Hereby appoint Northern Accountants as my legal representative with the Australian Taxation Office and ask them to complete the appropriate forms to reflect the below appointments.

CLIENTS Account Keeping Fee (NB ONLY applies if you do not pay your fees as agreed):
We, the parties named in the schedule below agree that on top of any fees outlined in the Schedule above (attached), that should our account with Northern Accountants remain outstanding for a period of more than 30 days from the date of invoice that Northern Accountants may (at their sole discretion) charge an additional account keeping fee of up to $275 that we will be bound to pay. Furthermore, we acknowledge that Northern Accountants fees are due to be paid regardless of the fact that we may choose to not proceed in full with their service (For example If we are un-happy with the work performed and do not want the return lodged / finished) subject to Northern Accountant’s refund policy as published in their front office.

Acknowledgment of terms of engagement
We, the parties identified in the Schedule hereto, hereby acknowledge that we have read, understood, and agree to be bound by the terms of engagement and fee schedule set out below. We further appoint Northern Accountants Pty Ltd as our duly authorised tax agent to act on our behalf.

Dated the {day} day of {month} {year}

Dear Client

 

Thank you for your instructions to attend to the taxation requirements for yourself and your family. A list of the individuals for whom we are to act is set out in the accompanying Schedule and our comments below are directed to all those persons. This letter sets out our terms of engagement and the scope of the work to be performed by us within that engagement. Please read it carefully and contact this office immediately if you do not understand, or wish to discuss, any aspect of the terms of this engagement.

If the terms of our engagement are acceptable, we ask that all persons please sign the enclosed copy of this engagement letter in the places indicated and return same to our office. Please note that we are unable to perform any work for you until we receive the signed copy.

 

Purpose and scope of engagement

Our engagement is to prepare and lodge the annual income tax returns for yourself and your family.

You and each adult member of your family listed in the Schedule engages us on the terms set out in this letter and is bound by those terms.

The agreed fee for the services covered by this engagement is $149 (or such lower advertised special price) per STANDARD tax return per family member. See also “Additional Services” below.

At NORTHERN ACCOUNTANTS rather than having an all-inclusive fee we adopt a ‘user pays’ system so that clients that do not use specific parts of our service are not charged for them, if unsure as to what your fee will be please clarify with the accountant prior to the service being performed.

 

Definition of A STANDARD TAX RETURN:

A ‘Standard Tax Return’ includes;

• Up to 3 PAYG summaries (Including social security statements),
• Interest income,
• Up to 3 work related expense deductions (not requiring additional questionnaires),
• Prior year tax agent fees,
• Private health details,
• A straight forward zone rebate (without notional spouse rebate).

Common Extra charges include (but not limited to);

• Our FEE FROM REFUND service is an additional service and will incur an extra ($35).
• Rental Property schedule / Summarising the ‘shoe box’ full of receipts.

Tax returns that contain work outside of that included here will be classed as including additional services and may incur an additional fee. If you require a precise quote for your tax return where it contains additional services, it is your responsibility to ask for this prior to the commencement of work under this engagement. Failure to obtain said quote will constitute acceptance of additional reasonable fees as decided by the firm.

Basis of engagement

Our engagement is to assist with the preparation and lodgement of the STANDARD taxation returns for yourself and your family.

We expect that all relevant information will be collated and forwarded to our office within 1 months of the due date of lodgement of the tax return. We shall detail more specific requirements in respect of the individual tax returns in the next paragraph.

Documentation

Before we lodge any tax returns on your behalf, we will forward them to you for approval and signing. We will endeavour to ensure that the returns are lodged by the due dates. If you are late in providing information, we will do our best to meet the time limits, but we will not be responsible for any lodgement penalties you may incur. If you are unsure as to your lodgement due date please ask.

Ownership of documents

The tax returns which we are specifically engaged to prepare, together with any original documents given to us by you, shall be your property. Any other documents brought into existence by us, including general working papers, the general ledger and draft documents, will remain our property at all times.

If our services are terminated (by either party), we shall be entitled to retain all documents owned by you until payment in full of all outstanding fees.

Additional services

These services will be charged on the basis of the time and degree of skill and acumen required to complete the task undertaken by us, including any direct out-of-pocket expenses. Please note in particular that any correspondence from the Australian Taxation Office that does not relate to initial assessments or original payment notices will be charged as additional services.

We shall now outline the basis of our engagement in the context of the specific services to be provided.

It should be noted at the outset that as a general proposition we rely upon our clients to provide us with accurate and timely information to enable us to properly perform our engagement obligations. Consequently, any rectifying work performed by us on the basis of incorrect or late information will be work which is outside the scope of our engagement and will be charged as additional services.

Income tax returns

This firm has been engaged to prepare and lodge income tax returns for yourself and your family.

In addition to the basic financial information required to complete these tax returns, it is expected that the source documentation will be available to allow this firm to analyse the income tax implications of any transaction if we request to see it. Whilst we will not as a matter of course be looking at these documents, the ATO will expect you (and you are required) to have them available before any claim is made in your income tax return. We may in some circumstances also request to see source documents if a tax issue is particularly contentious.

It is also expected that, in respect of individual income tax returns, each person will comply with the substantiation provisions of the Income Tax Assessment Act.

We will specifically advise as to the requirements of the substantiation provisions relating to your income tax return and of the necessity to obtain acceptable receipts as specifically required by the legislation, verbally at the time of your making a deduction claim. Should you not be advised of your substantiation requirements and you are unsure it is your responsibility to ask. We will not, however, be checking that the requirements of the substantiation provisions have been satisfied.

This specifically means that we will not be reviewing your log book or any calculations or information you provide us, for example a rental property schedule either prepared by you on spreadsheet or by a property manager. If you require assistance in completing a log book or preparing any calculations or you would like us to review such work, please discuss this with us.

From time to time, this firm prepares templates and schedules to assist with the collation of information to complete income tax returns.

These will be provided free of charge.

The fee for this service does not cover any inquiries or investigations conducted by the Australian Taxation Office. Substantial penalties apply for an incorrectly prepared income tax return. If you have any queries in respect to this, please contact our office for assistance.

Confirmation of engagement

Obviously, there are many issues to consider in this engagement and we ask that you consider all aspects of this letter to ensure that you are satisfied with the scope of our engagement. Please contact us if you have any queries about this letter.

Once you are satisfied with the terms of our engagement, would you please have all persons sign and date this letter in the places indicated.

If you require a copy of this engagement letter please ask. Our signed copy will always be available for your inspection.

We thank you for the opportunity to provide accounting and taxation services to you and your family and we look forward to developing a close accounting relationship with you for many years to come.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Kashyap Sagar

Director

Individual Fee Schedule

1. Student Tax Return* T&C Apply (Below $23,250 Income)	$ 109
2. Individual ITR	$ 149
3. Fee From Refund Admin	$ 35
4. Additional Times (15 mins)	$ 66
5. Rental Property (Per property Sole/ Joint owner)	$ 121
6. Capital Gains – Shares (per lot)	$ 25
7. Capital Gains (per property)	$ 220
8. Self-Education Schedule	$ 35
9. Depreciation Schedule	$ 33
10. PAYG Variation	$ 139
11. Audit / Objection (Simple Objection)	$ 220
12. Tax Advice (30 mins)	$ 220
13. Statutory Declaration (PAYG)	$ 55

Business Fee Schedule

1. Sole Trader Tax Return (Simple)	$ 249
2. Bookkeeping/Accounting (per Hour)	$ 135
3. BAS- Business Activity Statement	$ 165
4. UBER – Taxi Business Activity Statement	$ 132
5. ABN Application	$ 165
6. Partnership Tax Return	$ 440
7. Company Tax Return (Basic Tax Return only)	$ 990
8. Company Registration	$ 1210
9. Trust Tax Return	$ 770

Effective date 01/04/2025

 

Liability Limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation