation or any UK law or at all.
You agree that if our performance of our obligations under this agreement is prevented or delayed by your act or omission we shall not be liable for any costs, charges or losses sustained or incurred by you that arise directly or indirectly from such prevention or delay. The content of your accounts, VAT returns, payroll returns, tax returns and any other submissions that we make on your behalf to HMRC or Companies House are ultimately your responsibility.
As a business owner and/or tax-paying individual, you remain responsible for the content of your returns, even if you instruct an accountant to prepare them for you – this typically applies for all accountants and tax advisors across the UK. Therefore it is important that you check anything we send to you for signature / approval / action, before you sign it / approve it / act upon it and we submit it to the relevant authorities or you make payments to staff or HMRC based upon its content. VALES ACC cannot be held responsible for any costs, charges, fines or losses sustained or incurred due to you giving permission to us to submit a return that subsequently is found to contain erroneous information. VALES ACC will not be held responsible for any late filing penalties relating to your accountancy and tax work that may be issued by HMRC or Companies House. It is your responsibility to provide the information requested by your accountant in a timely manner, in order to facilitate us preparing and submitting any statutory returns on time. Throughout the course of our engagement, we will periodically remind you of such deadlines that relate to your business and personal circumstances and do our best to remind you of any missing information we require to complete your work. However, the responsibility to provide that information in time is yours. Nothing in this agreement shall exclude, or in any way limit either party’s liability for death or personal injury caused by its negligence. Subject to this, neither party shall be liable to the other for any loss of contracts or loss of actual or anticipated income or profit or for any indirect, special or consequential damages, loss or expenses arising under this agreement whether or not such loss or damage is foreseeable, foreseen or known. Our aggregate liability to you in contract, tort, (including negligence) or otherwise in relation to this contract is limited to whichever is the lesser of £10,000 and the total charges payable by you to us under this agreement in respect of the 12 months prior to the event giving rise to the liability. Save as expressly set out in this agreement, all warranties, conditions and other terms implied by statute or common law are, to the fullest extent permitted by law, excluded from this agreement.
If you provide digital services to consumers in the European Union you are responsible for either registering for VAT in that member state or registering for VAT Mini One Stop Shop (MOSS). You are responsible for monitoring your monthly turnover to establish whether you are liable to register for VAT. If you do not understand what you need to do, please ask us.
If you exceed the VAT registration threshold, and wish us to assist you in notifying HMRC of your liability to be VAT registered, we will be pleased to assist you in the VAT registration process. You should notify us of your instructions to assist in your VAT registration in good time to enable a VAT registration form to be submitted within the time limit of one month following the month in which you exceeded the VAT registration threshold in force at that time. We will not be responsible if you fail to notify us in time and incur a late registration penalty as a result. We will not be in a position to assist you in complying with your responsibilities if we are not engaged to provide such a service.
You are responsible for employment taxes, pensions (including auto-enrolment) and the assessment of the tax status of your workers. If you do not understand what you need to consider or action you need to take, please ask us. We will not be in a position to assist you in complying with your responsibilities if we are not engaged to provide such a service. We are not responsible for any penalty that is incurred.
The Directors agree to inform us of any impending purchases of properties that will need to be declared on an ATED return. In some cases an ATED return and payment is required just 30 days after the purchase date and so prompt communication is required. We will not be in a position to assist you in complying with your responsibilities if we are not engaged to provide such a service.
You are responsible for providing complete, accurate, and timely information and documentation required to prepare and submit your tax return. If you withhold, omit, or misstate any relevant data, VALES ACC cannot be held liable for any errors, omissions, penalties, or delays that may arise as a result.
We rely entirely on the information you supply and do not perform an audit or independent verification unless expressly agreed in writing. Final responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the submitted tax return remains with you as the taxpayer. VALES ACC will not be liable for any loss or penalties incurred due to delays, omissions, or incorrect information provided by you. We act based on the data you supply and do not independently audit or verify it unless explicitly agreed in writing.
You, as the taxpayer, are ultimately responsible for the content and accuracy of your tax return. It is essential that you thoroughly review and approve any documents we send you before they are submitted to HMRC.
Failure to provide accurate, complete, and timely information may result in incorrect filings or missed deadlines. VALES ACC cannot be held responsible for HMRC penalties or interest charges arising from such circumstances.
OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO YOU
We have set out the agreed scope and objectives of your instructions within this letter of engagement. Any subsequent changes will be discussed with you and where appropriate a new letter of engagement will be agreed. We shall proceed based on the instructions we have received from you and will rely on you to tell us as soon as possible if anything occurs which renders any information previously given to us as incorrect or inaccurate. We shall not be responsible for any failure to advise or comment on any matter that falls outside the specific scope of your instructions. We cannot accept any responsibility for any event, loss or situation unless it is one against which it is the expressed purpose of these instructions to provide protection.
YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO US
The advice that we give can only be as good as the information on which it is based. In so far as that information is provided by you, or by third parties with your permission, your responsibility arises as soon as possible if any circumstances or facts alter, as any alteration may have a significant impact on the advice given. If the circumstances change therefore or your needs alter, advise us of the alteration as soon as possible in writing. 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 written consent. The Client is responsible for the reliability, accuracy and completeness of the accounting records, particulars and information provided and disclosure of all material and relevant information. Clients 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. Any advice given to the Client is only an opinion based on our knowledge of the Client’s particular circumstances.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
We are committed to providing a high standard of customer service. If you have any ideas as to how our service to you could be improved, or if you are dissatisfied with the service you are receiving, please let us know. As a client of VALES ACC you agree not to attack or criticise the company or any employee or Director of the company publicly (on public forums, blogs, social media etc) at any time during or subsequent to the contract period. In the event that you have a complaint, we will look into this carefully and promptly and do all we can to explain the position to you or address your concerns. All complaints can be raised directly with your Accountant or by emailing info@saving.tax. Calls may be recorded for training and quality purposes.
The Company operates demanding but achievable service level agreements, agreed upon internally, which are constantly monitored to ensure customers receive the level of service they expect. Exceptional results are achieved as a result of fully trained and dedicated employees who understand the importance of providing excellent customer service and maintaining VALES ACC’s reputation. External validation regularly confirms that VALES ACC meets and exceeds customer service levels via customer service reviews.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
In accordance with the Bribery Act 2010, VALES ACC is committed to ensuring its business is conducted in a way which is legal, professional, fair and in accordance with the best interests of its customers. Potential conflicts of interest between the company and its customers and between a customer and another client are constantly monitored.
INCENTIVE SCHEMES
VALES ACC seeks to avoid operating incentive schemes that could breach the principle of TCF and risk consumer detriment.
REFFERAL REWARDS
When you refer a client to VALES ACC you will be rewarded with the current scheme in place at the time of the referral. If the scheme changes after you have referred a client, you cannot request to be rewarded with an alternative reward. Referral rewards will not be backdated.
Rewards scheme from 13th February 2023 onwards:
We reserve the right to amend or withdraw the referral scheme at any time without notice.
USING My Accounting portal and My Business Support Hub (if applicable)
The VALES ACC online Client Portals are secure private web apps that are only accessible to VALES ACC clients. If you cease to be a client of VALES ACC then access to the app will be revoked. The apps are a data sharing facility and as such should not be considered a storage area for your reports and electronic records. You must keep a copy of all documents, emails and data uploaded to the apps. We highly recommend that you download and save the reports, calculations and accounting work that we share with you via the apps. VALES ACC is not responsible for the ongoing storage of your digital records. VALES ACC will not be held responsible if, whilst under investigation by HMRC or any other authority, you are unable to provide a copy of a requested digital record that you have previously shared with us via the apps. In using our services you agree to keep adequate copies and secure storage of your digital records.
MEETING DEADLINES
In order that we may meet the deadlines set out by Companies House and HMRC, we require that you provide all information relating to your accounts and tax returns according to the following timescales:
VALES ACC will not be held responsible for any late filing penalties or interest that arise, especially where the timescales above have not been adhered to.
ACCESS TO ONE-CLICK GROWTH TOOLS SERVICES AND BUSINESS LISTING (if applicable)
PRE-ACCOUNTING TOOLS
We use pre-accounting software to extract the data from source documents. Therefore, please make sure that the documents you provide us with are of a good quality to ensure accuracy.
Following the guidance below will allow us to process your work as efficiently as possible and reduce the number of queries we have for you.
If you use the envelopes:
If you use the app:
CONTINUITY OF PRACTICE
The parties acknowledge and agree that VALES ACC, has established a continuity of practice agreement to ensure seamless service delivery to clients in the event of unforeseen circumstances. This agreement serves to guarantee the ongoing provision of services and the protection of client interests, even in situations where individual practitioners may be unable to fulfil their responsibilities.
Under the continuity of practice agreement, VALES ACC has implemented comprehensive measures to facilitate the transition of client matters to alternative practitioners within the firm. These measures include the designation of alternate points of contact, the documentation of client files and workflows, and the provision of training to relevant staff members to ensure familiarity with client requirements and preferences.
By entering into this contract, the client acknowledges and agrees to the terms of the continuity of practice agreement and acknowledges that VALES ACC has taken appropriate steps to mitigate any potential disruptions to service delivery. The client further agrees to cooperate with VISI ACCOUNTING LIMITED in the implementation of the continuity of practice measures and to promptly notify VISI ACCOUNTING LIMITED of any changes or developments that may impact the provision of services under this contract.
This continuity of practice agreement is intended to provide both parties with peace of mind and confidence in the reliability and stability of the services provided by VALES ACC.
ANNUAL ACCOUNTS – SOLE TRADERS/PARTNERSHIPS/LANDLORDS (if applicable)
Your responsibility for the preparation of accounts
Our responsibilities for the preparation of accounts
BOOKKEEPING (if applicable)
It is agreed that we should carry out the following accounting and other services:
PERSONAL TAX – INDIVIDUALS AND SOLE TRADERS (if applicable)
CRYPTOCURRENCY TAX ADVICE (if applicable)
TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF SERVICE
Agreement of Terms Once agreed, this contract will remain effective from the date of signature until it is replaced. You are agreeing to the terms and conditions below in addition to our above standard terms and conditions.
INTRODUCTION
1. These terms and conditions set out the general terms under which we undertake our business. the terms and conditions under which we agree to act. These terms and conditions (as updated from time to time) form part of the letter of engagement between us. These terms and conditions shall remain in force unless and until they are replaced by updated terms and conditions.
APPLICABLE LAW
2. Our engagement with you and the provision of the services provided are governed by the law and practice of
England & Wales. Accepting the letter of engagement and these terms confirms both of our agreements that the courts of England & Wales will have exclusive jurisdiction over any claim or dispute over any matter in respect of the engagement. Each party irrevocably waives any right it may have to object to any action being brought in those courts, to claim that the action has been brought in an inappropriate forum, or to claim that those courts do not have jurisdiction.
PROFESSIONAL BODY
3. We are subject to regulation by Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT). The website of our professional body is www.aat.org.uk where you can find details of our firm in the register of members along with the code of ethics and the regulatory framework with which we are required to comply.
BRIBARY ACT 2010
4. In accordance with the requirements of the Bribery Act 2010 we have policies and procedures in place to prevent the business and its partners and staff from offering or receiving bribes.
CLIENT MONEY
5. Client money is money in any currency or form that we receive from a client or hold for a client which is not
immediately due to us in accordance with our agreement. Fees paid in advance for agreed services to be
provided are not client money and will not be required to offset these against our fees. We will not hold assets belonging to you or any of our clients.
6. Fees paid by you in advance for professional work to be performed and clearly identifiable as such shall not be regarded as clients’ monies and will be added as credit on account until further charges against them have been applied or refund thereof arranged.
COMMISSIONS RECEIVED EXCLUDING INVESTMENT BUSINESS COMMISSIONS
7. From time to time we or another connected business may receive a commission or other benefit because of an introduction to another professional or a transaction arranged for you.
If this occurs, we shall account to you for the commission, which means you will be notified in writing of the terms and payment of the commission or benefit.
You agree that we can retain such commissions or benefits.
COMMUNICATION
8. Unless you instruct us otherwise, we may, where appropriate, communicate with you and with third parties via email or by other electronic means. The recipient is responsible for virus checking emails and any attachments.
9. With electronic communication there is a risk of non-receipt, delayed receipt, inadvertent misdirection or interception by third parties. We use virus-scanning software to reduce the risk of viruses and similar damaging items being transmitted through emails or electronic storage devices. However electronic communication is not totally secure, and we cannot be held responsible for damage or loss caused by viruses nor for communications which are corrupted or altered after despatch. Nor can we accept any liability for problems or accidental errors relating to this means of communication especially in relation to commercially sensitive material. These are risks you must bear in return for greater efficiency and lower costs. If you do not wish to accept these risks please let us know and we will communicate by paper mail, other than where electronic submission is mandatory.
Unless you instruct us otherwise, we may, where appropriate, communicate with you and with third parties via email or by other electronic means. However, internet communications are capable of data corruption and therefore we do not accept any responsibility for changes made to such communications after their despatch. It may therefore be inappropriate to rely on advice contained in an e-mail without obtaining written confirmation of it. We do not accept responsibility for any errors or problems that may arise through the use of internet communication and all risks connected with sending commercially sensitive information relating to your business are borne by you. If you do not agree to accept this risk, you should notify us in writing that e-mail is not an acceptable means of communication. We will never change our bank details without confirming this to you by posted letter. Any emailed or telephoned communications appearing to be from us which are not confirmed by post are fake and we accept no liability for any loss caused to you through accepting such communications as genuine. Similarly, always give us by hand or by post (as well as by email) details of your bank account.
It is the responsibility of the recipient to carry out a virus check on any attachments received.
10. Any communication by us with you sent through the post is deemed to arrive at your postal address two working days after the day that the document was sent.
If you have provided us with your email address, we shall accept that as your authorisation to communicate with you by email, unless you withdraw that authorisation. Where you have agreed to receive electronic
communications you acknowledge:
i. Although we take all reasonable care there is a risk of non-receipt, delays, misdirection or interception
by a third party
ii. Although we use up to date virus protection software to reduce the risk you are responsible for virus
checking any emails and attachments
iii. However careful parties are there is a risk associated with electronic communication which you accept in
return for speed and efficiency.
In order to ensure that communication is effective you are required to notify us promptly of any change of postal or email address.
CONFIDENTIALITY
In accordance with our code of ethics all communication between us is confidential. Information will not be
disclosed unless authorised by you (for a specific item or generally via the privacy notice) or where required by
law or regulation.
11. Communication between us is confidential and we shall take all reasonable steps to keep confidential your information except where we are required to disclose it by law, by regulatory bodies, by our insurers or as part of an external peer review. Unless we are authorised by you to disclose information on your behalf this undertaking will apply during and after this engagement.
12. We may, on occasions, subcontract work on your affairs to other tax or accounting professionals. The subcontractors will be bound by our client confidentiality terms.
13. We reserve the right, for the purpose of promotional activity, training or for other business purpose, to mention that you are a client. As stated above we will not disclose any confidential information.
We confirm that where you give us confidential information, we shall at all times keep it confidential, except as required by law or as provided for in regulatory, ethical or other professional statements relevant to our engagement.
You agree that, if we act for other clients who are or who become your competitors, to comply with our duty of confidentiality, it will be sufficient for us to take such steps as we think appropriate to preserve the confidentiality of information given to us by you, both during and after this engagement. These may include taking the same or similar steps as we take in respect of the confidentiality of our own information.
In addition, if we act for other clients whose interests are or may be adverse to yours, we will manage the conflict by implementing additional safeguards to preserve confidentiality. Safeguards may include measures such as separate teams, physical separation of teams, and separate arrangements for storage of, and access to, information.
You agree that the effective implementation of such steps or safeguards as described above will provide adequate measures to avoid any real risk of confidentiality being impaired.
We may, on occasions, subcontract work on your affairs to other tax or accounting professionals. The subcontractors will be bound by our client confidentiality terms. You may additionally need to consider your data protection responsibilities.
We will inform you of the proposed use of a subcontractor before they commence work, except where your data will not be transferred out of our systems and the subcontractor is bound by the confidentiality terms equivalent to an employee.
If we use external or cloud-based systems, we will ensure confidentiality of your information is maintained.
This clause applies in addition to our obligations as to data protection below.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
14. We will inform you if we become aware of any conflict of interest in our relationship with you or in our relationship with you and another client. Where conflicts are identified which cannot be managed in a way that protects your interests then we regret that we will be unable to provide further services. We reserve the right during our engagement with you to deliver services to other clients whose interests might compete with yours or are or may be adverse to yours, subject to clause Confidentiality above. We confirm that we will notify you immediately should we become aware of any conflict of interest involving us and affecting you unless we are unable to do so because of our confidentiality obligations. We have safeguards that can be implemented to protect the interests of different clients if a conflict arises. Where conflicts are identified which cannot be managed in a way that protects your interests then we regret that we will be unable to provide further services.
During and after our engagement, you agree that we reserve the right to act for other clients whose interests are or may compete with or be adverse to yours, subject, of course, to our obligations of confidentiality and the safeguards set out in the paragraph on confidentiality below.
15. If there is a conflict of interest that is capable of being addressed successfully by the adoption of suitable safeguards to protect your interests, then we will adopt those safeguards. Where possible this will be done on the basis of your informed consent. We reserve the right to act for other clients whose interests are not the same as or are adverse to yours subject of course to the obligations of confidentiality referred to above.
CONTRACTS (RIGHTS OF THIRD PARTIES) ACT 1999
16. The advice and information we provide to you as part of our service is for your sole use and not for any third party to whom you may communicate it unless we have expressly agreed in the Engagement letter that a specified third party may rely on our work. We accept no responsibility to third parties, including any group company to whom the engagement letter is not addressed, for any advice, information or material produced as part of our work for you which you make available to them. A party to this agreement is the only person who has the right under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any of its terms.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
17. We are committed to providing a high standard of customer service. If you have any ideas as to how our service to you could be improved, or if you are dissatisfied with the service you are receiving, please let us know. In the event that you have a complaint, we will look into this carefully and promptly and do all we can to explain the position to you or address your concerns. If you are still not satisfied you may of course make a complaint to the Association of Accounting Technicians.
DATA PROTECTION
18.1. We will comply with the General Data Protection Regulations and the Data Protection Act 2018 when dealing with your personal data.
18.2. GDPR provides that: Personal data only includes information relating to natural persons who:
i. can be identified or who are identifiable, directly from the information in question; or
ii. who can be indirectly identified from that information in combination with other information.
18.3. This will include but is not limited to a name, identification number, location data and an online identifier.
18.4. When providing accountancy services we will usually be acting as a controller under the regulations. We will be controllers as we will make decisions about processing activities when providing the agreed service to you.
18.5. We may act as a processor when providing certain services such as payroll. In this case you would be the
controller and we would act on your instructions.
18.6. We ensure that we comply with the principles as set out in the GDPR (for more information see www.ico.org.uk) when collecting and processing data. These principles are:
i. Lawfulness, fairness and transparency
ii. Purpose limitation
iii. Data minimisation
iv. Accuracy
v. Storage limitation
vi. Integrity and confidentiality
vii. Accountability
18.7. In order to comply with these principles we will:
18.8. Provide you with a privacy notice which should be read in conjunction with the letter of engagement, schedules of services and these terms and conditions
18.9. Ensure that the information that we collect and process is limited to that necessary for:
i. Providing the agreed services
ii. Complying with legal and regulatory obligations
iii. Contacting you with details of other services (where consent has been given)
iv. Other legitimate reasons necessary to protect against claims or disciplinary action.
18.10. In order to comply with the regulations of our professional body AAT our files may be subject to review by a professional body, regulator or another qualified third party to ensure our continued compliance with those regulations.
DISENGAGEMENT
19. 1.When we cease to act for you a disengagement letter may be issued. This will ensure that our respective
responsibilities are clear and agreed.
19.2. Should we be unable to contact you we may issue a disengagement letter to your last known address and cease to act.
19.3. Each of us may terminate this engagement by giving not less than 30 days notice in writing to the other party, except where you fail to cooperate with us or we have reason to believe that you have provided us or HMRC with misleading information, in which case we may terminate this engagement immediately.
19.4. Termination shall be without prejudice to any rights that may have accrued to either party prior to termination.
19.5. We shall also have the right to terminate this engagement and cease to work for you in the event that you fail to pay our invoices or if you fail to provide us with complete timely or accurate information to enable us to carry out the services we have agreed to perform for you.
19.6. In the event of termination of this engagement we will endeavour to agree with you the arrangements for
completion of the work in progress at the time, unless we are required for legal or regulatory purposes to cease
work immediately. In that event, we shall not be required to carry out further work and shall not be responsible or liable for any consequences arising from termination.
19.7. At the time of termination of this engagement (for whatever reason) we will invoice you for all work carried out to the point of termination (in so far as not already invoiced) at our normal hourly rates.
19.8. Our engagement with you will cease once we have completed all work that we have agreed to perform for you under this engagement.
20. Once our engagement with you has terminated or ceased (for whatever reason) we shall owe you no further duties to act for you or to advise beyond the date of termination or cessation of the engagement.
21. Should we have no contact with you for a period of 3 months or more we may issue a disengagement letter and hence cease to act.
ETHICAL GUIDELINES
22. We are bound by the ethical guidelines of The Association of Accounting Technicians and accept instructions to act for you on the basis that we will act in accordance with those ethical guidelines. A copy of these guidelines can be viewed at our offices on request or can be seen at www.aat.org.uk. We will not be liable for any loss, damage or cost arising from our compliance with statutory or regulatory obligations.
FEES, PAYMENTS TERMS AND TIMETABLE
23. We operate fixed fees, quoted in advance. Please refer to your ‘‘Scope of Services’’ section for a breakdown of these.
24. In some cases, you may be entitled to assistance with your professional fees, particularly in relation to any investigation into your tax affairs by HMRC. Assistance may be provided through insurance policies you hold or via membership of a professional or trade body. Other than where such assurance was arranged through us you will need to advise us of any such insurance cover that you have. You will remain liable for our fees regardless of whether all or part are liable to be paid by your insurers.
25. We will bill upon completion of the work and our invoices are due for payment on the due date as shown on the invoice. Our fees are exclusive of VAT which will be added where it is chargeable. Any disbursements we incur on your behalf and expenses incurred in the course of carrying out our work for you will be added to our invoices where appropriate.
26. Unless otherwise agreed to the contrary our fees do not include the costs of any third party, counsel or other professional fees.
Unless agreed to the contrary, any estimate of our fees or a fixed fee quotation does not include any
disbursements, or the costs of any third party, which shall be added to our invoices.
27. It is our normal practice to ask clients to pay by upon completion of the ad hoc piece of work being completed before any submission to HMRC / Companies House is made.
28. We reserve the right to charge interest on late paid invoices at the rate of 1% above bank base rates under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. We also reserve the right to suspend our services or to cease to act for you on giving written notice if payment of any fees is unduly delayed. We intend to exercise these rights only where it is fair and reasonable to do so.
29. Due to the nature of our services, we do not provide payment terms and therefore collect all payments for services agreed and rendered via direct debit once an invoice has been raised on completion and issued for review, be that for partial, one-off services or monthly service subscriptions. We therefore require all clients to authorise a direct debit mandate as part of our on boarding and service agreement. Any services we undertake will only be rendered if requested and/or agreed with you upfront. Once completed, along with your invoice, a notification of the submitted payment request will be sent to you 3-5 days before the payment will be collected. If for any reason, you need to cancel the direct debit or scheduled payment, you can do so at any time and at your own discretion by cancelling the direct debit or the payment notification received. Cancellation of the direct debit will disable any future payments to be collected and will put your account and services with us on hold, until overdue payments have been received and a new authorised direct debit put in place to re- activate the account and service again.
30. If you do not accept that an invoiced fee is fair and reasonable you must notify us within 7 days of receipt, failing which you will be deemed to have accepted that payment is due.
31. In the case of a dispute over the level of fees charged we reserve the right to require that the matter is dealt with through arbitration. We recommend that arbitration is undertaken by the fee arbitration service provided by AAT for members. The fee arbitrator will be appointed by the AAT president; the fee will be as negotiated with the AAT arbitrator.
In any situation where our fees are expected to be paid by a third party (eg by an insurance provider in relation to an HMRC investigation), until those fees have been paid in full, you shall remain liable for our fees.
We reserve the right to stop work on your affairs entirely where any fees due from you remain outstanding 30
days after the issue of the relevant invoice.
Any work to be carried out beyond that in a fixed fee quotation will be charged at our normal hourly rates, details of these are available on request. We reserve the right to increase our hourly rates at reasonable intervals, without notice. Please contact us at any time if you would like the current list of hourly rates.
Either party may vary or terminate our authority to act on your behalf at any time without penalty. Notice of termination must be given in writing – email is acceptable. If you wish to cancel your service with VALES ACC, we require at least one month’s written notice – email is acceptable. In order to process your request to leave, you must first complete a leavers form to start the process and so that we can deal with the closing of your account correctly, depending on your circumstances. Please note that we cannot accept your notice to leave unless the form is completed. The date of termination is taken as the date of the last contracted direct debit payment as agreed at the point of notice, and all work will be completed up to and including the month of the last payment.
Payments are due up until the termination date, and any unpaid fees will be pursued in line with our missed payments policy, where late compensation payment will be applied under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts Act 1998, and the debt passed to our external debt collection agency where interest will also be charged.
We reserve the right to instruct our partner Select Credit Management Ltd, to assist with our late-stage credit control and commercial debt recovery if invoices or payments default on the agreement between Parties, in which case the full balance of the agreement will be demanded. At the point of termination of your contract you are no longer entitled to access the VALES ACC services either via the app, by telephone or by email. Your designated Accountant and team will no longer act for you and we will no longer act as your agent with HMRC.
Any outstanding work up to the date of your contract termination will be completed based on the information we have received from you at that time. Therefore, if you wish to leave the service, please ensure that you have provided us with everything that we require to complete your work up to the date of termination. If you leave the service due to the cessation of your business or self-employment, then VALES ACC will automatically downgrade your payments to £7 + VAT per month and will continue to act as your agent with HMRC until we have completed the closing down of your affairs with the relevant authorities, or your final year-end has passed, whichever is later. It is therefore important to continue to correspond with us during this winding-up period to allow us to complete the work necessary as quickly as possible. VALES ACC is a subscription-based accountancy service. Your subscription payments cover you for the current month’s work and any statutory requirements that come to pass whilst you are using your subscription. No monthly payments will be refunded to you at any time, regardless of whether you have used the service or not, or if your year-end procedure (accounts, tax returns and submissions to HMRC and/or Companies House) has been performed or not. Either party has the right to terminate the agreement immediately if the other: (a) has committed a material or persistent breach of this contract, unless such breach is capable of remedy, in which case the right to terminate immediately will be exercisable if the other party has failed to remedy the breach within 14 days after a written notice to do so; or (b) becomes insolvent or is the subject of a bankruptcy order.
IMPLEMENTATION
32. We will only assist with implementation of our advice if specifically instructed in writing.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
33. We will retain all copyright in any document prepared by us during the course of carrying out the engagement save where the law specifically provides otherwise.
Exclusion of Liability Relating to Non Disclosure or Misrepresentation Etc.
34. We will not be responsible or liable for any loss, damage or expense incurred or sustained if information material to the service we are providing is withheld or concealed from us or misrepresented to us. This applies equally to fraudulent acts, misrepresentation or wilful default on the part of any party to the transaction and their directors, officers, employees, agents or advisers.
This exclusion shall not apply where such misrepresentation, withholding or concealment is or should (in carrying out the procedures which we have agreed to perform with reasonable care and skill) have been evident to us without further enquiry beyond that which it would have been reasonable for us to have carried out in the circumstances.
Limitation of Third Party Rights
35.The advice and information we provide to you as part of our service is for your sole use and not for any third
party to whom you may communicate it unless we have expressly agreed in the engagement letter that a
specified third party may rely on our work. We accept no responsibility to third parties, including any group
company to whom the engagement letter is not addressed, for any advice, information or material produced as
part of our work for you which you make available to them. A party to this agreement is the only person who has the right to enforce any of its terms and no rights or benefits are conferred on any third party under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.
Exclusion of Liability for Loss Caused by Others
We will not be liable if losses, penalties, interest or additional tax liabilities are caused by the acts or omissions of any other person or due to the provision to us of incomplete, misleading or false information or if they are caused by a failure to act on our advice or a failure to provide us with relevant information.
In particular, where we refer you to another firm for advice on matters outside the remit of our engagement, even If connected or related to the engagement, who you then instruct directly, we accept no responsibility in relation to the work carried out by that firm and will not be liable for any losses caused by them.
Indemnity for Unauthorised Disclosure
You agree to indemnify us and our agents in respect of any claim, including but not limited to any claim for
negligence, (such indemnity to extend to all liabilities, costs, expenses, damages and losses, including but not
limited to any direct, indirect or consequential losses, loss of profit, loss of reputation and all interest, penalties
and legal costs (calculated on a full indemnity basis) and including payment at our usual rates for the time spent
by us in defending it, and all and other reasonable professional and management costs and expenses) arising out of any unauthorised disclosure of our advice and opinions, whether in writing or otherwise.
Limitation of Aggregate Liability
The Engagement Letter specifies an aggregate limit of liability, and that sum shall be the maximum aggregate
liability of this firm, company or LLP, its principals, partners, directors, members, subcontractors or members,
agents, consultants and employees (and of any former principals, partners, directors, members, subcontractors
agents, consultants and employees) to all persons to whom the Engagement Letter is addressed and also to any other person that we have agreed with you may rely on our work.
You have agreed that you will not bring any claim of a kind that is included within the subject of the
limit against any of our principals, partners, directors, members, subcontractors, agents, consultants, subcontractors or employees on a personal basis, or any former principals, partners, directors, members, agents, consultants, subcontractors or employees.
INVESTMENT ADVICE, FUNDING & CONSUMER CREDIT
36. Investment business is regulated under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
37. If, during the provision of professional services to you, you need advice on investments, including insurances, we may have to refer you to someone who is authorised by the Financial Services Authority or licensed by a Designated Professional Body as we are not.
LIEN
38. Insofar as permitted to do so by law or professional guidelines, we reserve the right to exercise a lien over all funds, documents and records in our possession relating to all engagements for you until all outstanding fees and disbursements are paid in full.
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
39. We will provide our services with reasonable care and skill. Our liability to you arising from the services, whether arising in contract, tort, breach of statutory duty or otherwise is limited to £10,000. We shall not be liable to you for any indirect or consequential loss, including, loss of profit, loss of goodwill, loss of business opportunity or loss of anticipated saving. We will provide our services with reasonable care and skill. Our liability to you is limited to losses, damages, costs and expenses directly caused by our negligence or wilful default.
40. Exclusion of liability for loss caused by others
We will not be liable if such losses, penalties, surcharges, interest or additional tax liabilities are due to the acts or omissions of any other person or due to the provision to us of incomplete, misleading or false information or if they are due to a failure to act on our advice or a failure to provide us with relevant information.
41. Exclusion of liability in relation to circumstances beyond our control
We will not be liable to you for any delay or failure to perform our obligations under this engagement letter if the delay or failure is caused by circumstances outside our reasonable control.
42. Exclusion of liability relating to the discovery of fraud etc
We will not be responsible or liable for any loss, damage or expense incurred or sustained if information material to the service we are providing is withheld or concealed from us or wrongly misrepresented to us or from fraudulent acts, misrepresentation or wilful default on the part of any party to the transaction and their directors, officers, employees, agents or advisers. This exclusion shall not apply where such misrepresentation, withholding or concealment is or should (in carrying out the procedures which we have agreed to perform with reasonable care and skill) have been evident to us without further enquiry.
43. Indemnity for unauthorised disclosure
You agree to indemnify us and our agents in respect of any claim (including any claim for negligence) arising out of any unauthorised disclosure of our advice and opinions, whether in writing or otherwise. This indemnity will extend to the cost of defending any such claim, including payment at our usual rates for the time that we spend in defending it.
44. Limitation of aggregate liability
You have agreed that you will not bring any claim of a kind that is included within the subject of the limit against any of our principals or employees; on a personal basis.
MONEY LAUNDERING REGULATIONS 2017
45. In accordance with the Proceeds of Crime Act and Money Laundering Regulations 2017 you agree to waive your right to confidentiality to the extent of any report made, document provided or information disclosed to the National Crime Agency (NCA)
46. You also acknowledge that we are required to report directly to NCA without prior reference to you or your representatives if during the course of undertaking any assignment the person undertaking the role of Money Laundering Reporting Officer becomes suspicious of money laundering.
47. In such circumstances, we must not act on your instructions without onset from the NCA. If NCA do not refuse consent within 7 days, we may continue to act. If NCA issue refusal within that time, we must not act for a further 31 days from the date of the refusal.
48. ‘Criminal property’ is property in any legal form, whether money, real property, rights or any benefit derived from criminal activity. It does not matter who carried out the criminal activity or how removed the property is from the original crime. Even if you are honest in your dealings, if your property represents a benefit from someone else’s crime, we must still make a report.
49. Activity is considered ‘criminal’ if it is a crime under UK law, no matter how trivial For example, tax evasion is a criminal offence but an honest mistake is not. We will assume that all discrepancies are mistakes unless there is contrary evidence.
50. As with other professional services firms, we are required to identify our clients for the purposes of the UK anti-money laundering legislation. We may request from you, and retain, such information and documentation as we require for these purposes and/or make searches of appropriate databases.
51. Copies of such records will be maintained by us for a period of at least five years after we cease to act for the business.
52. We will not be liable for any loss suffered by you or any third party as a result of our compliance with the Anti Money Laundering Legislation or any UK law or at all.
NOTIFICATION
53. We shall not be treated as having notice, for the purposes of our accounts & tax responsibilities, of information provided to members of our firm other than those engaged on the specific assignment (for example, information provided in connection with accounting, taxation and other services).
PERIOD OF ENGAGEMENT AND TERMINATION
54. Unless otherwise agreed in the engagement covering letter our work will begin when we receive your implicit or explicit acceptance of that letter. Except as stated in that letter we will not be responsible for periods before that date.
55. Each of us may terminate this agreement by giving not less than 30 days’ notice in writing to the other party except where you fail to cooperate with us or we have reason to believe that you have provided us or HMRC with misleading information, in which case we may terminate this agreement immediately. Termination will be without prejudice to any rights that may have accrued to either of us prior to termination.
56. In the event of termination of this contract, we will endeavour to agree with you the arrangements for the completion of work in progress at that time, unless we are required for legal or regulatory reasons to cease work immediately. In that event, we shall not be required to carry out further work and shall not be responsible or liable for any consequences arising from termination.
PROVISION OF SERVICES REGULATIONS 2009
57. In accordance with our professional body rules we are required to hold professional indemnity insurance. Details about the insurer and coverage can be found at www.trafalgarinsurance.co.uk or at our offices.
QUALITY OF SERVICE
58. We aim to provide a high quality of service at all times. If you would like to discuss with us how our service could be improved or if you are dissatisfied with the service that you are receiving please let us know by contacting Madeleine Salariu.
59. We undertake to look into any complaint carefully and promptly and to do all we can to explain the position to you. If we do not answer your complaint to your satisfaction you may take up the matter with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
ADVICE
60. We will endeavour to record all advice on important matters in writing. Advice given orally is not intended to be relied upon unless confirmed in writing. Therefore, if we provide oral advice (for example during the course of a meeting or a telephone conversation) and you wish to be able to rely on that advice, you must ask for the advice to be confirmed by us in writing.
We will assist in implementing advice only where this has been agreed in writing.
Advice given is valid at the time it is given. If you are implementing plans yourself at a later date you need to
confirm that there have been no changes in any relevant facts or to laws and regulations that will impact on the
validity of the advice.
Advice given orally should not be relied upon unless confirmed in writing.
Advice given by a non-principal should not be relied upon unless confirmed in writing by a principal.
Any advice given is for the use of the addressee of the engagement letter only. We accept no responsibility to
any party who is not a party to this agreement.
Any advice given to you should not be passed to a third party without our express permission.
RETENTION OF RECORDS
61. You have a legal responsibility to retain documents and records relevant to your tax affairs. During the course of our work we may collect information from you and others relevant to your affairs. We will return any original documents to you if requested in writing. Documents and records relevant to your affairs are required by law to be retained as follows:
Individuals, trustees and partnerships with trading or rental income: 5 years and 10 months after the end of the tax year;
otherwise: 22 months after the end of the tax year;
Companies, LLPs and other corporate entities: 6 years from the end of the accounting period;
62. Whilst certain documents may legally belong to you we may destroy correspondence and other papers that we store, electronically or otherwise, which are more than 7 years old. You must tell us in writing if you require the return or retention of any specific documents for a longer period.
We will return documents that belong to you when the assignment is complete unless specifically agreed with
you. If we continue to hold records for you we will agree how they should be treated when we cease to act.
THIRD PARTY
63. Any advice we give you will be supplied on the basis that it is for your benefit only and for statutory purposes and shall not be disclosed to any third party in whole or part without our prior written consent. It may not be used or relied upon for any other purpose or by any other person other than you without our prior written consent. If our advice is disclosed to any third party (with or without our consent), then we accept no responsibility or liability to that third party for any consequences that may arise to them, should they rely on the advice.
64. If it is proposed that any documents or statement which refer to our name, are to be circulated to third parties, please consult us before they are issued.
TIMETABLE
65. The services we undertake to perform for you will be carried out on a timescale to be determined between us on an ongoing basis.
66. The timing of our work will in any event be dependent on the prompt supply of all information and documentation as and when required by us.
BRIBEY ACT 2010
In accordance with the requirements of the Bribery Act 2010 we have policies and procedures in place to prevent the business, its partners and staff from offering or receiving bribes.
PROFESSIONAL INDEMNITY INSURANCE
We are required by our professional body AAT to have professional indemnity insurance.
Details about the insurer and the territorial coverage can be provided on request at our offices by appointment or via email.
COMPLAINTS
We aim to provide an excellent service at all times. However should you be dissatisfied in any way please contact Madeleine Salariu. This may be done by writing to London office, or by telephoning this office, or by emailing Madeleine at info@saving.tax
We undertake to look into any complaint carefully and promptly and to take all reasonable measures to resolve
the position to your satisfaction. If we do not deal with your complaint to your satisfaction you may take up the
matter with our professional body AAT. At that point, if appropriate, We shall also provide you with details of an
approved body that you may wish to contact with regard to a possible alternative dispute resolution process.
DELIVERY OF OUR SERVICES
You agree to provide full and accurate information necessary for us to advise in relation to your affairs. We will
rely on the information and documentation true, correct and complete, and will not, (unless agreed otherwise in writing) audit the information or those documents. We are not responsible for any inaccuracies in the information provided to us by you or third parties, and our advice is based on that information.
If we ask for information to be provided to us by a specific date, we shall not be responsible for any losses arising if you provide information after that date, for example, in relation to the completion of tax returns, even if you provide the information prior to the filing deadline for the return.
We strongly recommend that you instruct us sufficiently in advance so that we have time to give properly
considered advice prior to any deadline.
If you delay in providing information to us, such that we are unable to provide the agreed services, we may seek
to resign from the engagement.
You authorise us to approach such third parties as may be appropriate for information that we consider necessary to perform the engagement
You confirm that we may contact HMRC to advise them of any errors that we consider to be material
that we identify in your reported tax affairs without your prior written consent (although we will, of
course, advise you of such action).
Agreed Further Services
We will carry out such further additional services beyond those listed in the Schedules as we may agree with you in writing. Such additional services will be subject to our usual hourly rates and the terms of this Engagement letter and terms and conditions. Any advice given under this clause may only be relied upon if confirmed by us in writing.
INTERNAL DISPUTES
Our client is the business. If there is a dispute between the owners and/or managers of the business we will
continue to communicate with the Nominated Individual, but will copy in all persons whose email details have
been provided to us.
If conflicting advice, instructions or information are received from different individuals at the client, we will refer all matters to the board of directors/partnership/LLP/spouses (as appropriate)and will take no further action until the client has confirmed the course of action to be taken as an entity.
ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING COMPLIANCE
We are supervised by the Association of Accounting Technicians for anti-money laundering compliance. We are
required to obtain information to identify and verify our clients. This may be done by requesting the information from you and/or by making searches of appropriate databases designed for the purpose.
We will not usually be able to start working for you until such time as this information is received.
All accountants must comply with the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, the Terrorism Act 2000 and the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 (the “Anti Money Laundering Legislation”), which are intended to stop the activities of terrorists and other criminals by preventing them using accountancy services. If we do not comply with this legislation, we risk imprisonment. Before we can act for your company, we have to confirm the identity of the directors. At any time we may also need to obtain evidence confirming the identities of third parties, the source of any money or funding of property or other assets, and other matters. We assume that our clients are honest and law abiding. However, if at any time we have grounds to suspect that crime is being committed, we are obliged to make a report to the National Crime Agency (NCA). We are prohibited by the legislation from telling you that we have done this. In such circumstances, we cannot do any work for your company without consent from NCA. ‘Criminal property’ is money, property, other assets, rights or any benefit derived from criminal activity. Activity is considered ‘criminal’ if it is a crime under UK law, no matter how trivial. Tax evasion is a criminal offence but an honest mistake is not. It does not matter who carried out the criminal activity. Even if you are honest in your dealings, if your property represents a benefit from someone else’s crime, we must still make a report.
Disclaimer
We will not be liable for any loss suffered by you or any third party as a result of our compliance with the Anti Money Laundering Legislation or any UK law.
Responsibility
The Head of Professional Standards has overall responsibility for this policy and for ensuring its implementation throughout the organisation. All staff have a responsibility to treat customers fairly.
Policy Detail
There are 6 outcomes that are central to the TCF initiative:
Outcome 1 – Consumers can be confident that they are dealing with firms where the fair treatment of customers is central to the corporate culture
Outcome 2 – Products and services marketed and sold in the retail market are designed to meet the needs of identified consumer groups and are targeted accordingly
Outcome 3 – Consumers are provided with clear information and are kept appropriately informed before, during and after the point of sale
Outcome 4 – Where consumers receive advice, the advice is suitable and takes account of their circumstances
Outcome 5 – Consumers are provided with products that perform as firms have led them to expect, and the associated service is of an acceptable standard and as they have been led to expect
Outcome 6 – Consumers do not face unreasonable post-sale barriers imposed by firms to change product, switch provider, submit a claim or make a complaint VALES ACC is committed to sustainability and not compromising the fair treatment of customers.
TCF is central to the corporate culture, as demonstrated by the following activities: We continually aim to understand the needs of our customers and pay particular attention is paid to suitability and affordability. We keep our customers fully informed in a clear and fair manner that is unambiguous and not misleading. We ensure our services are delivered with clarity and transparency and do not contain hidden conditions or rely on complex technical definitions. We make certain our customers understand what is required of them.
Limitation of third-party rights
Persons who are not party to this agreement shall have no rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any term of this agreement. This clause does not affect any right or remedy of any person which exists or is available otherwise than pursuant to that Act.
The advice we give you is for your sole use and is confidential to you and will not constitute advice for any third party to whom you may communicate it, unless we have expressly agreed in writing that a specified third party may rely on our work. We will accept no responsibility to third parties, including any group company to whom the engagement letter is not addressed, your spouse nor any family member of yours or your employer, for any aspect of our professional services or work that is made available to them.
Client identification
In common with other professional services firms, we are required by the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer for Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (MLR 2017) to:
• maintain identification procedures for clients, beneficial owners of clients, and persons purporting to act on behalf of clients;
• maintain records of identification evidence and the work undertaken for the client; and
• report, in accordance with the relevant legislation and regulations.
We have a statutory obligation under the above legislation to report to the National Crime Agency (NCA) any reasonable knowledge or suspicion of money laundering. Any such report must be made in the strictest confidence. In fulfilment of our legal obligations, neither the firm’s principals nor may staff enter into any correspondence or discussions with you regarding such matters.
If we are not able to obtain satisfactory evidence of your identity and where applicable that of the beneficial owners, we will not be able to proceed with the engagement.
If you undertake business that requires you to be supervised by an appropriate supervisory authority to follow anti-money laundering regulations, including if you accept or make high value cash payments of €10,000 or more (or equivalent in any currency) in exchange for goods, you should inform us.
Any personal data received from you to comply with our obligations under the MLR 2017 will be processed only for the purposes of preventing money laundering or terrorist financing. No other use will be made of this personal data unless use of the data is permitted by or under enactment other than the MLR 2017, or we have obtained the consent of the data subject to the proposed use of the data.
DATA PROTECTION
We will comply with the General Data Protection Regulations and the Data Protection Act 2018 when dealing with your personal data.
GDPR provides that:
Personal data only includes information relating to natural persons who:
i. can be identified or who are identifiable, directly from the information in question; or
ii. who can be indirectly identified from that information in combination with other information.
This will include but is not limited to a name, identification number, location data and an online identifier.
When providing accountancy services we will usually be acting as a controller under the regulations. We will be
controllers as we will make decisions about processing activities when providing the agreed service to you.
We may act as a processor when providing certain services such as payroll. In this case you would be the
controller and we would act on your instructions.
We ensure that we comply with the principles as set out in the GDPR (for more information see www.ico.org.uk)
when collecting and processing data. These principles are:
i. Lawfulness, fairness and transparency
ii. Purpose limitation
iii. Data minimisation
iv. Accuracy
v. Storage limitation
vi. Integrity and confidentiality
vii. Accountability
In this section:
Data Controller, Data Processor, Data Subject, Personal Data, Personal Data Breach, international organisation and processing shall have the respective meanings given to them in the Data Protection Laws (and related expressions shall be construed accordingly). Data Protection Laws means any applicable law relating to the processing, privacy and use of Personal Data including: the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR); and any laws which implement such laws; any laws that replace, extend, re-enact, consolidate or amend any of the foregoing (provided that the impact of any such replacement, extension or amendment is agreed in writing by the parties).
Protected Data means Personal Data received from or on behalf of you or otherwise obtained in connection with the performance of our obligations under this letter of engagement.
Sub-Processor means any agent, sub-contractor or other third party engaged by us (or by any other Sub-Processor) for carrying out any processing of the Protected Data.
Compliance with Data Protection Laws
In the provision of the services to you, we are required to process your personal data and the personal data (and in some cases special categories of data) of your employees. Where we are processing your employees’ personal data on your behalf, you are the Data Controller and we are the Data Processor. We shall process Protected Data in compliance with the obligations placed on it under this letter. You shall at all times comply with the Data Protection Laws in connection with the processing of Protected Data. You confirm that that you are entitled to transfer the Protected Data to us and any Sub-Processor in compliance with the Data Protection Laws and shall ensure all instructions given by you to us in respect of Protected Data shall at all times be in accordance with the Data Protection Laws.
Instructions
We shall only process (and shall ensure our personnel only process) the Protected Data in accordance with this letter (including the Annex) (and not otherwise unless alternative processing instructions are agreed between us in writing) except where otherwise required by applicable law (and in such a case we shall inform you of that legal requirement before processing, unless such applicable law prohibits us from so notifying you).
If we believe that any instruction received by it from you is likely to infringe the Data Protection Laws we shall inform you and be entitled to cease to provide the relevant Services until we have agreed appropriate amended instructions which are not infringing.
Security
Taking into account the state of technical development and the nature of processing, we shall implement and maintain the technical and organisational measures to protect the Protected Data against accidental, unauthorised or under lawful destruction, loss, alteration, disclosure and/or access.
Sub-Processing and Personnel
You consent to our appointment of Senta as a third party processor of Protected Data. We confirm we have entered into a written agreement with Senta on its standard terms of business. We shall remain liable to you under this letter for all the acts and omissions of Senta and each of its personnel as if they were our own and ensure that all persons authorised by us or any Sub-Processor to process Protected Data are subject to a written contractual obligation to keep the Protected Data confidential.
International Transfers
We shall not process and/or transfer, or otherwise directly or indirectly disclose, any Protected Data in or to countries outside the European Economic Authority unless your prior written consent has been obtained.
Records and Audit
We shall, in accordance with Data Protection Laws, make available to you such information that is in its position or control as is necessary to demonstrate our compliance with our obligations under this letter of engagement. We shall permit audits by you (or another auditor appointed by you (provided such auditor has entered into a confidentiality undertaking with, and in terms reasonably acceptable to, us and such auditor is not our competitor) for this purpose, subject to a maximum of one audit in any 12 month period.
Breach
We shall notify you without undue delay and in writing on becoming aware of any Personal Data Breach in respect of any Personal Data.
Deletion/Return
On ceasing to provide the Services relating to the processing of Protected Data, at your cost and option, we shall either return all of the Protected Data to you or securely dispose of the Protected Data except to the extent any applicable law requires us to store such Protected Data.
Data Processing Details
Our processing of the Protected Data under this letter of engagement shall be for the subject-matter, duration, nature and purposes and involve the types of personal data and categories of Data Subjects set out below:
Technical and Organisational Security Measures
We shall implement and maintain the following technical and organisational security measures to protect the Protected Data:
In accordance with the Data Protection Laws, taking into account the state of the art, the costs of implementation and the nature, scope, context and purposes of the processing of the Protected Data to be carried out under or in connection with this letter of engagement, as well as the risks of varying likelihood and severity for the rights and freedoms of natural persons and the risks that are presented by the processing, especially from accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to the Protected Data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed, we shall implement appropriate technical and organisational security measures appropriate to the risk, including what is appropriate to those matters mentioned in Articles 32(a) to (d) of the GDPR.
PRIVACY NOTICE
Contact Details
The Data Protection officer is Madeleine Salariu who can be contacted about anything to do with your personal data and data protection, including to make a subject access request, using the following details:
Email address: info@saving.tax
Postal address: 128 City Road, EC1V 2NX
Telephone number: 0204 577 0969
Introduction
The Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires organisations that process personal data to meet certain legal obligations. We are a data controller within the meaning of the Act and we process personal data.
We are committed to complying with the requirements of the DPA and GDPR. As a result we confirm that personal information we process will only be held (or otherwise processed) to the extent necessary in order to provide the agreed professional services and for any other purpose specifically agreed.
Information Collected
We are entering into a contract with you and will be processing data in order to fulfil our contractual obligations. In order to provide the agreed services we need to collect, retain and process personal data about you. This data is needed in order to:
If the information required is not provided, we may not be able to provide the required services which would trigger the disengagement provisions in the terms and conditions.
The personal data that we will collect and process will include:
How Information is Collected
We collect information that is supplied about you from:
How Your Information is Used
We may use information we hold about you:
We will retain records based on our retention policy so that we can defend ourselves against potential legal claims or disciplinary action which can be brought within statutory time limits.
We may also use information from other people or organisations when carrying out these activities.
There is no automated decision-making involved in the use of your information and therefore no data portability.
Where we use subcontractors they will comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements.
Your information may from time to time be transferred and/or processed outside the EEA. This will only be done where we have confirmed that the country to which your data has been transferred provides a level of personal data protection comparable to that provided in European law.
Lawful basis for processing personal data
Personal data may be processed on a contract basis under the engagement letter and provision of services agreements.
Personal data may be processed on a consent basis when meeting clients’ wider expectations of my/our professional relationship.
Personal data may be processed on the legal obligations and/or public interest bases in order to comply with legal requirements.
Personal data may be processed in order to further our legitimate interests.
Information Which May be Given to Others
In order for us to provide the agreed services, we may provide personal data about you to:
We need to give information to these other parties in order to fulfil our contractual obligations to you and therefore it is not possible to opt out of the provision of information to these parties. If you ask us not to provide information we may need to cease to act.
If the law allows or requires during the period of our contractual arrangements or after we have ceased to act we may give information about you to:
In addition, after we have ceased to act we may give information about you to:
Data Security
We have put in place appropriate and proportionate security measures to address the risk of personal data being lost, used, altered or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to personal data to those who have a business need to access it, and who will only process the personal data on our instructions.
Nevertheless, no data transmission over the internet, or any other network, can ever be regarded as wholly secure, and we have in place measures to deal with any suspected breach of data security. Those measures include policies and procedures, which are periodically reviewed to ensure they are effective and fit for purpose.
Retention of Information
When acting as a data controller and in accordance with recognised good practice within the tax and accountancy sector we will retain all of records relating to you as follows:
Under the Money Laundering Regulations (MLR 2017) personal data must normally be destroyed within specified time limits but where contractual agreement is in place this is taken as agreement under Regulation 40 (5) MLR 2017 to retain records for the longer period of seven years.
Requesting Information Held About You (the Right to Access)
Requests to see records and other related information that the firm holds about you are known as ‘subject access requests’ (SAR). We have set out further details on SARs below.
Requests in Writing
Please provide all requests in writing to the individual at the top of this notice.
To help provide the information on a timely basis you may need to provide copies of id and proof of address.
Asking someone else to make a subject access request on your behalf
You can ask someone else to request information on your behalf – for example, a friend, relative or solicitor. We must have your authority to do this. This is usually a letter signed by you stating that you authorise the person concerned to write to for information about you, and/or receive our reply.
When We Won’t Release Information
The law allows us to refuse your request for information in certain circumstances – for example, if you have previously made a similar request and there has been little or no change to the data since the original request.
The law also allows us to withhold information where, for example, release would be likely to:
Putting Things Right (the Right to Rectification)
Should information you have previously supplied to us be incorrect, please inform us immediately so we can update and amend the information we hold.
Deleting your Records (the Right to Erasure)
In certain circumstances it is possible for you to request us to erase your records and further information is available on the ICO website (www.ico.org.uk). If you would like your records to be erased, please inform us immediately and we will consider your request. In certain circumstances we have the right to refuse to comply with a request for erasure and if applicable we will supply you with the reasons for refusing your request.
Restrictions on Processing (the Right to Restrict Processing and the Right to Object)
In certain circumstances you have the right to ‘block’ or suppress the processing of personal data or to object to the processing of that information. For further information refer to the ICO website (www.ico.org.uk). Please inform us immediately if you want us to cease to process your information or you object to processing so that we can take the appropriate action.
Withdrawal of Consent
Where you have consented for us to contact you with details of other services we provide we may continue to process your data and contact you for that purpose after our contractual relationship ends. You may withdraw consent for the firm to contact you in relation to details of other services we provide at any time during the performance of the contract or thereafter. We will then cease to process your data but only in connection with contacting you with details of other services we provide. Note that the withdrawal of consent does not make the other bases on which we are processing your data unlawful. We will therefore still continue to process your data under the terms of our contract and for other reasons set out in this privacy notice.
Obtaining and Reusing Personal Data (the Right to Data Portability)
The right to data portability only applies:
You may be able to request your personal data in a format which enables it to be provided to another organisation. We will respond to any requests made without undue delay and within one month. We may extend the period by a further two months where the request is complex or a number of requests are received but we will inform you within one month of the receipt of the request and explain why the extension is necessary.
Complaints
If you have any questions or concerns regarding our processing of personal data, you can complain to us as set out in the terms and conditions. If you are dissatisfied with the response, then you can refer to the ICO.
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
You can also complain to our professional body – Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) as set out in the terms and conditions.
Privacy Notice Confirmation
Post/Hard-copy documents
Password-protected emails
Encrypted emails
Unencrypted emails (without attachments)
Secure Portals
Cloud-based software
GDPR Compliance Statement
Introduction
The EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) comes into force across the European Union on 25th May 2018 and brings with it the most significant changes to data protection law in two decades. Based on privacy by design and taking a risk-based approach, the GDPR has been designed to meet the requirements of the digital age. The 21st Century brings with it broader use of technology, new definitions of what constitutes personal data, and a vast increase in cross-border processing. The new Regulation aims to standardise data protection laws and processing across the EU; affording individuals stronger, more consistent rights to access and control their personal information.
Our Commitment
At VALES ACC we are committed to ensuring the security and protection of the personal information that we process, and to provide a compliant and consistent approach to data protection. We have always had a robust and effective data protection program in place which complies with existing law and abides by the data protection principles. However, we recognise our obligations in updating and expanding this program to meet the demands of the GDPR and the UK’s Data Protection Bill.
VALES ACC are dedicated to safeguarding the personal information under our remit and in developing a data protection regime that is effective, fit for purpose and demonstrates an understanding of, and appreciation for the new Regulation. Our preparation and objectives for GDPR compliance have been summarised in this statement and include the development and implementation of new data protection roles, policies, procedures, controls and measures to ensure maximum and ongoing compliance.
VALES ACC will retain and use data that is required by us to act as your accountants, and data will only ever be shared in the carrying out of contracted services for our clients, which includes but is not limited to: communication with HMRC, Companies House or other regulatory bodies.
How We Prepared for the GDPR
VALES ACC already have a consistent level of data protection and security across our organisation, however we went through a comprehensive review of our policies to ensure that we are GDPR compliant. Our preparation included:
Data Subject Rights
In addition to the policies and procedures mentioned above that ensure individuals can enforce their data protection rights, we provide easy to access information via office of an individual’s right to access any personal information that VALES ACC processes about them and to request information about:
Information Security & Technical and Organisational Measures
VALES ACC takes the privacy and security of individuals and their personal information very seriously and take every reasonable measure and precaution to protect and secure the personal data that we process. We have robust information security policies and procedures in place to protect personal information from unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure or destruction and have several layers of security measures, including: SSL, access controls, password policy, encryptions, pseudonymisation, practices, restriction, IT, and authentication.
GDPR Roles and Employees
VALES ACC have designated Madeleine Salariu as our Data Protection Officer (DPO)/Appointed Person and have appointed a data privacy team to develop and implement our roadmap for complying with the new data protection Regulation. The team are responsible for promoting awareness of the GDPR across the organisation, assessing our GDPR readiness, identifying any gap areas and implementing the new policies, procedures and measures.
VALES ACC understands that continuous employee awareness and understanding is vital to the continued compliance of the GDPR and have involved our employees in our preparation plans. We have implemented an employee training program specific to GDPR compliance which has been provided to all employees prior to May 25th, 2018, and forms part of our induction and continual training program.
If you have any questions about our preparation for the GDPR, please contact Data Protection Officer (DPO)/Appointed Person. You can download our Data Processing Agreement here.
GENERAL
The agreement made between the parties (which consists of this agreement and any other terms agreed in writing), contains the total understanding of the parties and supersedes all previous understandings between them either in writing or oral, provided that this shall not apply to fraudulent or negligent misrepresentation.
It should be understood that our appointment as your agent does not absolve your company or its directors or any individual tax payer from their statutory responsibilities with regard to the content of returns, the filing of returns and various compulsory registration thresholds that company directors / individuals must be aware of when running a business. We would draw your attention to the strict rules and time limits for the submission of such returns and the substantial penalties which may arise if these are not observed. It is therefore essential that we receive full information from you promptly to enable us to ensure that the returns are made on a timely basis. Completed returns will be sent to you for approval and signature prior to submission on the company’s behalf.
It is your responsibility to make sure that your state payments are made on time (tax, national insurance, VAT etc). VALES ACC are not liable for any fines or interest incurred by late payment of state payments, or any delay in the receipt of state benefits or pension as a result of late payment by the tax payer.
Terms & Conditions for Guarantees
Disclaimer for Guarantees
The information and services provided by VALESBIZ TAX & ADVISORY LTD, including our guarantees, are subject to the following terms and conditions. By using our services, you acknowledge and accept the limitations and exclusions outlined below:
Tax Return Lifetime Guarantee Disclaimer
Taxes Done Right Disclaimer
Minimum Tax Guarantee Disclaimer
For further details, refer to the Terms & Conditions of Services for Guarantees below.
Terms & Conditions of Services for Guaranties
These Terms and Conditions (“T&Cs”) outline the services provided by VALESBIZ TAX & ADVISORY LTD (“the Company”) in relation to the guarantees offered with our self-assessment tax return services. By engaging our services, you agree to these T&Cs.
The following guarantees are included in our services:
2.1 Tax Return Lifetime Guarantee
Description: Ensures 100% accurate calculations and provides audit support for the statutory seven-year period that HMRC retains tax returns.
2.2 Minimum Tax Guarantee
Description: Guarantees identification of all lawful deductions, reliefs, and allowances to minimize tax liability under current HMRC regulations.
2.3 Taxes Done Right Guarantee
Description: Guarantees 100% accurate calculations for tax returns filed by VALESBIZ TAX & ADVISORY LTD.
3.1 Client Responsibilities
3.2 Limitations of Guarantees
3.3 Exclusions
3.4 Notification of Errors
For any inquiries, please contact us:
VALESBIZ TAX & ADVISORY LTD
128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX
Phone: 0204 577 0969
Email: info@sataxreturn.uk
By engaging VALESBIZ TAX & ADVISORY LTD for self-assessment tax return services, you acknowledge and agree to these T&Cs and Disclaimers.