Thank you for your interest in our tax services.

We hope you find our solution to be a relatively quick, easy and hassle free way to engage with us for the completion of your desired services for the relevant financial year and we look forward to assisting you very soon.  

By completing this form, you will be:

• Providing us your personal information to establish your identity
• Acknowledging the Tax Agent Services Act information has been provided to you
• Engaging us to assist you with your desired services by accepting:
  • Our service summary, scope and our fees and charges payable upon the completion of your appointment
  • Our engagement terms and conditions
  • Your outlined responsibilities
• Upon acceptance, where not already an existing client, authorising us to obtain your available information from the ATO

 

Tax Agent Services Act Update

During 2024/2025 there were some updates to the Tax Agents Services Act. In accordance with these changes, we have included some important information on our website, which we have also included below for your consideration in engaging with Spencer Accountants. 

Keeping Clients Informed

Under section 45 of the Tax Agent Services (Code of Professional Conduct) Determination 2024, Spencer Accountants is required to notify current and prospective clients of various matters including the existence of a register of tax agents, how a complaint against a tax agent can be made, information about our responsibilities as a tax agent, certain events which have occurred in the last 5 years and whether our registration as a tax agent is subject to conditions. Details on this can be found below.

Important Information

Centro Tax Pty Ltd as trustee Spencer Accountants Unit Trust trading as Spencer Accountants is a tax agent registered with the Tax Practitioners Board (the TPB).

All tax agents are required to comply with the TPB’s Code of Professional Conduct (the Code).

As part of our obligations under the Code (specifically, under section 45 of the Tax Agent Services (Code of Professional Conduct) Determination 2024), we are required to make you aware of a number of matters, namely: 

• that the TPB maintains a register of tax agents and BAS agents and how you can access and search the register;
• how you can make a complaint about a tax agent service that we have provided, including the complaints process of the TPB; 
• general information about our rights, responsibilities and obligations as a tax agent (including the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (the TASA) and the Code) as well as your obligations to us as your tax agent;
• certain events that have occurred in the last 5 years; and
  if our registration as a tax agent is subject to certain conditions imposed by the TPB.

We have provided details on each of these below.

TPB - Register of Tax Agents

The TPB regulates tax agents to protect and assure clients that tax agents meet appropriate standards of professional and ethical conduct.

The TPB maintains a public register where you can obtain details of registered tax agents as well as certain unregistered entities and individuals. It also includes public details of past breaches of the Code and specific sanctions imposed on tax agents.

You can access the TPB Register via the TPB website.

You can search the TPB Register by entering the details of the tax agent you are working with, or any other tax agent. The TPB website also provides guidance on how to search the TPB Register.

Reporting a Complaint

If you have a concern about any aspect of the services provided to you by Spencer Accountants, please complete the complaints, compliments and feedback form.

The TPB also has a complaints process in relation to the provision of tax agent services. You can raise a concern with the TPB in relation to the provision of tax agent services by completing their online complaints form.

Rights, Responsibilities and Obligations

All tax agents have obligations to the TPB. Tax agents also have other obligations, including to their clients.

As a tax agent, Spencer Accountants must comply with the TASA, including the Code of Professional Conduct. The Code sets out the professional and ethical standards that registered tax agents are required to comply with. It outlines the duties that registered tax agents owe to their clients, the TPB and other registered tax agents. Obligations within the Code include, but are not limited to, acting with honesty and integrity, acting in the best interests of your client, taking reasonable care and ensuring services are provided competently. You can access the Code here and learn more about the principles.

Spencer Accountants is committed to ensuring all our tax professionals are aware of, and are, at all times, acting in accordance with the TASA and the Code.

Clients also have obligations under taxation laws and to their tax agent. This includes being truthful with the information provided, keeping complete records and providing them, if required, on a timely basis, advising of any changes that may impact the tax agent services, being co-operative with requests and meeting due dates.

You can learn more about the obligations on the TPB website or the TPB’s fact sheet Information for Clients.

Certain Events

Tax agents are required to advise their clients if any of the following events have occurred within the period since 1 July 2022:

• their registration was suspended or terminated by the Board;
• they become an undischarged bankrupt or went into external administration;
• they were convicted of a serious taxation offence;
• they were convicted of an offence involving fraud or dishonesty;
• they were serving, or were sentenced to, a term of imprisonment in Australia for 6 months or more;
• they were penalised, subject to an injunction, or been subject to an order for breaching a voluntary undertaking, for being a promoter of a tax exploitation scheme;
• they were penalised, subject to an injunction, or been subject to an order for breaching a voluntary undertaking, for implementing a scheme that has been promoted on the basis of conformity with a public ruling, private ruling or oral ruling in a way that is materially different from that described in the ruling;
• they were penalised, subject to an injunction, or been subject to an order for breaching a voluntary undertaking, for promoting on the basis of conformity with a public ruling, private ruling or oral ruling, a scheme that is materially different from that described in the ruling; and
• the Federal Court has ordered them to pay a pecuniary penalty for contravening a civil penalty provision under the Act.

None of these events have occurred to Spencer Accountants.

Registration Subject to Conditions

Under section 45 we must advise our clients of any conditions currently imposed on us by the TPB. A ‘condition’ limits the scope of services that a tax agent can provide or limits the services to a particular area of taxation law. Details of any conditions imposed on a tax agent’s registration will appear in the TPB Register.

There are not any conditions imposed upon Spencer Accountants.

Historical information

The information and events disclosed on this page were last modified in June 2025. 

Terms of Engagement

Centro Tax Pty Ltd ATF Spencer Accountants Unit Trust ABN 97 349 751 996 will act as your tax agent in the provision of the services requested below.

This engagement letter, including the attached terms and conditions, sets out the basis of our engagement.

Who we are acting for

We are acting for {firstName} {surname} only. Where you would like us to act for anyone else, we will issue a separate engagement letter to them.

Period of engagement

This engagement will start on upon your acceptance of these terms and our acceptance of you as a client after identifying you.

The terms of this engagement letter will continue to apply for future engagements unless otherwise agreed. 

Scope of services

You have requested that we provide the services as listed within the service summary of this engagement.

If we agree to provide additional services to you, we may provide you with a new or amended engagement letter.  If we do not, those additional services will be provided under this engagement letter.

Service Summary:

You have requested the following services:

On-the-spot personal income tax return preparation

Briefly, this service includes:

• Set up on our Tax Software, including;
  • Updating of our client management software for any changes to your details; and
  • Downloading and input of your ATO prefill information

• Preparation of your income tax return by a CA or CPA accountant in your allocated appointment time, including;
  • Input of information into the return/our internal workpapers that you have supplied documents for; and
  • Input of information we obtain from you from answers to our questions
  • Making appropriate copies/preparing internal workpapers as required
  • Advising you of your substantiation requirements; and
  • Completion of our internal compliance questionnaire.
    • At all times we rely on such information you provide as being true, correct and complete and will not audit the information.

• Review by the registered tax agent before lodgement and where changes are deemed necessary due to any error or ommission, these will be communicated to you for acceptance and confirmation. 

• Lodgement of your income tax return
  • Upon the ATO processing your lodgement, your notice of assessment will be posted to you direct from the ATO or sent to you via your MyGov account if applicable.
  • Upon lodgement, we will review any differences between our software estimation and the ATO’s assessment notice only where you have advised us of this occurrence.
  • This engagement does not include assistance in the event of an ATO audit which will incur additional charges where requested.

Fees

Our fees are a combination of fixed fee components and our hourly rates. 

Our fixed fee components are based on an organised and readily available source document being provided to us at the time of the service request and the time we feel it would take us to review, workpaper, input and complete our compliance checks for this information on that basis. 

Where the souce document is not provided, or not of a suitable summary or not completed in the allotted time and/or not provided in an organised state, our services revert to our hourly rates. 

For personal income tax returns completed on the spot with you in attendance with all documents in the allotted time in compliance with above, our fees will be charged per our fee schedule. 

Where your service now, or in the future, requires the use of our hourly rates, these are included below (current as at 1 July 2025):

Position	Hourly Rate (Excluding GST)
Director/Tax Agent	$350.00
Chartered Accountant/CPA	$240.00
Junior Accountant	$110.00
Certified Bookkeeper	$110.00
Bookkeeper	$90.00
Administration	$80.00

Our fees are reviewed, and subject to change, each financial year.

• Our fees will always be payable prior to lodgement and are payable regardless of the refund result. 
• Our fees may be payable upfront in certain circumstances such as late lodgements. Your tax invoice will be issued upfront where required, or upon completion otherwise. 
• We accept payment via EFT, Cash, Credit Card or online. Our account terms include fees & interest where an overdue account exceeds 30 days.
• We only offer fee from refund options for approved clients who are not behind in their tax affairs and whom have a clean history of receiving their full refunds. There is an additional cost for this service. 

 

 

 

Terms and Conditions

1. Who may instruct us

You confirm that you, and any other person you nominate in writing from time to time (provided we have acknowledged such nomination), are authorised to give us instructions and information on behalf of all persons we are acting for and to receive our advice and documents on their behalf.

If we are acting for a business, and we receive conflicting advice, information or instructions from different persons, we may refer the matter to the board of directors, partners or proprietors (as applicable) and act only as requested by them.

2. You and your spouse/partner 

We will advise you and your spouse/partner on the basis that you are a family unit with shared interests.  We may deal with either of you and may discuss with either of you the affairs of the other. If you wish to change these arrangements, please let us know.

3. Know your customer

We may be required to verify your identity for the purposes of the anti-money laundering laws. We may request from you such information as we require for these purposes and make searches of appropriate databases.

4. Your responsibilities

You must provide us with all information necessary for dealing with your affairs including information which we reasonably request, in sufficient time to enable our services to be completed before any applicable deadline.  We will rely on such information being true, correct and complete and will not audit the information.

We record all telephone conversations using our suppliers AI and will use these for our notes and in the preparation of your return. You may opt out of this at the start of each phone call, but additional fees and charges will apply for us to file note the conversation. 

You authorise us to approach such third parties as may be appropriate for information that we consider necessary to deal with your affairs.

You must keep us informed on a timely basis of changes in your circumstances that may affect our services. 

5. Qualifications on our services

To the extent our services involve the performance of services established by law, nothing in the engagement letter or these terms reduce our obligations under such law.

You must not act on advice given by us on an earlier occasion without first confirming with us that the advice is still valid.

Our services are limited exclusively to those you have engaged us to perform. Unless otherwise specified in the engagement letter, our services cannot be relied upon to disclose irregularities and errors, including fraud and other illegal acts, in your affairs. Neither an audit nor a review will be conducted and, accordingly, no assurance will be expressed.

Where our engagement is recurring, we may amend our engagement letter and these terms where we consider it is necessary or appropriate to do so.  If you do not accept such amendments, you must notify us promptly in which case you may terminate our engagement in accordance with section 18 below and those amendments will not apply prior to such termination.  

6. Reliance on advice

We will endeavour to record all advice on important matters in writing. Advice given verbally is not intended to be relied upon unless confirmed in writing. If we provide verbal advice (for example during a meeting or telephone conversation) that you wish to rely on, you must ask us to confirm the advice in writing.

7. Investment and financial advisory advice 

We will not provide you with investment or financial advice regulated under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) unless we have expressly agreed to do so in writing, specifying an applicable Australian Financial Services Licence number.

8. Professional obligations

We will comply with the professional and ethical standards of the Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards Board, available at apesb.org.au. This includes APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (including Independence Standards), which among other things contains provisions that apply if we become aware of any actual or potential 'non-compliance with governing laws or regulations' (NOCLAR). Where any such non-compliance poses substantial harm (such as serious adverse consequences to investors, creditors, employees, auditor, group auditor or the public), we may be required to disclose the matter to an appropriate authority. 

9. Conflicts of interest

We will inform you if we become aware of any conflict of interest in our relationship with you (including between the various persons this engagement letter covers) 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 will be unable to provide further services to some or all of the persons to whom this engagement applies. If this arises, we will inform you promptly.

We may act for other clients whose interests are not the same as or are adverse to yours, subject to the obligations of conflicts of interest and confidentiality referred to above. 

10. Fees and payment 

Our fees will be charged on the basis set out in the engagement letter and have been set based on the level of skill, responsibility, importance and value of the advice, as well as the level of risk.  

If we have provided you with an estimate of our fees for any specific work, this is an estimate only and our actual fees may vary.

We may provide a fixed fee for the provision of specific services. If it becomes apparent to us, due to unforeseen circumstances, that a fixed fee is inadequate, we may notify you of a revised figure and seek your agreement to it.

In some cases, you may be entitled to assistance with your professional fees, particularly in relation to any investigation into your tax affairs by the ATO. 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 that you have. You will remain liable for our fees regardless of whether all or part are to be paid by someone else. Our invoices will be billed in line with the billing schedule within this engagement, and invoices will be due for payment by the due date as outlined on your invoice.

Our fees set out in our engagement letter are exclusive of GST which will be added to our invoice where it is chargeable. Any disbursements and expenses we incur in the course of performing our services will be added to our invoices where appropriate, plus GST.

Unless otherwise agreed to the contrary, our fees do not include the costs of any counsel, or other professionals or third parties engaged with your approval.

We may charge interest on late paid invoices at the rate of 5% above the RBA cash rate. We may also 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.

11. Lien

If permitted by law or professional guidelines, we may exercise a lien over all materials or records in our possession relating to all engagements for you until all outstanding fees and disbursements are paid in full.

12. Client monies

We maintain a trust account for dealing with client monies on their behalf. We can only accept money into our trust account on your behalf if you have provided us with a written trust account authority letter which details the authority given to us in relation to that trust money.

13. Confidentiality

We will take all reasonable steps to keep your information confidential, except where: 

• we need to disclose your information to our service providers (including auditors of client monies if applicable) or regulatory bodies in performing the services, our professional advisers or insurers or as part of an external peer review from time to time. Our files may also be subject to review as part of the quality review program of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. By accepting this engagement you acknowledge that, if requested, our files relating to this engagement will be made available under this program. We will take reasonable steps to ensure any such recipient (other than a regulatory body) keeps such information confidential on the same basis;
• we are required by law, regulation, a court of competent authority, or those professional obligations referred to in section 8 above, to disclose the information;
• we provide limited information (but only to the extent reasonably necessary) to potential purchasers (or their professional advisors) of our practice but we will take reasonable steps to ensure that any such recipient keeps the disclosed information confidential;
• we use the information for training purposes, in the development of products or technology, in research or as source material for industry or other benchmarking data or studies; or
• you give us permission to disclose the information.   

We may retain your information during and after our engagement to comply with our legal requirements or as part of our regular IT back-up and archiving practices. We will continue to hold such information confidentially.

Where we use the information for training purposes, product or technology development, research or as source material for industry or other benchmarking data or studies, the identity of any individual or entity to which such information relates will not be identifiable from the output of the activity for which the information is to be used or disclosed. We may mention that you are a client for promotional purposes.

14. Privacy

You must make all necessary notifications and obtain any necessary consents for us to process personal information you provide to us. We collect and use that personal information for the purposes of providing the services described in the engagement letter to you and we will comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) when processing that personal information. Our privacy policy provides further details of our privacy practices.  

15. Ownership of materials

We own the copyright and all other intellectual property rights in everything we create in connection with this engagement. Unless we agree otherwise, anything we create in connection with this agreement may be used by you only for the purpose for which you have engaged us.

All working papers prepared by us (in any form whatsoever, including physical and electronic) remain our property. We will retain these papers in accordance with our normal record keeping practices in accordance with our professional and legal obligations.

You agree we can use your logos and trade marks for the sole purpose of providing advice to you in connection with the engagement, unless you tell us otherwise.

16. Limitation of liability

Our liability is limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.

You agree not to bring any claim against any of our principals, partners, directors, shareholders and/or employees in their personal capacity.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable to you for:

• indirect, special or consequential losses or damages of any kind; or
• liability arising due to the acts or omissions of any other person or circumstances outside our reasonable control, or your breach of these terms.

17. Limitation of third party rights

Our advice and information is for your sole use, and we accept no responsibility to any third party, unless we have expressly agreed in the engagement letter that a specified third party may rely on our work.  

18. Termination

Each of us may terminate this agreement by giving not less than 21 days' notice in writing to the other party except where a conflict of interest has arisen, you fail to cooperate with us or we have reason to believe that you have provided us or any other person with misleading or factually inaccurate information, in which case we may terminate this agreement immediately. Termination will not affect any accrued rights.

19. Communication

You must advise of any changes to your contact details.  We may send any communications to the last contact details you have provided. 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. There is a risk of non-receipt, delayed receipt, inadvertent misdirection or interception by third parties in any form of communication, whether electronic, postal or otherwise.  We are not responsible for any such matters beyond our control. 

20. Applicable Law

Our engagement is governed by Western Australian law.  The courts sitting in that State/Territory will have non-exclusive jurisdiction in relation to any dispute between us. 

21. Interpretation

If any provision of the engagement letter or these terms is void, that provision will be severed and the remainder will continue to apply.  If there is any conflict between the engagement letter and these terms, these terms prevail.

22. Disputes and complaints

If you have any concerns about our costs or services, please speak to the person responsible for this engagement, who is identified in our engagement letter.  To resolve your concerns we have policies and procedures in place to deal appropriately with complaints and will use best endeavours to resolve a complaint or dispute to the mutual satisfaction of the parties involved. We may require you to detail your complaint in writing to allow us to fully investigate any concerns that you raise. 

Where your complaint concerns a tax agent service that we have provided, you also have the right to make a complaint to the Tax Practitioners Board in accordance with their complaints process described here https://www.tpb.gov.au/complaints. 

23. Third party responsibilities

We may utilise outsourced service providers and cloud computing service providers, including:

• XERO with servers hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in various locations as our platform for invoicing, accessing your Xero ledger/tax file, workflow management and also storing client information
• IGNITION with servers hosted by AWS in various locations as our client engagement, invoicing, payment and service management tool
• ANNATURE with servers hosted by AWS in Australia as our digital signing tool
• FYI SOFTWARE with servers hosted by AWS in Australia as our document management tool
• BGL CORPORATE SOLUTIONS with servers in by AWS in various locations as our company compliance and self managed super fund (SMSF) software
• MICROSOFT with servers in Australia as our file hosting service and email provider
• CRADLE with servers in various locations as telephone provider
• CLICKSEND with servers in various locations as sms provider
• ACCURIUM located in Hobart, as SMSF actuary provider
• WEST MORE KINGSLEY ACCOUNTING located in Kingsley as SMSF audit provider
• NTAA CORPORATE in Melbourne as legal document provider
• ACCESS GROUP with servers in Sydney as legacy tax software provider
• MYOB with servers hosted by AWS as bookkeeping software
• QUICKBOOKS with servers hosted by AWS as bookkeeping software
• JOTFORM with servers hosted by AWS and Google Cloud (USA) as electronic form provider
• DROPBOX with servers in USA, Germany, Australia & Japan as electronic storage provider
• LAW DEPOT as legal document provider
• CLEARDOCS with servers hosted globally as legal document provider
• and other third parties from time to time and as separately notified to you
  To perform the services, we may provide these third parties with access to your data to the extent this is required to perform the services.

Your data will be stored in servers physically located in Australia (unless otherwise specified) and in accordance with the security practices of the third party service provider and our Privacy Policy. 

24. Consumer Data Rights

You may consent for an Accredited Data Recipient under the Consumer Data Right (CDR) to disclose your CDR data to us.  You may nominate us as your Trusted Adviser for this purpose.  As your Trusted Adviser, we will only access the data necessary to provide the services in this engagement letter.

25. Register of Tax Agents and BAS Agents available for you to search

The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) maintains a register with details of registered, suspended and deregistered tax and BAS agents. This register is available to the public to search at https://www.tpb.gov.au/public-register.

We are obliged to advise clients of certain events which may influence your decision to engage us as your tax agent.  

There are no current issues about which are obliged to advise you.

We are also obliged to advise you whether there are any conditions attached to our registration.

There are no current conditions attached to our registration

26. Your rights under Taxation Laws (including Tax Agent Services Act and the Tax Agent Services (Code of Professional Conduct) Determination)

Please refer to the attached fact sheet published by the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) summarising your obligations to the ATO and your tax practitioner, and your tax practitioner's obligations to you, the TPB and ATO.

The fact sheet is here.
 

 

Summary of Your Responsibilities

• You must read, understand and accept our terms of engagement as well as follow substantiation rules outlined in your appointment and substantiation declaration
• You must provide full disclosure of ALL financial transactions that may affect your tax return
  • To avoid additional charges, you should check that you have supplied EVERYTHING relevant by reviewing our checklist on our website prior to requesting us to complete your income tax return.
  • Where you are missing information on the day of your appointment, you must respond to queries promptly.
  • Should you become aware of any errors or omissions, it is your responsibility to advise us immediately in writing. Amended income tax returns due to information not supplied at your appointment or after they have been signed and lodged will incur additional charges.
• Any tax payables must be paid by the due date on the assessment notice or where payment is not possible, it is your responsibility to contact the ATO and request a payment plan.
  
  • Note that ATO interest is no longer deductible from 1 July 2025.

ID Verification

As prescribed in TPB (PN) 5/2022, as a Tax Agent, Spencer Accountants is required to verify a clients identity prior to providing tax services.

All clients have the option of visually verifying their identification in person at our office using a drivers licence, passport or other government issued photo ID at no charge, or using our third party ID Verification software, BGLiD.

Please note Australian Government ID Biometric Checks through BGLiD will be on charged to clients who use this service. The current cost is $7.70 and is subject to change.

{firstName} {surname}

A full copy of this engagement letter will also be emailed to you at:

{email}