OMW Accountancy Pty Ltd
Current Terms & Conditions
These Standard Terms and Conditions of Engagement (T&Cs) are to be read in conjunction with our engagement letter with you. They apply to all services that we perform for you that are described in our engagement letter (“the Services”). Together, our engagement letter and these T&Cs are called “this Agreement”. If the two documents are inconsistent, the terms in the engagement letter overrule these T&Cs. This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the parties with respect to our work under this agreement and supersedes all prior agreements, proposals, oral and written representations and negotiations.
Purpose, Scope and Output of the Engagement
OMW Accountancy Pty Ltd will provide taxation services to you as described in our engagement letter in accordance with the relevant professional and ethical standards issued by the Accounting Professional & Ethical Standards Board Limited (APESB), including APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (including Independence Standards) (the Code). The extent of our procedures and services will be limited exclusively for this purpose only. As a result, no audit or review will be performed and, accordingly, no assurance will be expressed.
Our engagement cannot be relied upon to disclose irregularities including fraud, other illegal acts and errors that may exist. However, APES 110 sets professional obligations for us to respond to non-compliance or suspected non-compliance with laws and regulations in the course of providing a professional service to you.
Our Obligations
We must use reasonable efforts to complete the Services within the agreed timeframe in our engagement letter. We will perform the Services with professional competence and due care, however the quality and timeliness of the Services provided may be impacted by your obligations.
Your Obligations
- You must instruct us fully and respond to our enquiries arising in the course of performance of the Services. In particular, your timely provision of:
- All relevant financial information and source documentation required to complete your income tax return – we are entitled to rely on the accuracy of the information provided by you, your representatives, or your advisers without independently verifying that information.
- Access to files, records and information technology systems, to premises and to people (whether management or staff) with relevant skills and experience to respond to our enquiries.
- Written representations from you prior to finalising an engagement in relation to the completeness and accuracy of information that you have provided to us.
- All income tax returns are subject to examination by the Australian Taxation Office. In the event of an examination, you may be requested to produce documents, records or other evidence to substantiate items shown on your income tax return.
- You agree to pay our fees and expenses within 7 business days of the date of our invoice or as otherwise agreed between us.
Fee and Billing Arrangements
Fee and billing arrangements are set out in our engagement letter.
Independence and Conflicts of Interest
We have procedures in place to periodically assess our independence assigned to your engagement. We will notify you in a timely manner should we become aware of any conflict of interest or independence issues.
If during the engagement you become aware of any conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest or there is a change of circumstances which may result in a conflict, you must advise us.
Events that may give rise to a conflict of interest or potential conflicts of interest include:
- Events affecting you, such as deaths, matrimonial disputes as well as litigation (threatened or actual).
- Changes to the structure of your business or your business relationships.
- Offering an employment opportunity to a current or former employee of our practice.
Confidentiality
We will conduct this engagement in accordance with professional and ethical standards issued by the APESB. The information acquired from you for this engagement is subject to strict confidentiality requirements and will not be disclosed by us to other parties except as required by law or professional and ethical standards, unless we have your written consent. We use a number of information technologies in our practice. These technologies include on site computers, mobile telecommunication devices, servers, on site back up servers and drives, offsite servers and online cloud services. When engaging our services you acknowledge and agree that your personal information may be stored locally and in data centres located in Australia/overseas. Our files and systems may be subject to review as part of the IPA’s Quality Review Program and you consent to your information being the subject of any review by IPA.
Privacy
We collect the contact details of our clients in order to provide taxation services to our clients and to communicate developments and changes in taxation requirements. We maintain a contact database in order to manage our dealings with you which includes the provision of taxation services and to provide you with other information from time to time. If you would like to know more about privacy, including your right to seek access to the personal information we hold about you, please contact us at admin@omwaccountancy.com.au.
Safe Harbour from Penalties (taxation services only)
A taxpayer who uses a registered tax agent will benefit from a safe harbour from certain administrative penalties in certain circumstances. Penalties may not apply to the taxpayer where:
- A false or misleading statement is made through a careless act or omission of the tax agent, provided the taxpayer has taken reasonable care to comply with their tax obligations by giving their tax agent the information necessary to make the correct statement; and
- A document (such as an income tax return) is not lodged on time by the tax agent or in the approved form due to a careless act or omission of the tax agent, provided the taxpayer gave the agent the necessary information, in sufficient time, to lodge the document on time and in the approved form.
Your Rights and Obligations under the taxation laws (taxation services only)
The taxation laws confer on you certain rights (such as the ability to challenge a decision of, or an assessment issued by, the Australian Taxation Office) but also imposes obligations on you (such as the keeping and retaining of adequate and accurate records and the filing of relevant returns with the Australian Taxation Office within the required lodgment dates). We will keep you informed on your specific rights and obligations under the taxation laws that become relevant from time to time during the course of the Services we perform for you.
The onus is on you to self-assess and there are substantial penalties for lodging incorrect returns. Therefore, it is your responsibility to review a draft income tax return carefully to ensure that items shown are correct and are accurately stated and, if there are any matters in the return that are incorrect, the appropriate adjustments are made prior to lodgment. Further, if there is any matter in the draft income tax return where the tax treatment is unclear, then this matter should be discussed with us to determine the appropriate disclosure so as to minimise exposure to potential penalties.
Notices and assessments
We accept that our address will be used for the serving of notices on your behalf. We undertake to check all instalments, assessments and other notices received and advise of any errors contained therein.
Ownership of Documents and Data
All original documents obtained from you during our engagement shall remain your property. However, we reserve the right to make copies of the original documents for our records.
Our engagement will result in the production of documents which will be supplied to you, such as income tax returns, ownership of these documents will vest in you. All other documents produced by us in respect of this engagement will remain the property of our practice.
Lien Over Documents
If permitted by law, we may exercise a lien over all documents in our possession until all outstanding fees and disbursements are paid in full.
Right to Vary Standard Terms and Conditions
These terms and conditions can be varied or amended in writing from time to time without notice. A current copy of these terms and conditions is available from our website at https://omwaccountancy.co.uk/current-termsandconditions
Limited Liability
Our liability is limited by the IPA’s Professional Standards Scheme approved under the Professional Standards Legislation. A copy of the scheme can be obtained from the website of the Professional Standards Council: https://www.psc.gov.au.
Period of Engagement
This engagement starts on 1 July 2025 and is valid until it’s ended by mutual agreement or superseded by a newer engagement. We will not deal with earlier periods unless you specifically ask us to do so and we agree. You or we may agree to vary or terminate this agreement at any time without penalty. Notice of variation or termination must be given in writing.
Service and Price Guarantee
OMW Accountancy Pty Ltd will always stand behind the quality and professional nature of the services that we offer. If at any point you are not completely satisfied with the services we have performed, we encourage you to bring this to our attention immediately. We’d love the opportunity to correctly address your concerns and allow us a chance to win your trust back and prevent similar problems from happening in the future.
If you are still not satisfied with the outcome of our services, we will work towards a mutual agreement regarding the payment for services completed. As an example, we may agree to either forgive the related payment or accept a portion of the originally agreed price that reflects your level of satisfaction.
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.
Client Responsibilities and Warranties
In conducting this engagement, information acquired by us in the course of the engagement is subject to strict confidentiality requirements. That information will not be disclosed by us to other parties except as required to provide the Services; as allowed for by law; or with your express written consent.
The Client is responsible for the reliability, accuracy and completeness of the accounting records, particulars and information provided and disclosure of all material and relevant information. Clients are also responsible for providing us with such materials and relevant information in a timely manner so that we may provide our Services to you in a timely manner. Clients are required to arrange for reasonable access by us to relevant individuals and documents, and shall be responsible for both the completeness and accuracy of the information supplied to us. Any advice given to the Client is only an opinion which is based on our knowledge of the Client’s particular circumstances and is informed by the information, materials account records and particulars provided to us by the Client.
You agree that we are entitled to rely on the accuracy and completeness of any information you provide us under this agreement and in order to provide our services to you. OMW Accountancy Pty Ltd accepts no liability or responsibility for any loss, damage, claim or expense that you may suffer as a result of you providing us with inaccurate, incomplete, incorrect out of date or untimely accounting records, particulars or information, and you waive and release us from any and all such liability.
You agree to pay OMW Accountancy Pty Ltd the Fees in accordance with the Billing Schedule set out in this agreement.
You warrant that you have not relied on any representations or warranties made by OMW Accountancy Pty Ltd in respect of the Services which have not been expressly set out in this agreement.
Outsourced Services
We may involve third party contractors or outsourced service providers in providing various aspects of your accounting work. These services may include:
• Accounting file preparation and/ or Data entry into our accounting systems
• Auditing of accounts (including Self-Managed Super Funds)
• Hosting of data on cloud based servers
Acceptance of our services in conjunction with this engagement document indicates your acceptance of the use of outsourced services as described above. Where the outsourced service requires the disclosure of personal information to an overseas recipient, a consequence of your consent is that OMW Accountancy Pty Ltd will be required to take reasonable steps to ensure that Australian Privacy Principles are complied with by the overseas recipients of the Personal Information.
OMW Accountancy Pty Ltd has taken all available measures to ensure the security and privacy of your data is protected and follows the notifiable data breaches scheme as outlined in the Privacy Act 1988.
Termination of this engagement
Subject to any statutory provisions that apply to the Services, and unless otherwise outlined in this Terms document, either party may terminate this engagement at any time by giving 28 days written notice to the other. Either party may terminate this engagement immediately if the other commits any material or persistent breach of its obligations under this agreement, in particular the Terms and Conditions set out in the Engagement Letter (which, in the case of a breach capable of remedy, has not been remedied within 7 days of discovery by the party in breach), or if the other becomes insolvent.
In addition, we may terminate this engagement on reasonable notice if any of the following circumstances occur:
- you fail to pay our accounts on time;
- You fail to provide us with requested information
- you fail to provide us with adequate instructions;
- your instructions involve acting contrary to the interests of another client;
- a conflict of interest has arisen or it is not appropriate for us to continue to act on your behalf;
- we are no longer be able to provide all or part of the Services to you because of applicable auditor independence rules or legislation without ceasing to be independent in relation to an audit client; or
- for any other reasonable and just cause.
In addition to our other rights, upon termination you will be required to pay our charges for work done, and for any expenses incurred up to the date of termination together with our reasonable costs and expenses incurred in connection with the early termination of this engagement.
Termination of this engagement is without prejudice to any rights that may have accrued before termination. The Terms and Conditions of this agreement which expressly or by implication are intended to survive its termination or expiry will survive and continue to bind the parties.
Force majeure
Neither party will be liable to the other for any delay or failure to fulfil their obligations under this agreement if that delay and/or failure arises from causes beyond their control, including but not limited to fire, floods, acts of God, acts or regulations of any government or supranational authority, war, riot, terrorist activities, strikes, lockouts and industrial disputes.
Electronic Communications
You agree that we will communicate with each other by electronic means such as e-mail, SMS etc. We and you each recognise that e-mail and the internet are inherently insecure and that emails and data can become corrupted, are not always delivered promptly (or at all) and that other methods of communication may be appropriate. In addition, the internet is prone to viruses. We and you each recognise these hazards and so each of us will be responsible for protecting our own systems and interests and neither of you nor we will be responsible to the other on any basis for any loss or damage in any way arising from the use of electronic communication.
Billing
Services may be billed on a fixed rate or hourly billing rate, as indicated herein. Where we cannot provide a fixed rate quote, we will quote an hourly rate in cases of project work where it is difficult to define the scope of the service required. In the case where you have been quoted an estimate based on an hourly rate, OMW Accountancy Pty Ltd will inform [ACCOUNT_NAME] of the amount of time used before we issue the final bill and collect payment. Our professional fees will be based on our regular billing rates, plus direct out-of-pocket expenses and applicable GST, and are due when rendered. Fees for additional services will be established separately.
Invoicing and Payment
We will submit our bill(s) as indicated herein. If an extension of our services is requested, we will discuss our fee arrangements at that time. Plan implementation as well as plan monitoring and updating, if needed, are separate engagements. If you choose one of these additional services, a separate engagement letter will be provided. These services will be billed separately.
We reserve the right to suspend our services or to withdraw from this engagement in the event that any of our invoices are deemed delinquent. In the event that any collection action is required to collect unpaid balances due to us, you agree to reimburse us for our costs of collection, including lawyers’ fees.
Privacy Act
We may collect Personal Information about your representatives, your clients and others when we provide services to you. If we do, you agree to work with us to ensure that we both meet the obligations that we each may have under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (as amended) (Privacy Act). The obligations may include notifying the relevant person to whom the personal information relates who we are and how we propose to use their personal information. Where you have collected personal information, you confirm that you have collected the personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act, that you are entitled to provide this personal information to us and that we may use and disclose the personal information for the purpose/s we provide our services to you. We will handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act.
Complaints
In most instances we believe that most disagreements can be rectified/settled in open and honest dialogue with ourselves. This can be done by contacting our Principal Oliver Ward on oliver@omwaccountancy.com.au. If however after attempting this you still feel you would like to make a complaint you can do so to the Tax Practitioners Board https://www.tpb.gov.au/complaints, ASIC and the IPA. Our complaints proceedure can also be found at https://omwaccountancy.co.uk/complaints/
Confirmation of Terms
Please review and digitally sign this letter below to indicate that it is in accordance with your understanding of the arrangements. This letter will be effective for future years unless we advise you of any change.
Yours sincerely,
Oliver Ward
OMW Accountancy Pty Ltd
P: 02 4380 8279