HOMEABOUT USSERVICES TEAMNEWSCOMPLIANCEEVENTSCONTACT US CLIENT LOGIN Terms Of Business Terms of Business SMITH CRAVEN CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS – STANDARD TERMS OF BUSINESS The following terms of business apply to all engagements accepted by Smith Craven Chartered Accountants. All work is carried out under these terms except where changes are expressly agreed in writing. 1 Financial Services Business If, during the provision of professional services to you, you need advice on investments, we may have to refer you to someone who is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, as we are not. However, as we are licensed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, we may be able to provide certain investment services where these are complimentary to or arise out of the professional services we are providing to you. 2 Applicable Law Our engagement letter, the schedule of services and our standard terms and conditions of business shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with English law. The Courts of England shall have exclusive jurisdiction in relation to any claim, dispute or difference concerning the engagement letter and any matter arising from it on any basis. 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. 3 Clients Money We may, from time to time, hold money on your behalf. Such money will be held in trust in a client bank account, which is segregated from the firm’s funds. The account will be operated, and all funds dealt with, in accordance with the Clients’ Money Regulations of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Clients’ Money will not attract interest payable to the client whilst held by this firm. We will return monies held on your behalf promptly, as soon as there is no longer any reason to retain those funds. If any funds remain in our client account that are unclaimed, and the client to which they relate has remained untraced for five years, or we as a firm cease to practise, we may pay those monies to a registered charity. 4 Fees and General Limitation of Liability Our fees are computed on the basis of the time spent on your affairs by the principals and staff and on the levels of skill or responsibility involved. Our fees will be billed, unless otherwise agreed in writing with you, as follows, and will be due within 30 days of presentation:- (a) on the completion of each separate assignment (b) at the end of your financial period in respect of work undertaken during the course of the financial period and (c) on completion of your financial statements for the work undertaken preparing and, if applicable, auditing them. If it is necessary to undertake work outside the responsibilities outlined in this letter, it may involve additional fees. Should any account rendered for fees remain unpaid for 30 days from the date of account, we reserve the right to charge interest from the date of the account at the rate for the time being applicable under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 per calendar month, such interest to be calculated on a simple interest basis, until the account is paid. We reserve the right to cease or suspend work for you where there are any fees unpaid after 30 days. We reserve the right to require tax repayments to be routed through our client account (which is maintained under the controls established by ICAEW, our regulator), or for payment in advance, in cases where we are unwilling to grant credit facilities. In the event that fees payable by companies are unpaid, we reserve the right to receive payment personally from the directors, who in signing this letter hereby acknowledge personal liability for payment on behalf of current and future directors. We reserve the right to terminate our engagement and cease to act if payment of our fees billed is unduly delayed. However, it is not our intention to use this right in a way which is unfair or unreasonable. You agree to hold harmless and indemnify us to the fullest extent permitted by law, for any loss suffered by you arising from any misrepresentation (intention or unintentional) supplied to us orally or in writing in connection with this agreement. You agree that you will not bring any claim in respect of or in connection with the Engagement whether on the basis on contract, tort, breach of statutory duty or otherwise against any member or employee of Smith Craven, whether or not that person is described as a “principal”. Our work is not, unless there is a legal or regulatory requirement, to be made available to third parties without our written permission and we will accept no responsibility to third parties for any aspect of our professional services or work that is made available to them. 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 insurance was arranged through us, you will need to advise us of any such insurance cover you have. You will remain liable for our fees regardless of whether all or part are liable to be paid by your insurers. Unless otherwise agreed to the contrary, our fees do not include the costs of any third party, counsel or other professional fees. If these costs are incurred to fulfil our engagement, such necessary additional charges may be payable by you. If you do not accept that an invoiced fee is fair and reasonable, you must notify us within 21 days of receipt, failing which, you will be deemed to have accepted that payment is due. 5 Registered Office Service A company is able to nominate Smith Craven’s office as it’s registered office address subject to an annual charge for our administration costs which will be notified to you annually. It is your responsibility to advise to us that you wish to take advantage of this service. When you confirm to us that you require this service, we will update Companies House’s records accordingly. Should you no longer require us to act in this capacity, it is then the company’s responsibility to change its registered office address. 6 Conflicts of Interest and Independence 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, 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. If conflicts are identified which cannot be managed in a way that protects your interests, we regret that we will be unable to provide further services. If there is a conflict of interest that is capable of being addressed successfully by the adoption of suitable safeguards to protect your interests, we will adopt those safeguards. In resolving the conflict, we would be guided by ICAEW’s Code of Ethics, which can be viewed at icaew.com/en/membership/regulations-standards-and-guidance/ethics. 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 above. 7 Confidentiality Unless we are authorised by you to disclose information on your behalf, we confirm that if you give us confidential information we will, at all times during and after this engagement, keep it confidential, except as required by law or as provided for in regulatory, ethical or other professional pronouncements applicable to us or 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. 8 Communicating with You Post, fax and emails may be used to communicate with you. As with other means of delivery this carries the risk of delayed receipt, inadvertent misdirection, non-delivery or interception by third parties. It is the responsibility of the recipient to carry out a virus check on attachments received by email or fax. Internet communications are not totally secure and are capable of data corruption, we do not accept any responsibility for changes made to such communications after their despatch or for damage or loss caused by viruses or 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. It may therefore be inappropriate to rely on advice contained in an email without obtaining written confirmation of it. We do not accept responsibilities for errors or problems that may arise through the use of internet communication and all risks connected with sending commercially sensitive information relating to your company and its business are borne by you, in return for greater efficiency and lower costs. If you do not accept this risk you should notify us in writing that email is not an acceptable means of communication, other than when electronic submission is mandatory. Where you wish to publish or distribute your accounts and auditors report electronically, we reserve the right to withhold consent to the electronic publication of our report. You must advise us of any intended publication. You are responsible for establishing and controlling the process of electronically distributing Annual Reports and other financial information. Controls of this distribution, and the security of your website is beyond the scope of our work. It is your responsibility to ensure that the electronic publication of such documents, properly presents the financial information and any auditors’ report. 9 Retention of Records 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. 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. You must tell us in writing if you require retention of any document. 10 Data Protection Share this page Contact us 01302 329511 Click to Email MAIL@SMITHCRAVEN.CO.UK SELECT OFFICE INFORMATION About Us Services News Contact Us Newsletter CONNECT Twitter Facebook Linkedin NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBE Subscribe © 2019 Smith Craven | Privacy Policy | GDPR Policy