Payments

Penalties

You agree that it is your responsibility to meet all of your legal obligations in respect of income tax, PAYE, GST/ACC levies and other statutory obligations.

Any penalties imposed on you by a statutory authority in respect of work undertaken or services provided by us shall be borne by you without redress to us except in any case where the Institute of Chartered Accountants in New Zealand (ICANZ) determines that we should be responsible in whole or in part for any penalty imposed on you.

GST and Tax Invoices

Where we are preparing GST returns on your behalf, you agree to provide us with all information required by the date specified each month in our GST reminder letter.

Unless advised otherwise by you, we will assume that you hold a “tax invoice” for all payments made and will complete GST returns on that basis.

Privacy Act 1993

In terms of the Privacy Act 1993 we are permitted to disclose any information known to us to any party referred to us by you.

Client Due Diligence

Summit Trust T/A Balance Chartered Accountants must comply with the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML/CFT Act). Our work for you may be captured under the Act in conducting certain activities, including acting as a formation agent, acting as a nominee shareholder or trustee, managing client funds, or engaging in transactions for buying or selling land or a business or other legal entity/arrangement. If you request us to perform any of these captured activities, we will only perform such work after we have conducted customer due diligence required under the AML/CFT Act and satisfied ourselves that we can proceed with the work.

When we conduct due diligence required by the AML/CFT Act, the information we request from you will differ depending on the entity (for example, individuals, companies and trusts are subject to different requirements) and the level of assessed risk. Information required may include passports, address verification by way of recent utility bill, bank statement or government agency letter, Certificates of Incorporation or Registration, Trust Deeds or Partnership Agreements, proof of authority of persons acting for you, and proof of source of funds.

As well as our obligations to undertake due diligence, the AML/CFT Act requires us to report suspicious activity or prescribed transactions to the relevant authority. Under such circumstances, we may not disclose information to you about suspicious activity reports or prescribed transactions, in accordance with FIU Suspicious Activity Reporting Guidelines.

Obtaining Information

You authorise us to obtain (by way of phone, internet, fax or e-services) information from your bankers, financial institutions, insurance companies, and government agencies including Inland Revenue. This includes a specific authorisation for us to link you and all entities / individuals noted above to our IRD tax agency for all tax types that we consider relevant for us to complete this assignment.

You acknowledge that this information would not otherwise be available to us due to Privacy Act restrictions, and that this is full authority for this statement to be used as written confirmation of your agreement to us obtaining information from the above organisations and any other organisations for the purposes of completing your tax return(s) and financial statements.

Outsourcing and Third Party Providers

To provide our services to you, we may need to access and use services and products that are owned by third parties. We may provide your information to these third parties solely as required to perform our work for you and not for any other purpose. This requires information being sent to our service providers in accordance with our Privacy Policy. Such third parties include cloud-based software platform/s, Tipu Resourcing, Audit Shield, Tax Traders, email and collaboration platforms such as Microsoft, and batch mail house services. If you have any concern about our use of third party and cloud-based services, please speak to us.

In accepting this engagement, you provide us with your express consent to disclose your information to:

• our service providers or regulatory bodies to the extent required to provide our services to you.
• our professional advisors or insurers to the extent required to protect our interests regarding this engagement.

Certain third-party providers will require a direct authority in order for your information to be provided to us for use in completing the engagement. If we require a direct authority from you, we will advise you and provide you with express instructions on completing.

We will take reasonable steps to ensure any such recipient (other than a regulatory body) keeps such information confidential on the same basis we maintain regarding your information.

We may retain your information during and after our engagement:

• to comply with legal requirements
• as part of our regular IT back-up and archiving practices
• to perform our work for you under this engagement
• to comply with our professional and ethical obligations

We will continue to hold all such information confidentially.

If we want to mention that you are a client for promotional purposes, we will seek your permission before doing so.

We wish to disclose that Summit Trust T/A Balance Chartered Accountants has a related party relationship with Kelly Watt & Associates, an insurance broker with whom we occasionally collaborate for the provision of insurance products and services that may be beneficial to our clients. Please note that our relationship with Kelly Watt & Associates is based on a mutual understanding to extend the best possible services and products to our clients. However, it is important for you to know that our recommendations are always made in the best interest of our clients, taking into consideration their specific needs and circumstances without undue influence from our relationship with Kelly Watt & Associates.

Authority to obtain information from Inland Revenue

We authorise the accountancy firm and the staff of Summit Trust T/A Balance Chartered Accountants to, for our taxpayers listed:

• act as our tax agent with the IRD and understand that this will remain in place until I/we terminate the agency.
• link to and collect information on all my tax types, as required, through all Inland Revenue media and communication channels.
• make any necessary changes to my information held with Inland Revenue
• Obtain and access tax information and records required relating to the current and future taxation affairs and tax types.
• Complete, submit and (if required) sign any tax returns on my behalf.
• Receive correspondence from Inland Revenue for all linked tax types.

Disputes and Complaints

If you have any concerns about our costs or services, please speak to the person responsible for this engagement, as identified by this letter. To resolve your concerns we have policies and procedures in place to use best endeavours to achieve a prompt resolution to the mutual satisfaction of the parties involved. Clients will be kept informed as to the progress of the resolution.

Every formal complaint received is examined to determine if a weakness in our quality control system exists which is in need of improvement.

Where a complaint is received from CAANZ under its complaints process, Summit Trust T/A Balance Chartered Accountants will aid with the investigation and resolution of the complaint.

Accident Compensation Corporation

You authorise us to act as your agent for ACC levy purposes for all associated entities. This authorisation allows us to query and change information on your ACC levy account(s) through ACC staff, and through ACC Online Services. This authority will also allow our main representative discretion to delegate access to your ACC information to other members of our staff. Other delegated members of our staff will also be able to query and change information on your ACC levy account.

Signing Information on your Behalf

On occasions we may be required to sign forms on your behalf, as agents. Specifically, we refer to signing as agent any Income Tax, GST, Fringe Benefit, PAYE, Withholding Payment returns and Statistics department returns, to expedite the filing of these returns on time.

You acknowledge that we are signing these returns as your agent and that we accept no liability for the consequences of filing returns that are incorrect due to a lack of, or incorrect information, provided by you.

Work Papers

Material you provide us remains yours and will be returned to you when the engagement is completed. Work papers that we create will remain our property. At the end of the period, unless you ask us to send that information to you, the records will be destroyed using a secure document destruction service.

Fees

Unless a written quote is provided by Summit Trust T/A Balance Chartered Accountants, all services are provided on time and attendance basis. Where a fixed fee is included, the fee is not rendered on a time and attendance basis but rather as a fixed fee for the agreed work. Such fixed work is not calculated on an hourly basis, but rather is payment for use of intellectual property and our skill and expertise as part of our service.

Our fee accounts will be rendered to you as the work is completed or on an interim basis at the end of each month where work has been carried out.

In consideration for Summit Trust T/A Balance Chartered Accountants providing services to the Client at the request of the person signing these terms of engagement, the person signing personally guarantees to pay all of Summit Trust T/A Balance Chartered Accountants’ charges arising out of this contract jointly and severally with the Client, as if either of them were the principal debtor. The person signing acknowledges that they execute this contract both in a personal capacity and on behalf of the Client.

Disbursements are payments made by us on your behalf, for example Xero and Companies Office charges. These costs are passed to you as part of our normal billing. Occasionally Summit Trust T/A Balance Chartered Accountants receives a discount for provision of these services. We reserve the right to retain some or all of this commission on a discretionary basis to cover administration costs.

You acknowledge all fee accounts are payable by the date advised on the invoice.

Deduction of Fees from Tax Refunds

You hereby agree to the deduction of any outstanding fees from taxation refunds that you may receive.

This authority is provided on condition that Summit Trust T/A Balance Chartered Accountants has furnished us with an invoice for fees & disbursements fee, and that the funds may not be withdrawn until 15 working days after the date of the invoice, unless we authorise payment sooner.

This authority will remain in force until cancelled in writing by me.

You also acknowledge our Credit Policy, copy attached, and agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of that policy.

Credit Policy and Terms of Trade

Our credit policies and terms of trade are as detailed below. This agreement covers all entities / individuals noted on the first page of your engagement letter.

Our payment terms are:

• Payment IN FULL is required by the due date of the issued invoice.
• Payment should be made on the basis of the invoice(s) provided. Statements are issued at our discretion or unless requested.
• Interest will be charged at the rate of 1.5% per month on any outstanding balance (equivalent to a 19.56 % annual interest charge).
• If it is necessary to instigate collection procedures, you will be liable to pay all legal, debt collection or any other costs incurred by us to collect the debt.
• All invoices will not be considered to be paid by us until funds are cleared into our bank account.

Deferred and other Payment options

The following payment methods are available:

• Payment by cheque.
• Payment by direct credit (our bank account details will be shown on your invoice).
• Payment by regular monthly instalment where fees are to be paid in advance.
• Payment via the Fee Synergy service which enables you to finance your account for either a 6 month or 12 month term at a competitive flat interest rate. This facility is only available for amounts in excess of $1,000 and is much cheaper than our finance cost. An application fee applies.
• Payment in person by eftpos or credit card (currently Whanganui office only).
• Payment by credit card on our website (balanceca.nz).

Lien over Records

Should it be necessary for us to end our relationship, the following rules will apply to the transfer of the relevant files and records to where you direct:

1. All records will remain in our possession until all outstanding amounts are paid in full.
2. If there is a delay in settling the account for any reason, we will not be responsible for any costs or penalties that you may incur as a result of that delay.
3. Due to the nature of our business and the services we provide to you, we will generally have provided to you all of the outputs that have arisen at the point in time that we have raised an invoice (e.g. the completion and filing of a GST or Income Tax return). Accordingly, the only records that belong to you are the original bank statements, loan agreements, invoices etc that you have provided to enable us to carry out our assignments. Our evidential files, including computer printouts such as general ledgers or Trial balances, belong to us.
4. If we are required to provide additional copies of information already sent to you, this may incur further costs which must be cleared before any records are released.

Guarantees

Where this agreement is signed by any individual in their capacity as a Director of a Company or the Trustee of a Trust a Deed of Guarantee is also required.

Directors of the Company personally guarantee the due and punctual payment of all monies payable by the Company in respect of all work completed for the Company by Balance Chartered Accountants.

Continuing Terms

This authority, and the terms herein, shall remain in force until cancelled in writing by either party. We will review this periodically.