We are bound by ICAEW’s Code of Ethics and accept instructions to act for you on the basis that we will act in accordance with these ethical guidelines.

SCOPE OF SERVICES
We have listed below the work which you have instructed us to carry out and states your and our responsibilities in relation to the work to be carried out. Only the services which are listed are included within the scope of our instructions. If there are other services that you wish us to carry out which are not please let us know and we will discuss with you whether they can be included in the scope of our work. If we agree to carry out additional services for you, we will provide you with a new or amended engagement letter.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

We will provide services as outlined in this letter with reasonable care and skill. Our liability to you is limited to losses, damages, costs and expenses caused by our negligence or wilful default. However, to the fullest extent permitted by law, we will not be responsible for any losses, [penalties, surcharges, interest or additional tax liabilities] if you or others supply incorrect or incomplete information, or fail to supply any appropriate information or if you fail to act on our advice or respond promptly to communications from us [or the tax authorities].

You will not hold us, directors and staff, responsible, to the fullest extent permitted by law, for any loss suffered by you arising from any misrepresentation (intentional or unintentional) supplied to us orally or in writing in connection with this agreement. You have agreed that you will not bring any claim in connection with services we provide to you against any of our partners or employees personally.

Unless there is a legal or regulatory requirement to do so, our work is not to be made available to third parties without our written permission and we will accept no responsibility to third parties for any aspect of our professional services or work that is made available to them.

AGREEMENT OF TERM

Period of engagement

This engagement will start on the agreement of these terms.

We will also deal with matters arising in earlier years as appropriate. We will not be responsible for earlier years which have been prepared by previous accountants.

This letter supersedes any previous engagement letter for the period covered. Once agreed, this letter will remain effective from the date of signature until it is replaced. You or we may agree to vary or terminate our authority to act on your behalf at any time without penalty. Notice of variation or termination must be given in writing.

Confirmation of your agreement

This letter, constitutes the entire contract between us and any proposed variations or termination must be given in writing.

The terms set out in this letter shall take effect immediately upon your countersigning this letter and returning it to us or by electronic signature via the online portal. If we are instructed to start work before receiving a signed copy of this letter we will treat that as acceptance of all the terms of this engagement letter, unless we hear from you to the contrary within 14 days of you giving that instruction. You or we may agree to vary or terminate our authority to act on your behalf at any time without penalty.

Please confirm your agreement to the terms of this letter by signing and returning the appointment acceptance below or electronic acceptance, If this letter and the attached terms of business are not in accordance with your understanding of our terms of appointment, please let us know.

CONSUMER CANCELLATION RIGHTS
Right to cancel

You have the right to cancel within 14 days without giving any reason. The cancellation period will expire after 14 days from the date you enter into the contract.

To exercise your right to cancel, you must inform us of your decision to cancel this contract by a clear statement (eg, a letter sent by post, fax or email).

To meet the cancellation deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication before the cancellation period expires.

Effect of cancellation

IF you choose to end our engagement before the year-end accounts and associated compliance work have been completed, a minimum fee of £225 will apply. This charge reflects the inherent time already spent on your file, preliminary reviews, support provided, and ongoing maintenance of your accounting records. The fee will be invoiced or deducted from any credit balance held on your account.

We will the make the reimbursement without undue delay, and not later than 28 days from the day on which we are informed about your decision to cancel the engagement. We will make the reimbursement using the same means of payment as you used for the initial transaction, unless you have expressly agreed otherwise; in any event, you will not incur any fees as a result of the reimbursement.

Commencement of services

We will not begin work on the services before the expiry of the cancellation period unless you specifically instruct us to do so. You may do this by ticking the box below your signature.

If, during the cancellation period, you asked us in writing to begin the performance of our services and then cancelled, you will pay us a proportional amount for our services performed up to the date of your cancellation, compared with the total amount for the whole assignment.

PRINCIPAL TERMS OF BUSINESS

The following terms of business apply to all engagements accepted by Parkins Accountants Ltd T/A Parkins Chartered Accountants. All work is carried out under these terms except where changes are expressly agreed in writing.

Applicable Law
Our standard terms and conditions of business are governed by, and should be construed in accordance with English Law. Each party agrees that the courts of England will have exclusive jurisdiction in relation to any claim, dispute or difference concerning this engagement letter and any matter arising from it on any basis. Each party irrevocably waives any right to object to any action being brought in those courts, to claim that the action has been brought in an inappropriate forum, or to claim that those courts do not have jurisdiction.

We will not accept responsibility if you act on advice previously given by us without first confirming with us that the advice is still valid in light of any change in the law or in your circumstances. We will accept no liability for losses arising from changes in the law, or the interpretation thereof, that occur after the date on which the advice is given.

Client Identification
As with other professional services firms, we are required to identify our clients for the purposes of the UK anti-money laundering legislation. We may request from you, and retain, such information and documentation as we require for these purposes and/or make searches of appropriate databases. If we are not able to obtain satisfactory evidence of your identity, we will not be able to proceed with the engagement. Any personal data received from you for AML purposes will only be processed for preventing money laundering or terrorist financing, or as otherwise permitted by law

Client Money
We may, from time to time, hold money on your behalf. The money will be held in trust in a client bank account, which is segregated from the firm’s funds. The account will be operated, and all funds dealt with, in accordance with ICAEW’s Clients’ Money Regulations.

All client monies will be held in an interest-bearing account. To avoid excessive administration, interest will only be paid to you if the amount earned on the balances held on your behalf in any calendar year exceeds £25.00. If the total sum of money held on your behalf is enough to give rise to a significant amount of interest or is likely to do so, we will put the money in a designated interest-bearing client bank account and pay the interest to you. Subject to any tax legislation, interest will be paid gross.

We will return monies held on your behalf promptly, as soon as there is no longer any reason to retain those funds. If any funds remain in our Client Account that are unclaimed, and the client to which they relate has remained untraced for five years, or we as a firm cease to practise, we may pay those monies to a Registered Charity.

Commissions or Other Benefits
In some circumstances we may receive commissions or other benefits for introductions to other professionals or in respect of transactions which we arrange for you. If this happens, we will notify you in writing of the amount and terms of payment and receipt of any such commissions or benefits. The same will apply if the payment is made to, or the transactions are arranged by, a person or business connected with ours. The fees you would otherwise pay will not be reduced by the amount of the commissions or benefits. You agree that we (or our associates,) can retain the commission or other benefits without being liable to account to you for any such amounts.

Confidentiality
Unless we are authorised by you to disclose information on your behalf, we confirm that if you give us confidential information we will, at all times during and after this engagement, keep it confidential, except as required by law or as provided for in regulatory, ethical or other professional pronouncements applicable to us or our engagement.

You agree that, if we act for other clients who are or who become your competitors, to comply with our duty of confidentiality it will be sufficient for us to take such steps as we think appropriate to preserve the confidentiality of information given to us by you, both during and after this engagement. These may include taking the same or similar steps as we take in respect of the confidentiality of our own information.

In addition, if we act for other clients whose interests are or may be adverse to yours, we will manage the conflict by implementing additional safeguards to preserve confidentiality. Safeguards may include measures such as separate teams, physical separation of teams, and separate arrangements for storage of, and access to, information.

You agree that the effective implementation of such steps or safeguards as described above will provide adequate measures to avoid any real risk of confidentiality being impaired.

We may, on occasions, subcontract work on your affairs to other tax or accounting professionals. The subcontractors will be bound by our client confidentiality terms.

If we use external or cloud based systems, we will ensure confidentiality of your information is maintained.

We reserve the right, for the purpose of promotional activity, training or for other business purposes, to mention that you are a client. As stated above, we will not disclose any confidential information.

Conflicts of Interest
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 ,unless we are unable to do so because of our confidentiality obligations. We have safeguards that can be implemented to protect the interests of different clients if a conflict arises. If conflicts are identified which cannot be managed in a way that protects your interests, we regret that we will be unable to provide further services.

If there is a conflict of interest that is capable of being addressed successfully by the adoption of suitable safeguards to protect your interests, we will adopt those safeguards. In resolving the conflict, we would be guided by ICAEW’s Code of Ethics, which can be viewed at icaew.com/en/membership/regulations-standards-and-guidance/ethics.

During and after our engagement, you agree that we reserve the right to act for other clients whose interests are or may compete with or be adverse to yours, subject, of course, to our obligations of confidentiality and the safeguards set out in the paragraph on confidentiality above.

Data Protection / GDPR
We will comply with all applicable data protection legislation, including the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 and PECR when processing personal data about you your directors and employees and your/their family/ies

Processing means:

• obtaining, recording or holding personal data; or
  
• carrying out any operation or set of operations on personal data, including collecting and storage, organising, adapting, altering, using, disclosure (by any means) or removing (by any means) from the records manual and digital.
  

The information we obtain, process, use and disclose will be necessary for:

• the performance of the contract
  
• to comply with our legal and regulatory compliance and crime prevention
  
• contacting you with details of other services where you have consented to us doing so
  
• other legitimate interests relating to protection against potential claims and disciplinary action against us.
  

This includes, but is not limited to, purposes such as updating and enhancing our client records, analysis for management purposes and statutory returns.

In regard to our professional obligations we are a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Under the ethical and regulatory rules of ACA I am required to allow access to client files and records for the purpose of maintaining our membership of this body.

Further details on the processing of data are contained in our privacy notice, which should be read alongside these terms and conditions.

Retention of papers

You have a legal responsibility to retain documents and records relevant to your tax affairs. During the course of our work we may collect information from you and others relevant to your tax affairs. We will return any original documents to you if requested.

When we cease to act for you we will seek to agree the position on access to cloud-accounting records to ensure continuity of service. This may require you to enter direct engagements with the software providers and pay for that service separately. Documents and records relevant to your tax affairs are required by law to be retained as follows:

Individuals, trustees and partnerships

• with trading or rental income: five years and 10 months after the end of the tax year;
  
• otherwise: 22 months after the end of the tax year.
  

Companies, LLPs and other corporate entities

• six years from the end of the accounting period.
  

While certain documents may legally belong to you, we may destroy correspondence and other papers that we store, electronically or otherwise, which are more than seven years old. This includes your documents if they have not been reclaimed by you within the seven-year period. You must tell us if you require the return of any specific document or their retention for a longer period.

You should retain documents that are sent to you by us as set out in the privacy notice, which should be read alongside these terms and conditions.

Disengagement
If we resign or are asked to resign, we will provide the necessary information to your next accountant subject to any outstanding fees being paid.

Electronic and Other Communication
Unless you instruct us otherwise, we may, if appropriate, communicate with you and with third parties by email or other electronic means. The recipient is responsible for virus checking emails and any attachments.

With electronic communication, there is a risk of non-receipt, delayed receipt, inadvertent misdirection or interception by third parties. We use virus-scanning software to reduce the risk of viruses and similar damaging items being transmitted in emails or by electronic storage devices. Nevertheless, electronic communication is not totally secure and we cannot be held responsible for damage or loss caused by viruses or for communications which are corrupted or altered after despatch. Nor can we accept any liability for problems or accidental errors relating to this means of communication, especially in relation to commercially sensitive material. These are risks you must bear in return for greater efficiency and lower costs. If you do not wish to accept these risks, please let us know and we will communicate by paper mail, other than when electronic submission is mandatory.

Any communication by us with you sent through the postal system is deemed to arrive at your postal address two working days after the day the document was sent.

We will never send personal data via unprotected email.  We will use our portals and secure emails to send these to you.

Never send confidential / personal data via unencrypted email

You agree that you authorise us to send items via Virtual Cabinet or any other electronic portal service for electronic approval in place of written approval

Fees and Payment Terms
Our fees may depend, not only upon the time spent on your affairs, but also on the level of skill and responsibility and the importance and value of the advice we provide, as well as the level of risk.

If we provide you with an estimate of our fees for any specific work, the estimate will not be contractually binding unless we explicitly state that will be the case.

If requested, we may indicate a fixed fee for the provision of specific services or an indicative range of fees for a particular assignment. It is not our practice to identify fixed fees for more than a year ahead as such fee quotes need to be reviewed in the light of events. If it becomes apparent to us, due to unforeseen circumstances, that a fee quote is inadequate, we reserve the right to notify you of a revised figure or range and to seek your agreement thereto.

We will bill regularly and our invoices will be due for payment and taken by direct debit within 7 days for payroll and company secretarial work and 21 days for other work.  Again all taken by direct debit. Our fees are exclusive of VAT which will be added where it is chargeable. Any disbursements we incur on your behalf, and expenses incurred in the course of carrying out our work for you, will be added to our invoices where appropriate. It is our normal practice to ask clients to pay by monthly direct debit and periodically to adjust the monthly payment by reference to actual billings.

Unless otherwise agreed to the contrary, our fees do not include the costs of any third party, counsel or other professional fees. If these costs are incurred to fulfil our engagement, such necessary additional charges may be payable by you.

Early Termination Minimum Fee: If you choose to end our engagement before the year-end accounts and associated compliance work have been completed, a minimum fee of £225 will apply. This charge reflects the inherent time already spent on your file, preliminary reviews, support provided, and ongoing maintenance of your accounting records. The fee will be invoiced or deducted from any credit balance held on your account.

We reserve the right to charge interest on late paid invoices at the rate of [8%] above bank base rates under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. We also reserve the right to suspend our services or to cease to act for you, having given written notice, if payment of any fees is unduly delayed. We intend to exercise these rights only if it is fair and reasonable to do so.

If you do not accept that an invoiced fee is fair and reasonable, you must notify us within 21 days of receipt, failing which, you will be deemed to have accepted that payment is due.

If a client company, trust or other entity is unable or unwilling to settle our fees, we reserve the right to seek payment from the individual (or parent company) giving us instructions on behalf of the client, and we shall be entitled to enforce any sums due against the group company or individual nominated to act for you.

Help Us To Give You The Best Service

We are committed to providing you with a high quality service that is both efficient and effective. If, at any point you would like to discuss with us how our service to you could be improved, or if you are dissatisfied with the service you are receiving, please let us know by contacting Robert Parkin.

We undertake to look into any complaint carefully and promptly and to do all we can to explain the position to you. If we do not answer your complaint to your satisfaction, you may, of course, take up the matter with our professional body, ICAEW.  At that point, if appropriate, we shall also provide you with details of an approved body that you may wish to contact with regard to a possible alternative dispute resolution process.

Intellectual Property Rights and Use of Our Name
We will retain all intellectual property rights in any document prepared by us during the course of carrying out the engagement except where the law specifically states otherwise.

You are not permitted to use our name in any statement or document you may issue unless our prior written consent has been obtained. The only exception to this restriction would be statements or documents that, in accordance with applicable law, are to be made public.

Interpretation
If any provision of our engagement letter or terms of business is held to be void, that provision will be deemed not to form part of this contract. In the event of any conflict between these terms of business and the engagement letter or appendices, the relevant provision in the engagement letter or schedules will take precedence.

Internal Disputes Within a client
14.1     If we become aware of a dispute between the parties who own the business. or who are in some way involved in its ownership and management, it should be noted that our client is the business and we would not provide information or services to one party without the express knowledge and permission of all parties. Unless otherwise agreed by all parties, we will continue to supply information to the [registered office] [normal place of business] for the attention of the [directors] [proprietors]. If conflicting advice, information or instructions are received from different [directors] [principals] in the business, we will refer the matter back [to the board of directors] [the partnership] and take no further action until the [board] [partnership] has agreed the action to be taken.

Investment Advice (Including Insurance Mediation Services)
Investment business is regulated by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. If, during the provision of professional services to you, you need advice on investments including insurances, we may have to refer you to someone who is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority or licensed by a Designated Professional Body, as we are not. However, as we are licensed by ICAEW, we may be able to provide certain investment services that are complementary to, or arise out of, the professional services we are providing to you. In the unlikely event that we cannot meet our liabilities to you, you may be able to claim compensation under the Chartered Accountants’ Compensation Scheme in respect of exempt regulated activities undertaken.

Lien
Insofar as we are permitted to so by law or by professional guidelines, we reserve the right to exercise a lien over all funds, documents and records in our possession relating to all engagements for you until all outstanding fees and disbursements are paid in full.

Limitation of Third Party rights
The advice and information we provide to you as part of our service is for your sole use, and not for any third party to whom you may communicate it, unless we have expressly agreed in the engagement letter that a specified third party may rely on our work. We accept no responsibility to third parties, including any group company to whom the engagement letter is not addressed, for any advice, information or material produced as part of our work for you which you make available to them. A party to this agreement is the only person who has the right to enforce any of its terms, and no rights or benefits are conferred on any third party under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

Period of Engagement and Termination
Our work will begin when we receive implicit or explicit acceptance from yourselves.

Each of us may terminate our agreement by giving not less than 21 days’ notice in writing to the other party except if you fail to cooperate with us or we have reason to believe that you have provided us [or HMRC] with misleading information, in which case we may terminate this agreement immediately. Termination will be without prejudice to any rights that may have accrued to either of us before termination.

We reserve the right to terminate the engagement between us with immediate effect in the event of: your insolvency, bankruptcy or other arrangement being reached with creditors; an independence issue or change in the law which means we can no longer act; failure to pay our fees by the due dates; or either party being in breach of their obligations if this is not corrected within 30 days of being asked to do so.

In the event of termination of our contract, we will endeavour to agree with you the arrangements for the completion of work in progress at that time, unless we are required for legal or regulatory reasons to cease work immediately. In that event, we will not be required to carry out further work and shall not be responsible or liable for any consequences arising from termination.

Professional Rules and Statutory Obligations
We will observe and act in accordance with the Bye-laws, regulations and Code of Ethics of ICAEW and will accept instructions to act for you on this basis. [In particular you give us the authority to correct errors made by HMRC if we become aware of them.] We will not be liable for any loss, damage or cost arising from our compliance with statutory or regulatory obligations. You can see copies of these requirements in our offices. The requirements are also available online at icaew.com/en/membership/regulations-standards-and-guidance.

We confirm that we are statutory auditors eligible to conduct audits under the Companies Act 2006. When conducting audit work, we are required to comply with the Ethical and Auditing Standards issued by the FRC, which can be accessed online at www.frc.org.uk…auditors.aspx. We are also required to comply with the Audit Regulations and Guidance which can be accessed at icaew.com/en/technical/audit-and-assurance/working-in-the-regulated-area-of-audit.]

Quality Control
As part of our ongoing commitment to provide a quality service, our files are periodically reviewed by an independent regulatory or quality control body. These reviewers are highly experienced professionals and are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as our principal[s] [and staff].

When dealing with HMRC on your behalf we are required to be honest and to take reasonable care to ensure that your returns are correct. To enable us to do this, you are required to be honest with us and to provide us with all necessary information in a timely manner. For more information about ‘Your Charter’ for your dealings with HMRC, visit www.gov.uk/government/publications/your-charter. To the best of our abilities, we will ensure that HMRC meet their side of the Charter in their dealings with you.

Reliance on Advice
We will endeavour to record all advice on important matters in writing. Advice given orally is not intended to be relied upon unless confirmed in writing. Therefore, if we provide oral advice (for example, during the course of a meeting or a telephone conversation) and you wish to be able to rely on that advice, you must ask for the advice to be confirmed by us in writing.

Retention of Papers
You have a legal responsibility to retain documents and records relevant to your financial affairs. During the course of our work we may collect information from you and others relevant to your tax and financial affairs. We will return any original documents to you [if requested]. Documents and records relevant to your tax affairs are required by law to be retained as follows:

Individuals, Trustees and Partnerships:
with trading or rental income: five years and 10 months after the end of the tax year
otherwise: 22 months after the end of the tax year.

Companies, Limited Liability Partnerships, and other Corporate Entities:
six years from the end of the accounting period.

Although certain documents may legally belong to you, we may destroy correspondence and other papers that we store electronically or otherwise that are more than seven years old, except documents we think may be of continuing significance. You must tell us if you wish us to keep any document for any longer period.

The Provision of Services Regulations 2009
We are registered to carry on audit work in the UK by ICAEW. Details of our audit registration can be viewed at www.auditregister.org.uk for the UK, under reference number C003125622

Details of our professional indemnity insurer can be obtained by contacting our office on 01709 701116 or email info@parkinsaccountants.co.uk.  We are required to have this by our professional body the ICAEW. The territorial coverage is worldwide, excluding professional business carried out from an office in the United States of America or Canada, and excludes any action for a claim brought in any court in the United States or Canada.

Timing of our Services
If you provide us with all information and explanations on a timely basis in accordance with our requirements, we will plan to undertake the work within a reasonable period of time to meet