JYC Bookkeeping and Accounting will only provide a service detailed within these schedules if it specifically included in your engagement proposal or other written agreement.

The scope of our services provided to you will be only as set out in the engagement proposal and, where applicable, these schedules. All other services which we may offer are excluded and examples of excluded services are set out in these schedules. If you instruct us to do so, we will provide such other taxation, ad hoc and advisory services as may be agreed between us from time to time. These may be the subject of a separate engagement letter at our option or other written agreement or verbal agreement. Where appropriate, we will agree with you a separate fee for any such work you instruct us to undertake.

If specialist advice is required, we may need to seek this from, or refer you to, appropriate third-party specialists in accordance with our terms of business.

As with any tax planning, our recommendations are not entirely without risk, and legislation may be introduced to prevent such tax planning from being undertaken, or to prevent any benefits accruing from planning undertaken previously. Should the whole planning be attacked successfully, although unlikely, the effect on the business and individuals involved would be to put them back in the position they would have been should no tax planning have been undertaken, except for professional costs incurred. HM Revenue & Customs have the authority to charge interest and penalties on any underpayment of tax with the interest effectively being a charge on the borrowings between the business/individuals and HM Revenue & Customs. In cases of a technical nature, penalties are unusual where there has been a valid difference of opinion between HM Revenue & customs and the taxpayer. JYC Bookkeeping and Accounting accepts no liability in relation to penalties and interest chargeable following a successful attack from HM Revenue & Customs.

Our engagement proposal does not include any work or fees in relation to tax investigations. Any work completed will be charged to you at our hourly rates and will be payable in accordance with our terms of business.

We strongly recommend that you take out tax protection insurance to cover the cost of some of the professional fees which you may incur during a tax investigation. We will provide details of the scheme that we operate on an annual basis. Alternatively, you may contact us at any time to request a quote. The insurance must be in place before the investigation is opened. Other terms and conditions will apply.

2. Changes in the law, in practice or in public policy

We will accept no liability for losses arising from changes in the law (or the interpretation thereof), practice or public policy that are first published after the date on which the advice is given.

3. Your responsibilities

You agree to provide full information necessary for us to advise in relation to your affairs. We will rely on the information and documents being true, correct and complete and will not audit the information or those documents.

If you require tax advice in relation to a proposed transaction, we recommend that you instruct us sufficiently in advance so that we have time to give properly considered advice before the transaction takes place.

You authorise us to approach such third parties as may be appropriate, for information that we consider necessary to provide the advice.

You will keep us informed of material changes in circumstances that could affect you or your business’s tax position or returns or that could affect your VAT obligations. If you are unsure whether the change is material, please tell us so that we can assess its significance.

HMRC will send you an agent authorisation code which expires within 30 days of issue. Please send this to us as soon as you receive it. This code will enable us to register as your agent with HMRC. This authorises HMRC to communicate with us as your agent, although they consider that you should still take ‘reasonable care’ over your tax affairs.

You will forward to us HMRC statements of account, copies of notices of assessment, letters and other communications received from HMRC, in sufficient time to enable us to deal with them as may be necessary within the statutory time limits. Although HMRC have the authority to communicate with us when form 64-8 has been submitted, it is essential that you let us have copies of any correspondence received, because HMRC are not obliged to send us copies of all communications issued to you. You should also keep a note of any telephone communication you have with HMRC’s tax credits helpline, including the date and time of the call, and the name of the helpline operator(s).

You are responsible for monitoring your business’s monthly turnover to establish whether it’s liable to register for VAT. If you do not understand what you need to do, please ask us. If you exceed the UK VAT registration threshold and you wish us to assist you in notifying HMRC of your liability to be VAT registered, we will be pleased to assist you in the VAT registration process. You should notify us of your instructions to assist in your VAT registration in good time to enable a VAT registration form to be submitted within the time limit of one month following the month in which you exceed the VAT registration threshold in force at that time. We will not be responsible if you fail to notify us in time and, as a result, incur a late registration penalty. The same applies for equivalent non-UK taxes.

If you provide digital services to consumers in the EU, you are responsible for either registering for VAT in each EU member state where you supply digital services to consumers or for registering for the OSS (One-Stop Shop) scheme in an EU country of your choice.

You are responsible for employment taxes, pensions (including auto-enrolment) and the assessment of the tax status of your workers. If you do not understand what you need to consider or what action you need to take, please ask us. We will not be in a position to assist you in complying with your responsibilities if we are not engaged to provide such a service. We are not responsible for any penalty that is incurred.

4. Additional fees for late provision of information to us

The schedules set out the deadlines by which we require your complete information to undertake the work for the fee agreed in the engagement proposal. If feasible, we may agree to complete work within a shorter period but reserve the right to charge an additional fee. The minimum fees are as follows:

(a) Full information required to complete the accounts is provided less than two months but more than one month before the filing deadline – a minimum additional fee of £100;

(b) Full information required to complete the accounts is provided less than one month before the filing deadline – a minimum additional fee of £200;

(c) Full information required to complete the self-assessment tax return (including individuals and partnerships) is provided after 30 September but before 31 December – a minimum additional fee of £75;

(d) Full information to complete the self-assessment tax return (including individuals and partnerships) is provided after 31st December – a minimum additional fee of £100;

(e) Full information required to complete the benefits-in-kind returns is received after 6th June – a minimum additional fee of £75; and

(f) Full information required to complete or review the VAT return is provided later than 10 working days before the submission date – a minimum additional fee of £100

Additional fees will be invoiced and payable in accordance with our terms of business.

BOOKKEEPING SERVICES

1. Our responsibilities

We have agreed to carry out the following bookkeeping services on your behalf:

Complete the postings to the nominal ledger (purchase ledger, sales ledger etc)
We will post the transactions to the nominal ledger based on the records and relevant information provided to us by you
We will reconcile the bank and petty cash, but you will make the payments
We will reconcile other balance sheet accounts if applicable
We will close the bookkeeping period and prepare the financial reports within agreed time scale

We will assist you with our bookkeeping services up to the amount specified in the service details.

We will rely on the accuracy and completeness of the documents and information you provide to us. Accordingly, our engagement cannot be relied upon to disclose errors, fraud, or other illegal acts that may exist. However, it may be necessary to ask you for clarification of some of the information you provide, and we will inform you of any material errors, fraud or other illegal acts that come to our attention unless they are clearly inconsequential.

In addition, we have no responsibility to identify and communicate significant deficiencies or material weaknesses in your internal controls as part of this engagement, and our engagement cannot therefore be relied upon to make disclosure of such matters.

2. Your responsibilities

You have agreed that you/your staff will:

Keep the records of receipts and payments;
Make all relevant bank payments;
Deliver all records and relevant information to us in a timely manner.

You are responsible for adopting sound accounting policies, for maintaining an adequate and efficient accounting system, for safeguarding assets, for authorizing transactions, for retaining supporting documentation for those transactions, and for devising a system of internal controls that will, among other things, help assure the preparation of proper financial statements.

You are responsible for management decisions and functions, for designating a competent employee to oversee any of the services we provide, and for evaluating the adequacy and results of those services.

You are responsible for the design and implementation of programs and controls to prevent and detect fraud, and for informing us about all known or suspected fraud affecting the Company involving

management
employees who have significant roles in internal control, and
others where the fraud could have a material effect on the financial statements

You are also responsible for informing us of your knowledge of any allegations of fraud or suspected fraud affecting the business received in communications from employees, former employees, regulators, or others. In addition, you are responsible for identifying and ensuring that the entity complies with applicable laws and regulations.

In order for us to complete this engagement, and to do so efficiently, we require unrestricted access to the following documents and information concerning your business:

Access to your accounting records
Sale invoices
Purchase invoices, with indication of where they should be allocated, where needed
Bank statements
Details of bank, debit card, credit card and cash payments, with indication of where they should be allocated, where needed
Details of money paid in to the bank and cash receipts, with indication of where they should be allocated, where needed
Stock and work-in-progress details

You agree to accept responsibility for any effect on your accounting records and financial statements of basic financial information or transaction documents not submitted to us for processing and entry, or losses that may result from their absence.

For purposes of entry of the financial information from your basic transaction documents, classification according to the agreed-upon chart of accounts will be performed by you or your employees. As business conditions change, we may mutually agree to change/modify this arrangement.

COMPANY ACCOUNTS

1. Recurring compliance work

We will prepare the company accounts in accordance with FRS 102/FRS102 Section 1A/FRS105 the accounting framework agreed and applicable to you from the books, accounting records and other information and explanations provided to us by you and/or by others on your behalf.

We will complete the writing up of your books and records in so far as they are incomplete when presented to us. These will be from the accounting information and records you supply.

We will not be carrying out any audit work as part of this assignment and accordingly will not verify the assets and liabilities of the business, nor the items of expenditure and income. Accordingly, we shall not seek any independent evidence to support the entries in the accounting records, or to prove the existence, ownership or valuation of assets or completeness of income, liabilities or disclosure in the accounts. Nor shall we assess the reasonableness of any estimates or judgements made in the preparation of the accounts. Consequently, our work will not provide any assurance that the accounting records are free from material misstatement, irregularities or error. We would also like to emphasise that we cannot undertake to discover any shortcomings in your systems or irregularities on the part of your employees.

We have a professional duty to compile accounts that conform with generally accepted accounting principles. Where we identify that the accounts do not conform with generally accepted accounting principles or standards, we will inform you and suggest amendments be put through the accounts before being finalised. We have a professional responsibility not to allow our name to be associated with accounts that may be misleading. In extreme cases, where this matter cannot be resolved, we will withdraw from the engagement and notify you in writing of the reasons.

Should you instruct us to carry out any alternative report it will be necessary for us to issue a separate letter of engagement.

To ensure that anyone reading the accounts is aware that we have not carried out an audit, we will attach to the accounts a report stating this fact.

We will attach to the accounts a report developed by the Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies (CCAB) that explains what work has been done by us, the professional requirements we have to fulfil and the standard to which the work has been carried out. Web links are provided in the report so that you can obtain further information from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants about:

the technical guidance for the work, and
the related ethical and other professional requirements.

The intended users of the report are the directors. The report will be addressed to the directors.

Once we have issued our report we have no further responsibility in relation to the accounts for that financial year. However, we expect that you will inform us of any material event occurring between the date of our report and that of the annual general meeting that may affect the accounts.

There are no third parties that we have agreed should be entitled to rely on the work done pursuant to this engagement letter.

Ad hoc queries by way of telephone and email enquiries are not routine compliance and may result in additional fees. As indicated below, where appropriate we will aim to discuss and agree additional fees, but it may not always be possible to agree these in advance and we reserve the right to charge you an additional fee for these queries.

2. Ad hoc and advisory work

Where services as may be agreed between us from time to time. These services will be subject to the terms of this engagement letter and general terms of business unless we decide to issue a separate engagement letter. An additional fee may be charged for these services. Examples of such work include:

advising on ad hoc transactions and queries (including telephone conversations); and
advising on double tax relief if appropriate.

3. Your responsibilities

You are required by statute to prepare accounts (financial statements) for each financial year, which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the company and of its profit or loss for that period. In preparing those accounts you must:

Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently.

Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent.

Prepare the accounts on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the company will continue in business.

It is your responsibility to keep proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any particular time the financial position of the company. It is also your responsibility to safeguard the assets of the company and to take reasonable steps for the prevention of and detection of fraud and other irregularities with an appropriate system of internal controls.

You are responsible for determining whether, in respect of the year concerned, the company meets the conditions for exemption from an audit set out in section 477, 479A or 480 of the Companies Act 2006.

You are also responsible for making available to us, as and when required, all the accounting records and all other relevant records and related information, including minutes of meetings.

To enable us to carry out our work you agree to:

keep proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any particular time the financial position of the business;
make available to us, as and when required, all the company’s accounting records and all other relevant records and related information including minutes of management and shareholders’ meetings;
Prepare a record of capital introduced and all financial transactions undertaken by the directors;
maintain records of all receipts and payments of cash;
maintain records of invoices issued and received;
reconcile balances monthly/annually with the bank statements; and
prepare details of the following at the year end: stocks and work in progress; fixed assets; amounts owing to suppliers; amounts owing by customers; and accruals and prepayments.

As part of our normal procedures we may request you to provide written confirmation of any oral information and explanations given to us during the course of our work.

CORPORATION TAX

1. Recurring compliance work

For the purpose of the delivery of the company’s tax return, we will use commercial software to apply XBRL tags to items in the accounts as we consider appropriate for the purposes of submission of the accounts in iXBRL via the Government Gateway for tax purposes.

We will, to the extent we consider necessary, manually amend or apply tags if the software has not applied automatic tagging or if we consider any automatic tagging to have been inappropriate.

If requested, we will provide you with detailed information about the tagging applied for your approval.

We will prepare the company’s corporate tax self-assessment (CTSA) return. After obtaining your evidenced approval and signature, we will submit it to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). We shall not accept liability for any financial penalty or loss or other damage arising from any rejection of the iXBRL return by HMRC or otherwise as a result of incorrect or inappropriate tagging, where we have submitted it based on the information provided by you. If we do not have sufficient information we will apply our judgement and shall not accept liability.

We will prepare the corporation tax computation and supporting schedules required for preparation of the company tax return from accounts, information and explanations provided to us on your behalf.

We will tell you how much tax the company should pay and when. Where appropriate, we will initiate repayment claims when tax has been overpaid. We will advise on the interest and penalty implications if corporation tax is paid late.

If required, we will inform you if instalment payments of corporation tax are due for an accounting period, and the dates they are payable. By the date agreed, we will calculate the quarterly instalments which should be made on the basis of information supplied by you.

We will advise you on possible tax-return-related claims and elections arising from information supplied by you. If instructed by you, we will make such claims and elections in the form and manner required by HMRC.

The work carried out within this engagement will be in respect of the company’s tax affairs. Any work to be carried out for the directors on a personal basis will be set out in a separate schedule.

2. Ad hoc and advisory work

Where the nominated director has instructed us to do so we will provide such other taxation ad hoc and advisory services as may be agreed between us from time to time. These services will be subject to the terms of this engagement letter and standard terms and conditions of business unless we decide to issue a separate engagement letter. An additional fee may be charged for these services. Examples of such work include:

Advising you on ad hoc transactions (for example, termination payments to employees) and queries (including telephone conversations), preparing and submitting information in the relevant format to HMRC and calculating any related tax and NIC liabilities
dealing with any compliance check or enquiry by HMRC into the payroll returns

preparing and submitting any amended returns or data for previous tax years and corresponding with HMRC as necessary

where your company is a personal service company, helping you to determine deemed employment status under the IR35 rules for work undertaken for clients by the company

where your company is a personal service company and deemed employment status under the IR35 rules applies to work undertaken for clients by the company, calculating deemed employment payments and accounting through payroll to HMRC for tax and NIC etc

where the off-payroll working rules apply and your company pays deemed employees’ personal service companies, accounting via payroll for tax and NIC etc on the payments where you have contractors working for your company through their own personal service companies, helping you to determine whether or not your company is “small” under the off-payroll working rules

where you have contractors working for your company via their own personal service companies and your company is not “small” under the off-payroll working rules, helping you to determine the deemed employment status of those contractors and prepare employment status determination statements to give to those contractors and labour supply agencies that you have contracted with

helping with setting up and administering workplace pension schemes, including referring you to appropriate specialists where necessary

agreeing with you which employer-provided BiK will be processed through the payroll and for which employees, registering the PAYE scheme to payroll BiK, processing through the payroll cash equivalent notional amounts, notifying HMRC of in-year changes, advising you on the payment of associated class 1A NIC, preparing and submitting return P11D(b), and notifications to employees

preparing and submitting returns P11D and P11D(b) for employee BiK and expenses, and advising on the payment of associated class 1A NIC (such work if undertaken is covered in a separate schedule of services)

assisting you in the operation of the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) for subcontractors

conducting PAYE, and benefits and expenses health checks; and

helping you to allocate apprenticeship levy allowance across your different PAYE schemes/group companies/connected charities.

Where specialist advice is required on occasion, we may need to seek this from or refer you to appropriate specialists. We will only do this when instructed by the nominated person.

3. Your responsibilities

Even though you are engaging us to help you meet your obligations, the directors on behalf of the company are legally responsible for:

ensuring that the CTSA return (including XBRL tags and iXBRL file) and any other returns submitted are correct and complete;
filing any returns by the due date; and
paying tax on time.

Failure to do any of the above may lead to penalties and/or interest.

Legal responsibility for approval of the return cannot be delegated to others. The nominated director agrees to check that the forms that we have prepared for you are complete before they approve them.

You are no less responsible for errors in unapproved returns, submitted on the basis of the information provided to and processed by us, than if you had confirmed your approval of the returns.

To enable us to carry out our work, you agree:

to provide us with approved accounts for the company. It is the responsibility of the directors collectively to produce accounts which give a true and fair view and we can only provide tagging services where the accounts have been prepared on this basis. Where the accounts are not supplied in a format that is compatible with our iXBRL software we will convert the figures, which may be subject to an additional fee. This will be discussed and agreed with you in advance.
that all returns are to be made on the basis of full disclosure of all sources of income, charges, allowances and capital transactions;
to provide full information necessary for dealing with the company’s affairs; we will rely on the information and documents being true, correct and complete and will not audit the information or those documents;
to authorise us to approach such third parties as may be appropriate, for information that we consider necessary to deal with the company’s affairs;
to provide us by no later than 7 months after your accounting period end date(s) with information in sufficient time for the company’s CTSA return to be completed and submitted by the due date following the end of the accounting period date(s);
to provide information on matters affecting the company’s tax liability for the accounting period in respect of which instalments are due at least four weeks before the due date of each instalment; this information should include details of trading profits and other taxable activities up to the date the information is provided, together with estimates to the end of the accounting period; and
to provide us with information on advances or loans made to directors, shareholders or their associates during an accounting period and any repayments made or write-offs authorised within three months of the end of the relevant accounting period.

You will keep us informed of material changes in circumstances that could affect the tax liabilities of the company. If the directors are unsure whether the change is material or not, please let us know so that we can assess its significance.

Where you wish us to deal with HMRC communications you will forward to us all communications received from HMRC such as HMRC statements of account, copies of notices of assessment and letters. These must be provided in time to enable us to deal with them as may be necessary within the statutory time limits. It is essential that you let us have copies of any correspondence received because HMRC is not obliged to send us copies of all communications issued to you.We accept no liability for penalties and/or interest charges from HMRC where Corporation tax payments are made late, or tax returns are submitted late, where the complete accounting records are provided to us less than two months before the Companies House filing deadline.

SOLE TRADER ACCOUNTS PREPARATION

1. Our service to you

We will prepare your business accounts in accordance with generally accepted accounting practice from your books and records, and from information and explanations provided by you.

We will not be carrying out any audit work as part of this assignment and accordingly will not verify the assets and liabilities of the business, nor the items of expenditure and income. To carry out an audit would entail additional work so that we could report on the truth and fairness of the accounts. We would also like to emphasise that we cannot undertake to discover any shortcomings in your systems or irregularities on the part of your employees.

We have a professional duty to compile accounts that conform with generally accepted accounting principles. Where we identify that the accounts do not conform to accepted accounting principles, nor to the specific rules relating to the cash accounting regime, we will inform you and suggest amendments be put through the accounts before being published. We have a professional responsibility not to allow our name to be associated with accounts that may be misleading. In extreme cases, where this matter cannot be resolved, we will withdraw from the engagement and notify you in writing.

2. Our responsibility to you

We have set out the agreed scope and objectives of your instructions within this letter of engagement. Any subsequent changes will be discussed with you and, where appropriate, a new letter of engagement will be agreed. We shall proceed on the basis of the instructions we have received from you and will rely on you to tell us as soon as possible if anything occurs which renders any information previously given to us as incorrect or inaccurate. We shall not be responsible for any failure to advise or comment on any matter that falls outside the specific scope of your instructions. We cannot accept any responsibility for any event, loss or situation unless it is one against which it is the expressed purpose of these instructions to provide protection.

3. Your responsibility to us

The advice that we give can only be as good as the information on which it is based. In so far as that information is provided by you, or by third parties with your permission, your responsibility arises as soon as possible if any circumstances or facts alter, as any alteration may have a significant impact on the advice given. If the circumstances change, therefore, or your needs alter, advise us of the alteration as soon as possible in writing.

4. Responsibilities

Our function as accountant is to act as agent on your behalf in preparing the accounts of your business for the year ended specified in the engagement proposal and subsequent years. This may involve:

writing up your books and records from the information and vouchers provided and preparing draft accounts for your approval, or
completing the writing up of your books and records in so far as they are incomplete when presented to us, and preparing from the records the draft accounts for your approval.

We have agreed that you will be responsible for:

maintaining records of all receipts and payments of cash
maintaining records of invoices issued and received
reconciling balances with the bank statements
preparing a record of business mileage undertaken in the year
preparing a record of hours per month worked at home if you wish to claim for business use of your home
preparing details of any loan interest paid
preparing details of the following at the year-end if applicable: stocks and work in progress; fixed assets; amounts owing to creditors; amounts owing by customers; and accruals and prepayments.

Our report will be based on information gained from you, and we accept no responsibility for any losses arising out of implementing our report. Further, our report requires us to rely substantially on your representations. Therefore, we can accept no responsibility for any losses for issues not addressed in our report.

As part of our normal procedures, we may request you to provide written confirmation of any oral information and explanations given to us during the course of our work.

PERSONAL TAX – INDIVIDUALS, SOLE TRADERS AND COUPLES

1. Recurring compliance work

We will prepare your self-assessment tax returns together with any supplementary pages required from the information and explanations that you provide to us. After obtaining your evidenced approval, we will submit your returns to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

We will prepare your business accounts in accordance with either generally accepted accounting practice or the cash- basis election that you have made (whichever is appropriate) from the books, accounting records and other information and explanations provided to us by you or by others on your behalf.

We will calculate your income tax, national insurance contributions (NIC) and any capital gains tax liabilities and tell you how much you should pay and when. We will advise on the interest and penalty implications if tax or NIC is paid late. We will also check HMRC’s calculation of your tax and NIC liabilities and initiate repayment claims if tax or NIC have been overpaid.

We will advise you on possible tax-return-related claims and elections arising from information supplied by you, other than as regards tax credits and universal credit (see below). If instructed by you, we will make such claims and elections in the form and manner required by HMRC.

We will review PAYE notices of coding provided to us and advise accordingly. Note HMRC no longer sends copies of notices of coding to agents.

2. Ad hoc and advisory work

Where you have instructed us to do so we will provide such other taxation ad hoc and advisory services as may be agreed between us from time to time. These services will be subject to the terms of this engagement letter and standard terms and conditions of business unless we decide to issue a separate engagement letter.

Examples of work not covered under this engagement but that you may wish to instruct us to undertake include:

advising on the in-year Capital Gains Tax (CGT) reporting requirements on disposals of property, and preparing the in-year return and calculating the CGT due where required. We will require you to provide information as early as possible in advance of exchange of contracts in order to provide advice on the tax implications, reporting requirements and to quantify the tax bill;
advising on ad hoc transactions (for example, pre-sale advice on the sale of assets); and queries (including telephone conversations), preparing and submitting information in the relevant format to HMRC and calculating any related tax liabilities;
advising on extraction of cash from your personal service company and completion of tax returns if you have been treated as a deemed employee under the IR35/off-payroll working rules
advising on double tax relief if appropriate;
advising on preparing accounts on the cash basis and helping you to make the requisite election;
dealing with any enquiry opened into your tax return by HMRC;
preparing any amended returns which may be required and corresponding with HMRC as necessary;
advising on the rules relating to and assisting with registration for VAT or equivalent non-UK taxes; and
advising on tax credits and universal credit; these are, in effect, social security benefits, and your entitlement or otherwise will depend not only on your own circumstances but also on those of your household; we would require all relevant information to advise in this regard.

Where specialist advice is required, we may need to seek this from or refer you to appropriate specialists. We will only do this when instructed by you.

3. Your responsibilities

You are legally responsible for:

a) ensuring that your self-assessment tax returns are correct and complete;

b) filing any returns by the due date; and

c) paying tax on time.

Failure to do any of the above may lead to penalties and/or interest.

Legal responsibility for approval of the return cannot be delegated to others. You agree to check that returns that we have prepared for you are correct and complete before approving them.

You are no less responsible for errors in unapproved returns, submitted on the basis of the information provided to and processed by us, than if you had confirmed your approval of the returns.

To enable us to carry out our work, you agree:

that all returns are to be made on the basis of full disclosure of all sources of income, charges, allowances and capital transactions;
to provide all information necessary for dealing with your affairs; we will rely on the information and documents being true, correct and complete and will not audit the information or those documents;
to authorise us to approach such third parties as may be appropriate, for information that we consider necessary to deal with your affairs; and
to provide us with information in sufficient time for your tax return to be completed and submitted by the due date (usually 31st January) following the end of the tax year; to do this, we need to receive all relevant information by 30 September.

We accept no liability for penalties and/or interest charged on late self-assessment tax returns or late payments of self-assessment tax, if information is provided to us after 1st January.

You will keep us informed of material changes in your circumstances that could affect your tax liability. If you are unsure whether the change is material or not, please let us know so that we can assess its significance.

Where you wish us to deal with HMRC communications, you will forward to us all communications received from HMRC such as HMRC statements of account, copies of notices of assessment, tax codes and letters. These must be provided in time to enable us to deal with them as may be necessary within the statutory time limits. It is essential that you let us have copies of any correspondence received because HMRC is not obliged to send us copies of all communications issued to you.

4. Where services are provided to a couple

We will advise you and your spouse or partner on the basis that you are a family unit. You both agree that, in all matters relating to your or your spouse’s or partner’s tax and financial affairs, we may deal directly with either of you and we may discuss with either of you the tax liabilities and/or financial affairs of the other. If you wish to make any change to these arrangements at any time, please let us know.

In order for us to act for you as a couple in respect of a joint claim, you undertake that all instructions, information or explanations that either of you gives us will be on behalf of both of you, unless you specifically tell us otherwise. Similarly, if one of you signs a document, it will be on behalf of you both unless you instruct us to the contrary. If a conflict of interest should arise between you in relation to any matter to do with your joint claim or entitlement, we reserve the right to cease acting for both of you, or to advise one or the other of you to obtain independent advice.

PARTNERSHIP TAX RETURNS

1. Recurring compliance work

We will prepare the partnership self-assessment tax returns and the annual partnership statements, together with any supplementary pages required, from the information and explanations that the partnership provides to us. After obtaining your evidenced approval, we will submit these to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

We will prepare the partnership business accounts in accordance with generally accepted accounting practice from the books, accounting records and other information and explanations provided to us by you and/or by others on your behalf.

We will prepare the income and capital gains computations based on the partnership’s business accounts for inclusion in the partnership tax return.

If instructed by you, we will advise you as partners on possible partnership tax-return-related claims and elections arising from information supplied by the partnership in the form and manner required by HMRC.

If instructed, we will provide each partner or their agent with details of the partner’s allocations from the return based on the partnership statement to enable partners to fill in their self-assessment tax returns.

The work carried out within this engagement will be in respect of the partnership’s tax affairs. Any work to be carried out for the individual partners (for example submitting their own tax returns or making related claims and elections) will be set out in a separate letter schedule.

2. Ad hoc and advisory work

Examples of work not covered under this engagement but that you may wish to instruct us to undertake include:

advising on ad hoc transactions (for example the sale of assets);
advising on preparing accounts on the cash basis and helping you to make the requisite election;
dealing with any enquiry opened into your tax return by HMRC;
preparing any amended returns which may be required and corresponding with HMRC as necessary.

If specialist advice is required, we may need to seek this from, or refer you to, appropriate specialists.

3. Your responsibilities

The partners are legally responsible for:

ensuring that the partnership self-assessment tax returns are correct and complete;
filing any returns by the due date; and
paying tax on time.

Failure to do any of the above may lead to penalties and/or interest.

Legal responsibility for approval of the return cannot be delegated to others. You agree to check that returns and partnership statements that we have prepared for the partnership are correct and complete before approving them.

You are no less responsible for errors in unapproved returns, submitted on the basis of the information provided to and processed by us, than if you had confirmed your approval of the returns.

To enable us to carry out our work, you agree:

that all returns are to be made on the basis of full disclosure of all sources of income, charges, allowances and capital transactions;
to provide all information necessary for dealing with the partnership affairs; we will rely on the information and documents being true, correct and complete and will not audit the information or those documents;
to authorise us to approach such third parties as may be appropriate, for information that we consider necessary to deal with the partnership affairs; and
to provide us with information in sufficient time for the partnership tax returns to be completed and submitted by the due date (usually 31st January) following the end of the tax year; to do this, we need to receive all relevant information by 30th September.

We accept no liability for penalties and/or interest charged on late partnership tax returns, if information is provided to us after 1st January.

VALUE ADDED TAX (VAT) RETURNS AND MAKING TAX DIGITAL (MTD) FOR VAT

The purpose of the work is to assist you in your legal obligation to file Value Added Tax (VAT) returns with HM Revenue & Customs.

1. Initial registration

You will complete HMRC’s sign up process to enable submission of your VAT return under Making Tax Digital unless it is agreed in writing that we will complete this on your behalf.

Where it is agreed in writing that we are submitting the MTD VAT returns, if you haven’t already done so you will need to authorise us as an agent on the HMRC portal using your Business Tax Account. This is completed online and you will need your government gateway ID. This authorises HMRC to communicate with us as your agent, although they consider that you should still take ‘reasonable care’ over your tax affairs.

2. Our responsibilities

We will prepare/review your monthly/quarterly/annual VAT returns on the basis of the information and explanations supplied by you.

Based on the information that you provide to us we will tell you how much you should pay and when. If appropriate we will initiate repayment claims where tax has been overpaid. We will advise on the interest and penalty implications if VAT is paid late.

Where appropriate, we will calculate the partial exemption annual adjustment.

Where appropriate, we will calculate the annual Capital Goods Scheme adjustment.

We will forward to you the completed return calculations for you to review, before you approve the VAT return for onward transmission by you/us to HMRC.

We will submit the MTD for VAT return data online to HMRC on the basis of the data provided by you or as per any other arrangements set out in the engagement proposal or other written agreement.

3. Ad hoc and advisory services

Examples of work not covered under this engagement but that you may wish to instruct us to undertake include:

advising on ad hoc transactions
reviewing and advising on a suitable partial exemption method to use in preparing the return
assisting with HMRC’s VAT Return enquiry
making recommendations to you about the use of MOSS (mini one-stop shop) if you supply digital services to consumers in the EU
Providing you with advice on VAT, Excise Duty, Customs Duty, Landfill Tax, Insurance Premium Tax, Aggregates Levy, Climate Change Levy.

Where specialist advice is required on occasions, we may need to seek this from, or refer you to an appropriate specialist.

4. Your responsibilities

Even though you are engaging us to help you meet your VAT obligations, you are legally responsible for:

Ensuring that your returns are correct and complete;
Filing any returns by the due date; and
Making payment of tax on time.

Failure to do this may lead to automatic penalties, surcharges and/or interest.

Legal responsibility for approval of the return cannot be delegated to others. You agree to check the returns that we have prepared for you are correct and complete before approving them.

You are no less responsible for errors in unapproved returns, submitted on the basis of the information provided to and processed by us, than if you had confirmed your approval of the returns.

To enable us to carry out our work you agree:

that all returns are to be made on the basis of full disclosure;
that you are responsible for ensuring that the information provided is, to the best of your knowledge, accurate and complete. The VAT returns are prepared/reviewed solely on the basis of the information provided by you and we accept no responsibility for any VAT liabilities arising due to inaccuracies or omissions in the information you provide which may lead to a misdeclaration on which penalties and interest may arise;
that file any returns by the due date or providing approval to file to us in a timely manner to enable filing of the return (where we file the return on your behalf);
that you will keep us informed of material changes in circumstances that could affect your VAT obligations. If you are unsure whether the change is material or not please let us know so that we can assess the significance;
to authorise us to approach such third parties as may be appropriate for information that we consider necessary to deal with your affairs; and
To provide us with all the records relevant to the preparation of your monthly/quarterly VAT returns as soon as possible after the return period ends. We would ordinarily need a minimum of 14 days before submission to complete our work.

If the records are provided later or are incomplete or unclear thereby delaying the preparation/review and submission of the VAT return, we accept no responsibility for any default surcharge penalty that may arise. Where feasible we may agree to complete your return within a shorter period but may charge a minimum additional fee of £90 for doing so.

You are responsible for bringing to our attention any errors, omissions or inaccuracies in your VAT returns which you become aware of after the returns have been submitted in order that we may assist you to make a voluntary disclosure.

If an error committed by HMRC means that you have not paid the tax due or have been incorrectly repaid tax, the time spent dealing with the error will be invoiced to you in accordance with our terms of businesses. However, please note that in some circumstances you may be able to claim for professional costs incurred and compensation from HMRC. Further details can be found at https://www.gov.uk/complain-about-hmrc

If you are involved with any other business which is not registered for VAT you are responsible for monitoring your monthly turnover to establish whether you are liable to register for VAT. If you do not understand what you need to do, please ask us. If you exceed the VAT registration threshold, and wish us to assist you in notifying HMRC of your liability to be VAT registered, you must give us clear instructions to assist you in the VAT registration process. You should notify us of your instructions in good time to enable the VAT registration application form to be submitted within the statutory time limit of one month following the month in which you exceeded the VAT registration threshold in force at that time. We will not be responsible if you fail to notify us in time and incur a late registration penalty as a result. The same applies to equivalent non-UK taxes.

If you provide digital services to consumers in the EU, you are responsible either for registering for VAT in that member state, or for registering for VAT Mini One Stop Shop (‘MOSS’) in an EU member state, by the 10th day of the month following your first sale to an EU customer. Please note that the online filing deadline for MOSS is 20 days after the end of the calendar quarter.

It is our policy to confirm in writing advice upon which you may wish to rely.

DIRECTORS’ PAYROLL SERVICE

1. Our responsibilities

We will prepare your UK payroll for directors and those receiving pay up to the primary threshold for national insurance contributions to meet UK employment tax requirements, specifically:

Agreeing with you at the start of the tax year, the annual salaries to be processed for the year from 6th April to 5th April;
calculating the pay as you earn (PAYE) income tax deductions, including at the Scottish and Welsh rate of income tax, if applicable;
calculating the employees’ national insurance contributions (NIC) deductions;
calculating the employer’s NIC liabilities; and
submitting information online to HMRC under Real Time Information (RTI) for PAYE.

We will submit Full Payment Submissions (FPS) online to HMRC, based on the salaries agreed above.

For each payment we will prepare and submit to HMRC an Employer Payment Summary (EPS) based on the salaries agreed above by the 19th of the month following the tax month to which they relate.

At the end of the tax year we will:

prepare the final FPS (or EPS) and submit this to HMRC. The due date for submitting final FPS is on or before the last contractual payday of the tax year, failing which, the final EPS for the year must reach HMRC by 19 April following the end of the tax year; and
prepare and retain the P60’s on our file, which can be provided to you upon request;

We will deal with any online secure messages sent to us by HMRC in respect of your payroll, for example, code number notifications, student loan repayment notices, and generic notification notices.

2. Your responsibilities

Even though you are engaging us to help you meet your payroll obligations, you are legally responsible for:

ensuring that the data in your payroll submissions is correct and complete;
complying with auto-enrolment obligations;
making any submissions by the due date; and
paying tax and NIC on time.

Failure to do any of the above may lead to penalties and/or interest.

Employers cannot be delegated to others.

You are no less responsible for errors in unapproved returns, submitted on the basis of the information provided to and processed by us, than if you had confirmed your approval of the returns.

To enable us to carry out our work, you agree:

that all information required to be delivered online is submitted on the basis of full disclosure;
to provide full information necessary for dealing with your payroll affairs and workplace pension scheme contributions and refunds; we will rely on the information and documents being true, correct and complete and will not audit the information or those documents;
to agree with us the name(s) of the person(s) authorised by you to notify us of changes in directors and in rates of pay and other information relevant to the services provided under this schedule; we will process the changes only if notified by that/those individual(s);
to keep us informed of changes in circumstances that could affect the payroll; if you are unsure whether a change is material, please tell us so we can assess its significance; and
to authorise us to approach such third parties as may be appropriate, for information that we consider necessary to deal with your payroll;

If you require us to make a correction after the FPS or EPS has been submitted, you will let us know as soon as possible and, ideally, before the next payroll run. This will be subject to a separate fee which will be charged to you at our hourly rates and be payable in accordance with our terms of business.

EMPLOYEES’ PAYROLL SERVICE

1. Our responsibilities

We will prepare your UK payroll for each payroll period to meet UK employment tax requirements, specifically:

Calculating the pay as you earn (PAYE) deductions, including at the Scottish rate of income tax, if applicable;
Calculating the employees’ National Insurance Contributions (NIC) deductions;
Calculating the employer’s NIC liabilities;
Calculating statutory payments, for example, Statutory Sick Pay and/or Statutory Maternity Pay;
Calculating employee and employer pension contributions for employees who are members of workplace pension schemes on the basis of the information that you provide to us;
Calculating other statutory and non-statutory deductions; and
Submitting information online to HMRC under RTI for PAYE.

We will prepare and send to you the following documents before the time of payment through the payroll or due date for delivering information to HMRC:

Payroll summary report showing the reconciliation from gross to net for each employee and all relevant payroll totals;
FPS for taxable pay and payrolled benefits for each employee;
A payslip for each employee unless not required;
A form P45 for each leaver;
A report showing your PAYE and NIC liability and due date for payment; and
A report showing employee and employer pension contributions payable in respect of each employee to the respective workplace pension scheme(s) of which they are members and the due date(s) for payment.

We will submit FPSs online to HMRC after the data to be included therein has been approved by you. (FPSs must reach HMRC normally on or before the payroll pay date). You must ensure the data provided to us is complete and accurate and your attention is drawn to your legal responsibilities as set out above.

We will prepare, where appropriate (for example, to recover statutory payments, claim deductions under the NIC holiday scheme or CIS deductions, confirm that no payments were made to employees), for each tax month, an EPS from the information and explanations that you provide to us.

We will submit EPSs to HMRC after the data to be included therein has been approved by you. (EPSs must reach HMRC by the 19th of the month following the tax month to which they relate). You must ensure the data provided to us is complete and accurate and your attention is drawn to your legal responsibilities as set out above.

At the end of the payroll year we will:

Prepare the final FPS (or EPS) including employer annual declarations and submit this to HMRC after the data to be included therein has been approved by you. (The final FPS (or EPS) for the year must reach HMRC by 19 April following the end of the tax year). You must ensure the data provided to us is complete and accurate and your attention is drawn to your legal responsibilities as set out above.
Prepare and send to you by the statutory due date Form P60 for each employee on the payroll at the year end.

We will deal with any online secure messages sent to us by HMRC in respect of your payroll.

We will submit National Insurance Number (“NINO”) verification requested as appropriate to verify or obtain a NINO for a new employee.

We will deal with all communications relating to your payroll return addressed to us by HMRC or passed to us by you. However, if HMRC choose your return for enquiry this work may need to be the subject of a separate assignment in which case we will seek further instructions from you.

Where you have instructed us to do so, we will also provide such other taxation advisory and ad-hoc services as may be agreed between you and us from time to time. These may be the subject of a separate letter of engagement, at our option. Where appropriate, we will discuss and agree an additional fee for such work when it is commissioned by you. Where specialist advice is required on occasions, we may need to seek this from, or refer you to an appropriate specialist.

2. Your responsibilities

Even though you are engaging us to help you meet your payroll obligations, you are legally responsible for:

Ensuring that the data in your payroll submissions is correct and complete;
Complying with auto-enrolment obligations;
Making any submissions by the due date; and
Making payment of tax and NIC on time.

Failure to do this may lead to automatic penalties, surcharges and/or interest.

Employers cannot delegate this legal responsibility to others. You agree to check that submissions we have prepared for you are complete before you approve them. You are no less responsible for errors in unapproved returns, submitted on the basis of the information provided to and processed by us, than if you had confirmed your approval of the returns.

To enable us to carry out our work you agree:

that all information required to be delivered online is submitted on the basis of full disclosure;

to provide full information necessary for dealing with your payroll affairs and workplace pension scheme contributions: we will rely on the information and documents being true, correct and complete and will not audit the information or those documents;

to agree with us the name(s) of the person(s) authorised by you to notify us of changes in employees and in rates of pay and other information relevant to the services provided under this schedule. We will process the changes only if notified by that/those individual(s);

to advise us in writing of changes of payroll pay dates;

to notify us at least 10 working days prior to the payroll date of all transactions or events which may need to be reflected in the payroll for the period, including details of:

– All new employees (including full names, address, date of birth, gender, National Insurance number, their start date and starter form) and details of their remuneration packages including benefits in kind to be payrolled;

– For employees whose benefits in kind are being payrolled, their names, the identity of the benefits in kind, and the cash equivalent amounts to be included in payroll;

– For employees who are active pension scheme members, name of pension scheme, pensionable pay, employee and employer contribution rates, dates from / to which contributions payable;

– Names and date of birth of all apprentices aged under 25;

– Names and date of birth of all employees aged under 21;

– Information necessary to enable us to calculate statutory payments, i.e. statutory sick pay, statutory maternity pay, statutory adoption pay, statutory paternity pay, statutory shared parental pay;

– All leavers, including deaths of employees, their leaving date, termination arrangements, and any payments to be made after their leaving date;

– All changes to remuneration packages including benefits in kind to be payrolled;

– Any changes to the employees’ bank accounts; and

– Irregular and / or ad hoc payments and the dates to be paid.

to approve:

– In-year and final Full Payment Submission (“FPS”) by at least 5 working days prior to payroll pay dates so that they can be submitted on or before the payroll pay date, or as agreed with us;

– In-year and final Employer Payment Summary (“EPS”) by at least 5 days prior to 19th of the month following the tax month; and

if we do not hear from you by the above deadlines, subject to any other agreement between us, we will take your silence as your approval for us to submit the return;

you will keep us informed of changes in circumstances that could affect the payroll. If you are unsure whether the change is material or not please let us know so that we can assess the significance; and

that we can approach such third parties as may be appropriate for information that we consider necessary to deal with your affairs.

If the information required to complete the payroll services set out above is received less than 5 days before the payroll date we will still endeavour to process the payroll and returns to meet the agreed payroll date and filing deadlines but we will not be liable for any costs or other losses arising if the payroll is late in these circumstances. We may charge an additional fee of £50 for work carried out in a shorter time period.

You will forward to us any communications received from HMRC in sufficient time to enable us to deal with them as may be necessary within the requisite time limits. Although HMRC have the authority to communicate with us when form 64-8 has been signed and submitted it is essential that you let us have copies of any correspondence received because HMRC are not obliged to send us copies of all communications issued to you and, in most cases, will not do so.

It is our policy to confirm in writing advice upon which you may wish to rely.

We will not accept responsibility if you act on advice given by us on an earlier occasion 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 are first published after the date on which the advice is given.

SUBCONTRACTORS CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY SCHEME (CIS)

The purpose of the work is to assist you in your legal obligation to file Subcontractors Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) returns with HM Revenue & Customs.

1. Our responsibilities

We shall submit the details of all new sub-contractors, which you give us under 2.1 below, to H M Revenue & Customs for verification as registered sub-contractors and on their reply, we shall confirm to you the rate of income tax which should be deducted from payments to each sub-contractor.
On the basis that you have confirmed that they relate to sub-contractors, we shall process the monthly details you provide under 2.1 below, calculate the appropriate tax deduction and provide you with pay statements showing the amount due to each sub-contractor.
We shall prepare your monthly sub-contractor form (form CIS330) and file it online by the deadline of the 19th of the month.
We will provide you with a copy of the completed return and submission receipt so you can make the relevant payment to HMRC before the deadline of the 19th of the month.
The scope of our services provided to you will be only as set out above, and all other services which we may offer are excluded. If you instruct us to do so, we will provide such other taxation, ad hoc and advisory services as may be agreed between us from time to time. These may be the subject of a separate engagement letter at our option. Where appropriate, we will agree with you a separate fee for any such work you instruct us to undertake.
If specialist advice is required, we may need to seek this from, or refer you to, appropriate specialists.

2. Your responsibilities

Even though you are engaging us to help you meet your CIS obligations, you are legally responsible for:

considering the employment status of everyone who works for you in the light of the work undertaken in each month and decide whether they are working for you as sub-contractors or as employees in that month.
providing us with the list of sub-contractors verified by HMRC at the date of this engagement and the name, address, National Insurance number and Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) of every other worker you engage as a sub-contractor after that date.
where a sub-contractor has not been verified, you are responsible for communicating directly with the sub-contractor and ensuring that they contact HMRC to enable their verification.
providing us each month with either:
details of the charges (labour, materials and VAT) from those workers whom you consider to be sub-contractors or
confirmation there are no sub-contractors
deducting the appropriate rate of tax from all of your subcontractor payments and paying this to HMRC by the deadline

Failure to do any of the above will lead to penalties and/or interest from HMRC

Employers/contractors cannot delegate these legal responsibilities to others.

You are no less responsible for errors submitted on the basis of the information provided to and processed by us, than if you had confirmed your approval of the returns.

To enable us to carry out our work, you agree:

that all information required to be delivered online is submitted on the basis of full disclosure;
to provide full information necessary for dealing with your CIS affairs we will rely on the information and documents being true, correct and complete and will not audit the information or those documents;
to agree with us the name(s) of the person(s) authorised by you to notify us of changes in sub-contractors and other information relevant to the services provided under this schedule; we will process the changes only if notified by that/those individual(s);
to notify us at least 5 working days before the CIS submission deadline (19th of the month) of all transactions or events which may need to be reflected in the CIS return for the period;
to keep us informed of changes in circumstances that could affect CIS; if you are unsure whether a change is material, please tell us so we can assess its significance;
to authorise us to approach such third parties as may be appropriate, for information that we consider necessary to deal with your CIS;

If the information required to complete the CIS services set out above is received later than the dates specified above or agreed with us, we will still endeavour to process the CIS and returns to meet the filing deadlines; but we will not be liable for any costs or other losses arising if the CIS is late or the returns are filed late in these circumstances. We may charge an additional fee of £50 for work carried out in a shorter time period.

If you require us to make a correction after submission, this will be subject to a separate fee of £40.

HMRC will send you an agent authorisation code which expires within 30 days of issue. Please send this to us as soon as you receive it. This code will enable us to register as your CIS agent with HMRC. This authorises HMRC to communicate with us as your agent, although they consider that you should still take ‘reasonable care’ over your tax affairs.

You will forward to us any communications received from HMRC, in sufficient time to enable us to deal with them as may be necessary within the requisite time limits. Although HMRC has the authority to communicate with us when form 64-8 has been signed and submitted, it is essential that you let us have copies of any correspondence received, because HMRC are not obliged to send us copies of communications issued to you and, in most cases, will not do so.

MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTS

The purpose of the management accounts we will prepare is to assist you in monitoring the ongoing trading position of your business. In essence these are prepared to provide you with relevant information for decision making purposes.

1. Our responsibilities

We understand that you require us to prepare the monthly/quarterly management accounts of your business for the [month][quarter] ended [date] and subsequent [months][quarters]. These will comply with the measurement principles of United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice.

We will prepare management accounts as stated in paragraph 1.1 above, which involves us in completing the writing up of your books and records, insofar as they are incomplete when presented to us, from the information and explanations supplied to us and preparing draft financial information therefrom.

You understand that we will not be carrying out an audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) and accordingly will not verify the assets and liabilities of your organisation, nor the items of expenditure and income.

We would emphasise that we cannot undertake to discover any shortcomings in your systems or any irregularities on the part of your employees or others, although we will advise you of any such circumstances that we encounter in preparing your financial information.

The financial information is not suitable for submission with the self-assessment tax return, or for summary thereon.

We will report to you, as appropriate, that in accordance with this letter of engagement, we have not carried out an audit but have compiled the management accounts from the accounting records and from the information and explanations supplied to us. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than you for the work or for the report which we provide, which will provide an appropriate disclaimer of liability. Although we are aware that the management accounts will be made available to third parties, we neither owe nor accept any duty to any other party and shall not be liable for any loss, damage or expense of whatsoever nature which is caused by their reliance on the management accounts.

2. Your responsibilities

You have undertaken to make available to us, as and when required, all of your accounting records and related financial information, including minutes of management meetings necessary for the compilation of the financial information. You will provide us with all information and explanations relevant to the purpose and compilation of the financial information and you will make full disclosure to us of all relevant information.

You are responsible for ensuring that, to the best of your knowledge and belief, financial information, whether used by the business or for the financial statements, is accurate and complete. You are also responsible for ensuring that the activities of the business are conducted honestly, and for safeguarding the assets of the business and for taking reasonable steps to prevent and detect fraud and other irregularities.

You are responsible for ensuring that the organisation complies with the laws and regulations that apply to its activities, and for preventing non-compliance and detecting any that occurs

We understand that you have agreed that you will be responsible for maintaining records of all receipts and payments of cash;

BENEFITS-IN-KIND (P11D) RETURNS

1. Our responsibilities

We will carry out the following in respect of forms P11D and P11D(b):

We will prepare/review forms P11D as may be required for each employee including directors, from the financial statements, information and explanations provided to us on your behalf.
We will prepare/review forms P11D(b) to include, if relevant, the Class 1A NIC on benefits-in-kind and expenses, both on forms P11D and included in the payroll;
We will submit the forms P11D for any benefits/employees for whom benefits are provided but not payrolled, with the form P11D(b) after the form P11D(b) has been signed by you.
We will prepare and send to you the P11D information for you to forward to your employees and directors by the statutory due date of 6 July following the end of the tax year;
We will calculate your Class 1A NIC liability on the benefits and benefits, both returned in forms P11D and included in payroll, that you are obliged to pay HMRC by the due date and send payment instructions to either you or your bank to action payment.

The scope of our services provided to you will be only as set out above and all other service which we may offer are excluded. If you instruct us to do so, we will also provide such other taxation ad hoc and advisory services in relation to P11D benefits as may be agreed from time to time. These may be the subject of a separate engagement letter. Where appropriate we will discuss and agree an additional fee for such work when it is commissioned by you. Examples of such work include:

dealing with any compliance check or enquiry by HMRC into the benefits-in-kind returns submitted
preparing any amended returns which may be required and corresponding with HMRC as necessary;
advising on PAYE settlement arrangements and/or approved expenses scale rates; and
conducting PAYE and benefits and expenses health checks.

Where specialist advice is required on occasions we may need to seek this from or refer you to appropriate specialists.

2. Your responsibilities

You are legally responsible for:

ensuring that your declaration on form P11D(b) is true to the best of your knowledge and belief and therefore that the entries on the related forms P11D and, if relevant, amounts of benefits-in-kind and expenses in the payroll, are correct and complete;
filing any returns by the due date after the end of the tax year; and
making payments of Class 1A NIC on time.

Failure to do any of the above may lead to penalties and/or interest.

If you registered online for payrolling of benefits before the tax year, you do not have to include payrolled benefits on the P11D.

Legal responsibility for approval of this return cannot be delegated to others. You agree to check that the forms that we have prepared for you are correct and complete before approving them.

You are no less responsible for errors in unapproved returns submitted on the basis of the information provided to and processed by us than if you had confirmed your approval of the returns.

To enable us to carry out our work, you agree:

that all returns are to be made on the basis of full disclosure;
to provide full information necessary for dealing with your benefits-in-kind; we will rely on the information and documents being true, correct and complete and will not audit the information or those documents;
to notify us by the agreed date after the end of the tax year of all transactions or events which may need to be reflected in the forms P11D for the period, including details of all employees during the year and details of their remuneration packages;
to authorise us to approach such third parties as may be appropriate that we consider necessary to deal with completing the benefits-in-kind returns; and
to approve the returns as soon as possible so they can be submitted on or before the filing deadline of 6 July after the end of the tax year.

To notify us within 14 working days after the end of the tax year of all transactions or events which may need to be reflected in the forms P11D for the period, including details of all employees during the year and details of their remuneration packages.

If the information required to complete the benefits-in-kind returns set out above is received more than 45 working days after the end of the tax year, we will still endeavour to process the information onto the relevant P11D returns to meet the submission date but we will not be liable for any costs or other losses arising if submission is late. In such circumstances, we may charge an additional fee for work carried out in a shorter time period.

You will forward to us any communications received from HMRC, in sufficient time to enable us to deal with them as may be necessary within the requisite time limits. Although HMRC has the authority to communicate with us when form 64-8 has been submitted, it is essential that you let us have copies of any correspondence received, because HMRC are not obliged to send us copies of communications issued to you and, in most cases, will not do so.

VAT/ACCOUNTS REVIEW

1. Our responsibilities

We will carry out the following in respect of the VAT/accounts review service:

Review nominal accounts and tax codes
Review accounts receivable
Review accounts payable
Review reconciliation of bank accounts (including credit card accounts)
Review loan accounts and reconciliation
Review payroll control accounts and reconciliation (PAYE, National Insurance, pension, employees liabilities)
Review VAT control accounts and reconciliation
Provide a review report with the identified issues.

2. Your responsibilities

In order for us to complete this engagement, and to do so2.1 efficiently, we require unrestricted access to the following documents and information concerning your business:

Access to your accounting records
Sale invoices
Purchase invoices
Bank statements
Details of bank, debit card, credit card and cash payments
Details of money paid in to the bank and cash receipts
Stock and work-in-progress details

COMPANY SECRETARIAL

1. Recurring compliance work

A private company or LLP is required to file its financial statements at Companies House within nine months of the year end. The company will be liable to a fine if it fails to do so. We accept no responsibility for fines or regulatory action taken against the directors or members if the statutory financial statements are not available or approved for filing by the deadline.

We accept no liability for penalties and/or interest charges from Companies House where accounts are filed late, where the complete accounting records are provided to us less than two months before the Companies House filing deadline.

A private company or LLP is required to file a confirmation statement at Companies House at least once every 12 months. It’s a criminal offence not to file the confirmation statement within 14 days of the end of the review period. If it is not filed, the company/LLP and its officers may be prosecuted, and the company/LLP may be struck off the company register.

We accept no responsibility for the results of any action taken against the company/LLP and/or its officers for failing to submit the confirmation statement, where you have not approved the form and made payment to us for the filing fee, within the deadlines advised to you.

Where specified in your engagement proposal, we have agreed to act as your agent, and to:

submit the financial statements to the Registrar of Companies;
complete and submit the company’s confirmation statement upon receiving your approval and payment of the filing fee; and
to act as the registered office address (if required)

2. Ad hoc and advisory work

Examples of work not covered under this engagement but that you may wish to instruct us to undertake include:

maintaining the statutory books;
forms to be filed at Companies House in respect of changes to details, such as change of address or name; and
changes to the share structure

3. Your responsibilities

You are responsible for:

notifying us of any changes to the business or officers or to their personal details;
ensuring all people with significant control (PSC’s) are identified and included on the PSC Register;
reviewing and approving the confirmation statement before it is filed with Companies House; and
payment of Companies House fee, including the fee for the confirmation statement.

You may pay Companies House fees to us and we will pay them to Companies House on your behalf.

At our discretion we may pay Companies House fees to Companies House on your behalf in advance of, or without receiving payment from you, and in this case, these fees will be disbursed and invoiced to you in accordance with our terms of business.

Where the Company Secretarial Service is not included in your engagement proposal, you have agreed to complete all the returns which are required by law to be filed at Companies House, for example, the confirmation statement, PSC Register and the notification of changes. We will, of course, be pleased to advise you on these and any other company secretarial matters, if requested.