Terms and Conditions - Lewis Smith & Co.

INTRODUCTION

These terms and conditions set out the general terms under which we undertake our business. The specific conditions relating to particular assignments will be covered in your Engagement Letter and Fee Proposal.

APPLICABLE LAW

This engagement letter, the schedule of services and our standard terms and conditions of business are governed by, and should be construed in accordance with UK law. Each party agrees that the courts of the UK will have exclusive jurisdiction in relation to any claim, dispute or difference concerning this engagement letter and any matter arising from it. 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.

Persons who are not party to this agreement shall have no rights under the [Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 / Contract (Third Party Rights)(Scotland) Act 2017] to enforce any term of this agreement. This clause does not affect any right or remedy of any person which exists or is available otherwise than pursuant to that Act.

The advice we give you is for your sole use and is confidential to you and will not constitute advice for any third party to whom you may communicate it. We will accept no responsibility to third parties for any aspect of our professional services or work that is made available to them.

CLIENT IDENTIFICATION

In common with all accountancy and legal practices, the firm is required by law to:

Maintain identification procedures for clients and beneficial owners of clients;
Maintain records of identification evidence and the work undertaken for the client; and
Report, in accordance with the relevant legislation and regulations.

We may use electronic checks as part of our identification procedures. We confirm that these electronic checks are not credit checks.

QUALITY OF SERVICE

We aim to provide you with a fully satisfactory service and [principal_in_charge] as engagement partner will seek to ensure that this is so. If, however, you are unable to deal with any difficulty through them and their team please contact us at info@lewissmith.com or telephone 01384 235549. We undertake to look into any complaint carefully and promptly and to do all we can to explain the position to you. We will acknowledge your letter within five business days of its receipt and endeavour to deal with your complaint within eight weeks. If we do not answer your complaint to your satisfaction you may of course take up the matter with our professional body, the ACCA.

We are not licensed or authorised for the reserved legal activity of non-contentious probate. Consequently, any work we do for you on closely aligned activities, such as estate administration or inheritance tax advice, will not be covered by the ACCA Probate Compensation Scheme, this service will not be covered by legal personal privilege and you will not have access to the Legal Ombudsman.

AUTHORISATION AND REGISTRATION

We are registered with ACCA as chartered certified accountants and can be found on the register of members at http://www.accaglobal.com/general/finding/

BRIBARY ACT 2010

In accordance with the requirements of the Bribery Act 2010 we have policies and procedures in place to prevent the business and its partners and staff from offering or receiving bribes.

CLIENT MONIES

We may, from time to time, hold money on your behalf. Such 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 the Clients’ Monies Rules of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. These rules can be found within the ACCA members “rulebook”on the ACCA website at http://www.accaglobal.com/en.html.

In order to avoid an excessive amount of administration, interest will only be paid to you where the amount of interest that would be earned on the balances held on your behalf in any calendar year exceeds £25. Any such interest would be calculated using the prevailing rate applied by Lloyds Bank Plc for small deposits subject to the minimum period of notice for withdrawals. 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 then we may pay those monies to a registered charity.

Fees paid by you in advance for professional work to be performed and clearly identifiable as such shall not be regarded as clients’ monies.

CLOUD BASED SERVICES

Where the firm provides accounting software in the Cloud, this will be provided by a third party (the ‘Cloud Supplier’). The third party has signed a confidentiality agreement with the firm to ensure compliance with the relevant clauses in the firm’s standard terms of business above, in particular, Fees and payment terms, Electronic communication, and Data protection.

The service provided by the Cloud Supplier will be a discrete web based hosted facility, and you agree that access will also be provided to the firm and the third party.

The firm cannot be held liable for any interruption of service provided by the Cloud Supplier. However, we will liaise with them regarding the resumption of a normal service as soon as possible.

COMMISSIONS OR OTHER BENEFITS

In some circumstances, commissions or other benefits may become payable to us in respect of transactions which we arrange for you. Where this happens we will notify you in writing of the amount and terms of payment. The same will apply where the payment is made to or transactions are arranged by a person or business connected with ours. You consent to such commission or other benefits being retained by us or, as the case may be, by our associates, without our, or their, being liable to account to you for any such amounts.

COMMUNICATION

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.

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 through emails or electronic storage devices. However electronic communication is not totally secure and we cannot be held responsible for damage or loss caused by viruses nor 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 where electronic submission is mandatory.

Any communication by us with you sent through the post is deemed to arrive at your postal address two working days after the day that the document was sent first class post and five days for second class post.

We may, at your agreement, share documents with you via our secure cloud based client portal Iris Openspace. These documents will be available for a period of not less than three years unless we advise otherwise. If you share accounting reference documents to us for the purpose of accounts preparation, we will delete these from your account once those year end accounts have been prepared. Therefore it is your responsibility to keep your own copies separate from this portal. Any Iris Openspace account will be deleted following disengagement in no less than 30 days from our formal disengagement notice to you.

CONFIDENTIALITY

Communication between us is confidential and we shall take all reasonable steps to keep confidential your information except where we are required to disclose it by law, by regulatory bodies, by our insurers or as part of an external peer review. Unless we are authorised by you to disclose information on your behalf this undertaking will apply during and after this engagement.

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.

We reserve the right, for the purpose of promotional activity, training or for other business purpose, 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. Where conflicts are identified which cannot be managed in a way that protects your interests then 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 then we will adopt those safeguards. Where possible this will be done on the basis of your informed consent. We reserve the right to act for other clients whose interests are not the same as or are adverse to yours subject of course to the obligations of confidentiality referred to above.

CONTRACTS (RIGHTS OF THIRD PARTIES) ACT 1999

Any advice we give you will be supplied on the basis that it is for your benefit only and shall not be disclosed to any third party in whole or part without our prior written consent. It may not be used or relied upon for any other purpose or by any other person other than you without our prior written consent. If our advice is disclosed to any third party (with or without our consent), then we accept no responsibility or liability to that third party for any consequences that may arise to them, should they rely on the advice.

If it is proposed that any documents or statement which refer to our name, are to be circulated to third parties, please consult us before they are issued.

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 under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any of its terms.

DATA PROTECTION ACT 1998

We confirm that we will comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 when processing personal data about you, your business, your employees and your family. In order to carry out the services of this engagement and for related purposes such as updating and enhancing our client records, analysis for management purposes and statutory returns, legal and regulatory compliance and crime prevention we may obtain, process, use and disclose personal data about you. Details are found in our privacy notice attched separately.

As part of our ongoing commitment to providing a quality service, our files are periodically reviewed by an independent regulatory or quality control body. These reviewers are highly experienced and professional people and, of course, are bound by the same rules for confidentiality as us.

Processing of customer personal data where we provide payroll bureau services:

Data protection legislation and regulation places obligations on you as a data controller where we act as a data processor to undertake the processing of personal data on your behalf, for instance where we operate a payroll service for you. We therefore confirm that we will at all times take appropriate measures to comply with relevant requirements when processing data on your behalf. In particular we confirm that we have adequate security measures in place and that we will comply with any obligations equivalent to those placed on you as a data controller. Terms relating to our responsibilities as a data processor are set out below.

In respect of the client personal data, unless otherwise required by applicable laws or other regulatory requirements, we shall:

Process the client personal data only in accordance with your lawful written instructions, in order to provide you with the services pursuant to our engagement with you and in accordance with applicable data protection legislation;
Disclose and transfer the client personal data to members of our firm’s network, our regulatory bodies or other third parties (for example, our professional advisors or service providers) as and to the extent necessary in order to provide you with the services pursuant to our engagement with you in relation to those services;
Disclose the client personal data to courts, government agencies and other third parties as and to the extent required by law;
Maintain commercially reasonable and appropriate security measures, including administrative, physical and technical safeguards, to protect against unauthorised or unlawful processing of any client personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, such client personal data.
Maintain written records of our processing activities performed on your behalf which shall include: the categories of processing activities performed; details of any cross-border data transfers outside of the United Kingdom; and a general description of security measures implemented in respect of the client personal data;
Return or delete all the client personal data upon the termination of the engagement with you pursuant to which we agreed to provide the services;
Ensure that only those personnel who need to have access to the client personal data are granted access to it and that all of the personnel authorised to process the client personal data are bound by a duty of confidentiality;
Notify you if we appoint a sub-processor (but only if you have given us your prior written consent, such consent not to be reasonably withheld or delayed) and ensure any agreement entered into with the relevant sub-processor includes similar terms as the terms set out in this section;
Where we transfer the client personal data to a country or territory outside the United Kingdom to do so in accordance with data protection legislation;
Notify you promptly if

(i) We receive a request, complaint or any adverse correspondence from or on behalf of a relevant data subject, to exercise their data subject rights under the data protection legislation or in respect of the client personal data; or

(ii) We are served with an information or assessment notice, or receive any other material communication in respect of our processing of the client personal data from a supervisory body (for example, the Information Commissioner’s Office);

Notify you, without undue delay, in the event that we reasonably believe that there has been a personal data breach in respect of the client personal data; and
At your cost and upon receipt of your prior written notice, allow you, on an annual basis and/or in the event that we notify you of personal data breach in respect of the client personal data, reasonable access to the relevant records, files, computer or other communication systems, for the purposes of reviewing our compliance with the data protection laws.

Without prejudice to the generality of paragaraph 1, you will ensure that you have all necessary appropriate consents and notices in place to enable the lawful transfer of the client personal data to us.

Should you require any further details regarding our treatment of personal data, please contact our data controller.

The following details are also required by Article 28(3) of the GDPR:

Subject matter and duration of the processing of client personal data

The subject matter and duration of the processing of the client personal data are set out in the engagement letter between us and relate to provision of payroll services as relevant.

The nature and purpose of the processing of personal data

The processing of client personal data is in order to calculate payroll and deductions and arrange payments to HMRC and the employees of your business [and its subsidiaries].

The types of personal data to be processed

Personal Data:

Full name
Date of birth
Home address
National Insurance number
Tax code
Salary

Special Category Personal Data

No information will be held by us as payroll processor in regard personal data revealing: racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation.

DISENGAGEMENT/TERMINATION OF OUR AGREEMENT

Either party to these terms of engagement may terminate the agreement by giving not less than 30 days notice in writing to the other party. We may, however, terminate our agreement immediately where you fail to cooperate with us, or we have reason to believe that you have provided us [or HMRC] with misleading information. Termination will be without prejudice to any rights that may have accrued to either of us prior to termination.

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

Should we resign or be requested to resign a disengagement letter will be issued to ensure that our respective responsibilities are clear.

Your Iris Openspace account will be deleted 30 days after our disengagement letter has been issued – you should save any documents that you wish to keep as copy requests will later become chargeable.

Should we have no contact with you for a period of 6 months or more we may issue a disengagement letter and hence cease to act.

ETHICAL GUIDELINES

We are bound by the ethical guidelines of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, and accept instructions to act for you on the basis that we will act in accordance with those ethical guidelines. A copy of these guidelines can be viewed at our offices on request or can be seen at www.accaglobal.com. We will not be liable for any loss, damage or cost arising from our compliance with statutory or regulatory obligations.

FEES AND PAYMENT TERMS

We operate fixed fees, quoted in advance. Please refer to your Fees Schedule for a breakdown of these. We will not usually identify fixed fees for more than a year in advance as these may increase. Where we estimate our fees for any specific work, this will not be binding unless this is clearly stated to you. Otherwise, our fees will be based on the hours worked by each member of staff necessarily engaged on your affairs, multiplied by their charge-out rate per hour plus VAT.

Our fees may depend not only on the time spent on your affairs by the partners and our staff and on the levels of skill and responsibility involved, but also the level of risk identified and any advice provided. Unless otherwise agreed, our fees will be billed at appropriate intervals during the course of the year and will be due within our normal payment terms which are 14 days from our invoice date.

In some cases, you may be entitled to assistance with your professional fees, particularly in relation to any investigation into your tax affairs by HMRC. Assistance may be provided through insurance policies you hold or via membership of a professional or trade body. Other than where such assurance was arranged through us you will need to advise us of any such insurance cover that you have. You will remain liable for our fees regardless of whether all or part are liable to be paid by your insurers.

Our fees will be adjusted annually on each anniversary of the Contract’s commencement date. The new fee will be calculated by increasing the current fee by the percentage increase in the UK Consumer Price Index (CPI) over the preceding twelve-month period, as published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), or where the engagement differs, a new proposal will be issued to you.

We will bill upon completion of the work and our invoices are due for payment on the due date as shown on the invoice. 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.

Unless otherwise agreed to the contrary our fees do not include the costs of any third party, counsel or other professional fees.

It is our normal practice to ask clients to pay by upon completion of the ad hoc piece of work being completed before any submission to HMRC / Companies House is made.

We offer our clients the option to pay by monthly direct debit/standing order and to periodically adjust the monthly payment by reference to actual billings. Failure to keep within the direct debit/standing order arrangement renders the account back to normal 14 day terms and all overdue fees are due in full.

We reserve the right to charge interest on late paid invoices at the rate of 4% above the Bank of England base rate 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 on giving written notice if payment of any fees is unduly delayed. We intend to exercise these rights only where 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 you agree that we shall be entitled to enforce any sums due against the Group Company or individual nominated to act for you.

In the case of a dispute over the level of fees charged we reserve the right to require that the matter is dealt with through arbitration. We recommend that arbitration is undertaken by the fee arbitration service provided by ACCA for members. The fee arbitrator will be appointed by the ACCA president; the fee will be as negotiated with the ACCA arbitrator.

FEE PROTECTION SERVICE

It is the firm’s policy to offer all clients a service whereby all our costs of representing a client are covered in the event of a HM Revenue Customs enquiry. It is not an obligation to take the service, but we see this is a duty of care to make this offer. Further details on the scheme will be sent under separate cover. Should you take this service and the provider refuses a claim based upon irregularity or error, our fees in your defence of any HMRC enquiry will be due from you under our normal terms and will be based on the time spent on your affairs by the partners and our staff at the appropriate rates.

IMPLEMENTATION

We will only assist with implementation of our advice if specifically instructed in writing.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

We will retain all copyright in any document prepared by us during the course of carrying out the engagement save where the law specifically provides otherwise.

INTERNAL DISPUTES WITHIN A CLIENT

If we become aware of a dispute between the parties who own or are in some way involved in the ownership and management of the business, 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.

INTERPRETATION

If there is a conflict between an engagement letter schedule and these terms of business then the engagement letter takes precedence.

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 directly caused by our negligence, fraud 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 where you or others supply incorrect or incomplete information, or fail to supply any appropriate information or where you fail to act on our advice or respond promptly to communications from us or the tax authorities.

You will not hold us, the owners of this firm and any staff employed by the firm, 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 the principals or employees personally.

Our work is not, unless there is a legal or regulatory requirement, 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.

If any provision of this engagement letter or terms of business or its application is held to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable in any respect, the validity, legality or enforceability of any other provision and its application shall not in any way be affected or impaired.

Advice we give you orally should not be relied upon unless we confirm it in writing. We endeavour to record all advice on important matters in writing. However, if you particularly wish to rely upon oral advice we give you during a telephone conversation or a meeting, you must ask for the advice to be confirmed in writing.

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 the light of any change in the law or 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.

Unless specifically instructed and agreed in advance we will not assist with the implementation of our advice.

INVESTMENT ADVICE (INCLUDING INSURANCE MEDIATION SERVICES)

Investment business is regulated under 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 Services Authority or licensed by a Designated Professional Body as we are not authorised to conduct investment business.

LIEN

Insofar as we are permitted to do so by law or 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 LIABILITY

We will provide our services with reasonable care and skill. Our liability to you is limited to losses, damages, costs and expenses caused by our negligence or wilful default.

Exclusion of liability for loss caused by others

We will not be liable if such losses, penalties, surcharges, interest or additional tax liabilities are due to the acts or omissions of any other person or due to the provision to us of incomplete, misleading or false information or if they are due to a failure to act on our advice or a failure to provide us with relevant information.

Exclusion of liability in relation to circumstances beyond our control

We will not be liable to you for any delay or failure to perform our obligations under this engagement letter if the delay or failure is caused by circumstances outside our reasonable control.

Exclusion of liability relating to the discovery of fraud etc

We will not be responsible or liable for any loss, damage or expense incurred or sustained if information material to the service we are providing is withheld or concealed from us or wrongly misrepresented to us or from fraudulent acts, misrepresentation or wilful default on the part of any party to the transaction and their directors, officers, employees, agents or advisers. This exclusion shall not apply where such misrepresentation, withholding or concealment is or should (in carrying out the procedures which we have agreed to perform with reasonable care and skill) have been evident to us without further enquiry.

Indemnity for unauthorised disclosure

You agree to indemnify us and our agents in respect of any claim (including any claim for negligence) arising out of any unauthorised disclosure by you or by any person for whom you are responsible of our advice and opinions, whether in writing or otherwise. This indemnity will extend to the cost of defending any such claim, including payment at our usual rates for the time that we spend in defending it.

Limitation of aggregate liability

Where the engagement Letter specifies an aggregate limit of liability, then that sum shall be the maximum aggregate liability of this firm, its partners, agents and employees to all persons to whom the engagement letter is addressed and also any other person that we have agreed with you may rely on our work. By signing the engagement letter you agree that you have given proper consideration to this limit and accept that it is reasonable in all the circumstances. If you do not wish to accept it you should contact us to discuss it before signing the engagement letter. You may wish to take legal advice before signing this letter.

Unless specified, our liability will be limited to ten times our fees raised for the work undertaken.

MEETINGS AND APPOINTMENTS

Our usual policy is to arrange to meet to discuss your affairs wherever appropriate. Sometimes meetings may be carried out via landline or internet video call. However, more often than not, meetings are held on a “face to face” basis either at our office or at a location of your chosing. Meetings should always be booked in advance in conjunction with our diary appointments system. If a meeting needs to be cancelled by either party, this should be done with at least a three hour notice period. We reserve the right to charge for non attendance at a meeting.

MONEY LAUNDERING REGULATIONS 2007

In accordance with the Proceeds of Crime Act and Money Laundering Regulations 2007 you agree to waive your right to confidentiality to the extent of any report made, document provided or information disclosed to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).

You also acknowledge that we are required to report directly to SOCA without prior reference to you or your representatives if during the course of undertaking any assignment the person undertaking the role of Money Laundering Reporting Officer becomes suspicious of money laundering.

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.

Copies of such records will be maintained by us for a period of at least five years after we cease to act for the business.

NOTIFICATION

We shall not be treated as having notice, for the purposes of our accounts & tax responsibilities, of information provided to members of our firm other than those engaged on the specific assignment (for example, information provided in connection with accounting, taxation and other services).

PERIOD OF ENGAGEMENT AND TERMINATION

Unless otherwise agreed in the engagement covering letter our work will begin when we receive your implicit or explicit acceptance of that letter. Except as stated in that letter we will not be responsible for periods before that date.

Each of us may terminate this agreement by giving not less than 30 days notice in writing to the other party except where 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 prior to termination.

In the event of termination of this 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 shall not be required to carry out further work and shall not be responsible or liable for any consequences arising from termination.

PROFESSIONAL RULES & STATUTORY OBLIGATIONS

We will observe and act in accordance with the bye-laws, regulations and ethical guidelines of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and will accept instructions to act for you on this basis. In particular you give us the authority to correct errors made by HMRC where 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.

PROVISION OF SERVICES REGULATIONS 2009

We are registered to carry on audit work in the UK by the ACCA. Details of our audit registration can be viewed at www.auditregister.org.uk for the UK under reference number 0847950.

In accordance with our professional body rules we are required to hold professional indemnity insurance. Details about the insurer and coverage can be found at www.lewissmith.com or at our offices.

QUALITY OF SERVICE & COMPLAINTS

We aim to provide a high quality of service that is both efficient and effective at all times. If you would like to discuss with us how our service could be improved or if you are dissatisfied with the service that you are receiving please let us know by contacting [person_responsible].

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 take up the matter with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. This should be done promptly and in any event no later than six months after exhausting our procedures.

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.

We shall not be treated as having notice, for the purpose of audit/accounts/tax responsibilities, of information provided to members of our firm other than those engaged on the specific assignment (eg, information provided in connection with accounting, taxation or other services).

RETENTION OF RECORDS

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 affairs. We will return any original documents to you if requested. If you share accounting/tax documents with us via Iris Openspace, then those documents should be separately saved by you as we will delete these from the portal once our work is complete.

Documents and records relevant to your affairs are required by law to be retained as follows:

Individuals, Trustees & Partnerships

with trading or rental income: 5 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

Companies

6 years from the end of the accounting period;Whilst certain documents may legally belong to you we may destroy correspondence and other papers that we store, electronically or otherwise, which are more than 7 years old. You must tell us if you require the return or retention of any specific documents for a longer period.

THIRD PARTY

If it is proposed that any documents or statement which refer to our name, are to be circulated to third parties, please consult us before they are issued.

TIMETABLE

The services we undertake to perform for you will be carried out on a timescale to be determined between us on an ongoing basis. 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 in order to meet any regulatory deadlines. However, failure to complete our services prior to any such regulatory deadline would not, of itself, mean that we are liable for any penalty or additional costs arising.