2.1 This TE will commence at the time you indicate acceptance and will continue until revoked by us or you.

5.1 We are obliged to consider whether our clients create any threats to compliance with our Fundamental Principles and where we cannot reduce the risk to an acceptable level we are obliged to cease the TE under the Code (section 320) to decline or cease the client engagement.

5.2 We have a duty to act in your best interests, unless this duty is inconsistent with our duty to act in the public interest.

5.3 We will inform you:

• of your rights and obligations available under taxation law, including any rights that might be available to seek a private ruling and the lodging of objections and appeals against adverse positions adopted by revenue authorities
• of any possible penalties and other legal tax consequences to enable you to make an informed decision.

5.4 We are responsible for maintaining records for five years unless required by legislation otherwise.

During the course of our engagement, if we identify or suspect that Non-Compliance with Laws or Regulations (NOCLAR) has occurred or may occur, which may have a direct effect on material amounts or disclosures in the financial statements or compliance and may be fundamental to your ability to continue its business or to avoid material penalty, we may:

• 5.5.1 discuss the matter with the appropriate level of management, those charged with governance or the internal auditor, as appropriate
• 5.5.2 communicate the non-compliance or suspected non-compliance with your external auditor, unless prohibited by law or regulation
• 5.5.3 disclose the matter to an appropriate authority even when there is no legal or regulatory requirement to do so; and/or
• 5.5.4 withdraw from the engagement and the professional relationship where permitted by law or regulation

Where appropriate we will inform you of our intention to disclose the matter to an appropriate authority before disclosing the matter. However, if we have reason to believe that the actual or intended conduct would constitute an imminent breach of a law or regulation that would cause substantial harm to the general public, we may immediately disclose the matter to an appropriate authority in order to prevent or mitigate the consequences of such imminent breach of law or regulation.

6.1 You are responsible for full disclosure of all relevant information.

6.2 You are responsible for your own record keeping relating to your affairs.

6.3 You provide us with all information, documents and records relating to your affairs.

6.4 You are responsible for the reliability, accuracy and completeness of the particulars and information provided to us, and, if the TE includes financial reporting, the accounting records and disclosures of all material and relevant information provided to us. Accordingly, any advice given to you is only an opinion based on our knowledge or your particular circumstances.

6.5 You are responsible for retaining paperwork for as long as legally required.

6.6 You have obligations under self-assessment to keep full and proper records in order to facilitate the preparation of accurate returns.

6.7 You must retain paperwork for a period of five years after the assessment as you may be subject to an Australian Taxation Office review.

6.8 You are responsible for checking the assessment before submission to ensure accuracy.

7.1 We may from time to time engage third party specialist professionals and other public practitioners, where warranted to obtain the advice you need or to assist us to provide our service to you. These may include cloud service providers and outsourced service providers. These service providers are typically located in Vietnam.

7.2 We will seek your consent if third party involvement is likely to exceed the fixed price (if applicable).

7.3 We have outsourcing arrangements with EBS Partners whom we engage from time to time to assist us.

Acceptance of our services in conjunction with this engagement document indicates your acceptance of the use of outsourced services as described above.

8.1 If the engagement involves the use of trust monies, we will manage those funds in accordance with APES 310 Client Monies and as authorised by you in the Trust Account Authority Letter or as otherwise instructed by you.

8.2 Our professional fees will be calculated on a time-cost basis, which will be specified in the letter of engagement. If no method is specified, our fees will be calculated on a time-cost basis at a rate of $240.00 plus GST per hour.

8.3 Our invoices may also include disbursements paid by us. These may include photocopying charges, telephone and facsimile transmission charges, travel fares and expenses, stamp duty and fees paid to third parties such as couriers, registration fees or fees for other professionals. These may be in addition to the fixed price (if applicable).

8.4 Unless other payment terms are agreed, each invoice is payable within 7 days of receipt.

9.1 You own all original materials given to us.

9.2 We own all materials produced by us that resulted from our skill and attention to the extent that the materials produced by us incorporate any original materials you give to us.

9.3 We may exercise a lien of your documents in our possession in the event of a dispute, which will be handled in accordance with our firm’s dispute resolution process.

9.4 Subject to the payment of all outstanding professional fees and disbursements owing to us, we will provide you with materials produced by us for you in the event you engage the services of another practitioner and the materials are required by your new practitioner.

10.1 Our collection use and disclosure of your personal information (PI) may be subject to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and accordingly we will only collect PI about you that relates to the TE. We may disclose PI about you for the primary purpose of this TE or to third parties by express consent or as required by law.

10.2 We may collect PI about you, 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 our respective obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Your obligations may include ensuring your privacy policy and contracts include a reference to your collection practices, how you will use the PI and that you may disclose the PI to an agent for public accounting services.

10.3 Where an outsourced service requires the disclosure of PI to an overseas recipient, we take care to ensure that other third parties outside Australia to whom we disclose PI are subject to contractual obligations relating to privacy and the handling of your personal information and can only use the information for the purposes stipulated by us.

10.4 Your information shared with us will be stored in Australia. The Privacy Act requires that data be stored in Australia or in a country where the laws are substantially similar to Australia’s privacy laws. By signing this letter and accepting these services you acknowledge and agree that your personal information may be stored overseas. We use the following Software as a Service (SAAS) and service providers to store your data – Xero, BGL360, FYI Docs and Microsoft. All are hosted in Australia.

10.5 If your PI is disclosed to CPA Australia for the purpose of conducting a CPA Australia Best Practice Program assessment on the services provided, your personal information will be handled as outlined in the CPA Australia Privacy Policy.

11.1 We have an ethical duty of confidentiality, which means we must not share or disclose your details of this TE to anyone, except as otherwise specified in this clause, without your consent unless required to by law.

11.2 We may disclose your personal and confidential information details, as part of our working papers of the services provided to you to CPA Australia Ltd, (if requested) for the purposes of conducting a CPA Australia Best Practice Program assessment aimed at maintaining high industry professional standards. Any such disclosure of confidential information does not change any of our commitments to safeguard your information, and the information remains subject to any existing confidentiality obligations. We advise you by signing this letter you acknowledge, our engagement files relating to this assessment will be made available under this program.

13.1 We participate in the CPA Australia Ltd Professional Standards Scheme (Scheme), which facilitates the improvement of professional standards to protect consumers and may limit our liability to you in a cause of action.

13.2 The Scheme applies to professional accounting services including accounting, bookkeeping, taxation, auditing and assurance, insolvency and corporate reconstruction, management accounting, management consulting, forensic accounting, valuation services.