Our standard terms of engagement

How we charge for our work

Whenever possible, we charge flat rates instead of traditional time-based fees, so you can be confident budgeting for us to prepare your return.

A registered tax agent will prepare your return, and a qualified accountant who is an owner of the business. We don't outsource or offshore work. We are not a franchise.

We will confidentially review your income and expenses to find tax-saving opportunities. Your consultation with us will be educational and productive.

Payment of our fees

The official document for collecting our fees is a tax invoice that we will send you before your appointment. Disregard payment amount information received via email, SMS, or appointment reminder. Please only pay the amount shown on your tax invoice.

If you don't pay your invoice in full 24 hours before your appointment, our system will cancel your appointment automatically.
We accept payment by electronic bank transfer, Stripe, EFTPOS, Mastercard, Visa and AMEX. Upon completion of your tax return, we'll give you a tax invoice. Immediate payment before your appointment is required for your returns.
If we cannot complete your tax return during the meeting—for example, because of missing or incorrect information—we will apply your payment as a non-refundable deposit toward the total fee we charge for preparing your tax return.
If your tax returns contained additional, that was not disclosed for the client, when we complete your tax return by email, we'll send you the final invoice, with payment required for the balance of our fees.
We will not lodge your documents with the ATO until we receive payment, unless we have a prior agreement.
Cancellations with less than 24 hours' notice may incur a cancellation charge of $55 at our discretion.
Being well-organised for your tax meeting avoids delays and keeps our fees to a minimum, and we provide excellent online resources to help with this.
Business clients normally receive an estimate of costs following a complimentary initial interview.
We need to get a good understanding of you and your business and what's required – and you need to be comfortable with us and our approach – before we can let you know what to expect from us.
A partial upfront payment may be required before we begin work.
We can also offer an upfront monthly payment plan customised to your needs if you have ongoing accountancy requirements.

How we work

We work with you and add value whilst containing your costs. Our excellent resources and timesaving strategies can help you get the best outcome from our services.

What to know before coming to a meeting

For the benefit of our clients and staff, Accountax Plus operates a healthy workplace policy. For face to face appointment we respectfully ask that if you are sick, please call to reschedule your meeting.

To ensure the best outcome from your tax return, we like to give you our full attention during your consultation. We request you exercise your judgment regarding bringing children and note that the meeting might need rescheduling if it's disrupted. Substantial noise or distractions prevent us from meeting our professional obligation for due care and diligence.

What we will do

We will prepare your income tax return and, for a business, an annual set of accounts, based on the information you provide to us.
We will lodge your Income Tax Return with the Australian Taxation Office in time to satisfy regulatory requirements, provided you give us your information in sufficient time.
We will provide general taxation advice and taxation-based structuring advice, including business tax advice and any other advice we are qualified to provide, as requested by you.
We will liaise and communicate with the Australian Taxation Office as necessary on your behalf as your Tax Agent.

What we will not do

We will not audit your accounts and therefore cannot form any opinion of their accuracy.
We will not be looking for irregularities or errors, including fraud and illegal acts. However, we will notify you if we suspect something might not be quite right.

Period of engagement for tax return preparation service:

The engagement will start as soon as you accept these terms of engagement.
The engagement will end as soon as you pay us in full.
Failure to pay under our terms will void our engagement.

Your responsibilities

You are responsible for the completeness and accuracy of all the information you give us.
You agree to disclose all relevant information to us and arrange reasonable and timely access to relevant individuals and documents to allow us to do our job quickly and efficiently.
You are ultimately responsible for the resulting Annual Accounts and Income Tax Return we prepare on your behalf under this engagement.
Quality control review by the professional accountancy body of which we are a member. If this occurs, we will notify you in advance.
We do your work under the Tax Agent Services Legislation and the professional and ethical standards issued by the Accounting and Ethics Standards Board (APESB).
Limitation of Liability: Our liability under this engagement is limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation. Further details are available on request.

About our fees

Members of our staff calculate our fees based on the time they spend on your work.
The rate used is based on the skill and responsibility involved.
We will charge you separately for any direct expenses we incur on your behalf.
We will issue a final invoice when we finish your work.
If you later instruct us to re-prepare your tax return with new information, we charge an additional fee for our time.

Ownership of documents

All original documents remain your property. However, we will make and keep copies for our records.
We will produce an income tax return and, if a business, an annual set of accounts because of this engagement.
These documents belong to us until you have paid our fees in full; then they will belong to you. All other documents we produce belong to us.