Opes Accounting - Terms & Conditions
1. Our authority to act
So that we can attend to the taxation matters set out above, you hereby authorise us to add the above named entities and individuals to our agency listing with the Inland Revenue Department. This authorisation covers the following:
- You authorise us to link you for ALL tax types to the tax agency of Opes Accounting Limited to ensure full understanding of your tax position, as a result our staff/contractors will have access to your tax information
- You authorise us to obtain your information from Inland Revenue through all channels, including IR's online services
- You authorise us to have full access to all details held by the Department (except child support) through all Inland Revenue media and communication channels
- You also authorise Tax Management New Zealand Limited and Reckon New Zealand Limited ("APS") via our agency listing to access relevant tax information from Inland Revenue in respect of your tax obligations and taxpayer account details.
- This authority to act endures until it is terminated by either party
You authorise us to request information from any third parties including your bank for the purposes of obtaining any information necessary to deal with your affairs. You acknowledge that this includes information that would not otherwise be available to us due to Privacy Act 2020 restrictions.
With respect to distribution of your tax returns, you hereby authorise us to send your tax returns to you, your banker, solicitor or any other person you may specifically request, including transmission by post, fax or other electronic media.
2. Who may instruct us
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. Limitations of our role
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.
Our procedures do not include verification or validation procedures and as such are not designed to disclose fraud, material misstatement, defalcations or other irregularities that may occur. Where we are required to prepare financial statements these will be prepared in accordance with Appendix 1.
As a consequence of the New Zealand taxation self-assessment system, we will not be responsible for verifying information supplied to us for the purpose of preparing income tax returns under the terms of this engagement. It is your responsibility to provide us with the information we require, that is accurate, timely and complete.
Our address is used by the Inland Revenue Department for service of notices and we are responsible for checking tax assessments. We shall also endeavour to advise the amounts and due dates of tax instalments. However, the responsibility for paying the correct tax and paying on time rests with the taxpayer and not this Firm, as agent. Any penalties arising from lateness, errors, wrong estimates or for any other reason are payable by you as the taxpayer.
You must keep us informed on a timely basis of changes in your circumstances that may affect our services.
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 that you wish to rely on, you must ask us to confirm the advice in writing. 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 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.
At Opes Accounting we are prohibited from providing you with investment or financial advice regulated under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013, as amended by the Financial Services Legislation Amendment Act 2019.
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.
4. 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.
5. Our client team
We reserve the right to outsource parts of our work for you where we deem it necessary and appropriate to provide you with the most cost effective solution. We outsource our accounting services to Kendons Scott Macdonald Limited in Christchurch, New Zealand.
6. 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.
If your affairs at some time in the future are handled by you or another accountant, we will make available such information regarding your affairs that is essential to enable you or your new accountant to perform the services we previously provided including any Xero subscription held by us.
7. Conflict of interest and independence
We are not presently aware of any conflict of interest which would affect our ability to provide the agreed services to you, in an independent manner.
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 or you do not consent to the way in which we propose to manage the conflict 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.
8. Fees and Disbursements
It is important to have clarity regarding the basis upon which our fees are calculated and our expectations for payment. Our fees will be charged on the basis set out in the engagement letter.
We will send you a bill for your tax return preparation after we have completed the work. All fee invoices are to be paid on the 20th of the month following the invoice date. Please note individual directors and trustees accepting this engagement personally accept responsibility for and guarantee payment in full of fees billed by Opes Accounting Limited. Corporate trustees are excluded from any personal liability relating to our fees.
We reserve the right to charge interest at 1.5% per month, cumulative on any unpaid accounts where a satisfactory arrangement for settlement has not been reached. In the event that our invoice(s) are overdue, we hold the right to suspend the engagement until the invoices are paid and may require payment for future fees in advance or terminate the engagement.
In the event we need to take recovery action from you, you will be liable to reimburse us our actual costs of taking that action (e.g. lawyers or debt collection fees); we reserve the right to disclose your name and address to a credit agency to perform a credit reference or to undertake credit management processes if we deem necessary.
Neither the amount of our fee nor payment thereof is contingent upon the nature of the findings or issues identified in performing this engagement.
9. 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.
10. Lien
If permitted by law and not prohibited by professional standards or 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.
11. Confidentiality
We are required to comply with all applicable by-laws, rules and regulations to perform this engagement.
Both parties agree to treat as confidential any information relating to the other party which by its nature, or by the circumstances of disclosure, could be reasonably expected to be regarded as confidential. Neither party will use or disclose any confidential information except so far as may be reasonably necessary to enable that party to fulfil its obligations or as required by law.
In accepting this engagement, you provide us with your express consent to disclose your information to:
- our service providers or regulatory bodies to the extent required to perform our services in respect to this engagement;
- our professional advisors or insurers to the extent required to protect our interests in respect to this engagement;
- our external peer reviewer to the extent required to review this engagement.
We will take reasonable steps to ensure any such recipient (other than a regulatory body) keeps such information confidential.
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.
12. Quality and complaints
If you have any concerns about our costs or services, please speak to your Opes Accounting contact person.
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.
13. AML – Electronic Verification
We may be required to carry out identity checks to fulfil the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML/CFT) requirements. We may request from you such information as we require for these purposes and make searches of appropriate databases.
14. Privacy
We may collect, store, use and disclose your personal information for the purposes of providing the services described in the engagement letter to you and to comply with our obligations in section 11 above and in accordance with the disclosure exceptions outlined in section 11 above. We will comply with the Privacy Act 2020 when collecting, storing, using and sharing your personal information. Our Privacy Policy provides further details of our privacy practices and our obligations to you.
👉 Read our privacy policy here
Appendix 1
Compilation Assignments
Our engagement for the compilation of financial statements will comply with the requirements of Service Engagement Standard No. 2 ("SES 2") Compilation of Financial Information issued by the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants. The financial information will be prepared in accordance with section 11 of the Financial Reporting Act 1993 for companies or in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Practice ("GAAP") for all other entities and this will be disclosed as part of the financial information. Reporting under GAAP requires us to show a true and fair view. Any known departures from these frameworks will be disclosed within the financial statements (and referred to in our compilation report).
a.) We do not accept responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the accounting records and other information supplied by you to us for the reliability, accuracy and completeness of the financial information compiled on the basis of those records and information. We also do not accept responsibility for the maintenance of adequate accounting records, an adequate internal control structure and the selection and application of appropriate accounting policies within your organisation. In addition, you are solely responsible to users of the financial information compiled by us.
b.) You agree to review and approve the final financial statements and returns for reasonableness and correctness. You agree to sign off the financial statements and returns as being true and correct statutory records.
c.) Our compilation engagement does not include the investigation or discovery of internal control weaknesses, errors, illegal acts or other irregularities, including without limitation fraud, or non-compliance with laws and regulations. We will inform you of any such matters which come to our attention during the course of our engagement.
d.) If for any reason we are unable to complete the compilation of your financial information, or we consider the information to be misleading, we may refer to such matters within our compilation report or we determine, at our sole discretion, not to issue a report.
e.) We agree for the use and distribution of financial information we have compiled for review by your bankers and prospective bankers, the Inland Revenue Department and for internal purposes. If the intended audience extends beyond those listed above, you will inform us immediately. We accept no responsibility to any person, other than you for the contents of the financial statements. No person shall rely on the financial statements without conducting an audit or review engagement.
f.) Disclaimer of liability
A compilation engagement requires us to apply compilation procedures, in accordance with SES-2: Compilation of Financial Information, to compile the financial statements from information which you provide to us. Those compilation procedures do not include the performance of an audit or review in respect of either of the information you provide or the financial statements which are compiled from it. Accordingly, neither we nor any of our employees accept any responsibility for the reliability, accuracy or completeness of the information from which the financial information has been compiled.
The financial statements have been prepared at the request of and for the purpose of Client Name and are exclusively for your benefit. Neither we nor any of our employees accept any liability of any kind whatsoever, including liability by reason of negligence, to either yourself or any other person for losses incurred as a result of placing reliance on the compiled financial statements.
g.) We will issue a compilation report on completion of the engagement and this is currently expected to read as follows:
Compilation report to Client Name
Scope
On the basis of information you provided we have compiled, in accordance with Service Engagement Standard No. 2: Compilation of Financial Information, the financial statements of Client Name for the Fiscal period end date. These have been prepared in accordance with the policies described in Note 1 to the financial statements.
Responsibilities
You are solely responsible for the information contained in the financial statements and have determined that the Special Purpose Reporting Framework used is appropriate to meet your needs and for the purpose that the financial statements were prepared.
The financial statements were prepared exclusively for your benefit. We do not accept responsibility to any other person for the contents of the financial statements.
No audit or review engagement undertaken
A compilation is limited to the collection, classification and summarisation of financial information supplied by the client. A compilation does not involve the verification of that information. We have not carried out an audit or a review assignment on the financial statements and therefore, neither we nor any of our employees accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy of the information from which the financial statements have been prepared. Further, the financial statements have been prepared at the request of and for the purpose of the client only and neither we nor any of our employees accept any responsibility or liability on any ground whatever, including liability in negligence, to any other person, and any reliance on these financial statements by such a person is entirely the decision, responsibility and at the risk of that person.
Independence
It is assumed that we are independent, unless otherwise stated in the financial statements.
If you distribute the financial statements or other report to any person without attaching to them that report our compilation report disclaiming liability, then you will indemnify this firm against all claims, actions, damages, liabilities, costs and expenses (including but not limited to reasonable legal costs and expenses) incurred by this firm and arising out of or in connection with any action, claim or proceeding brought by any third party in connection with the services provided by this.