Terms & Conditions

Terms of Engagement

  1. This document (”Terms”) and our Engagement Letter set out the terms of business that apply to all work which any of EQ8 Accountants Pty Limited ACN  666 746 961 and its related and associated persons, including any partner, director, employee or agent of EQ8 Accountants Pty Limited and its related or associated entities. (“EQ8 Accountants”; “us”; “we”) undertakes for you in relation to this engagement (“Services”).
  2. Unless otherwise stated in these Terms our Terms and our Engagement Letter (together “Agreement”) form the entire agreement between us relating to the Services. If these Terms conflict with our Engagement Letter, then these Terms prevail to the extent of the inconsistency.
  3. Your continued instructions to us after receipt of our Terms will be deemed to constitute acceptance of this Agreement regardless of whether a signed Engagement Letter is returned to us.
  4. Either party may request changes to the Services to be provided under this Agreement.
  5. Our Terms apply for all services for which we may in the future be engaged by you or on your behalf unless otherwise agreed in writing or required by law.
  6. Any variation to this Agreement must be made in writing.

Our Services

  1. We will provide the Services with reasonable skill and care and to an appropriate professional standard in accordance with this Agreement.
  2. To the extent necessary to carry out our work for you, you agree that your confidential information may be disclosed to specialist contractors, either in Australia or overseas, to assist in the data processing, administrative services, preparation of accounting reports etc.

Our obligations to comply with tax laws

  1. We have a duty to act in your best interests.  However, the duty to act in your best interests is subject to an overriding obligation to comply with the law even if that may require us to act in a manner that may be contrary to your interests.  For example, we could not lodge an income tax return for you that we knew to be false in any material respect.
  2. Our work and/or services will be based on Australian taxation law in force at the date of the provision of the advice and/or services.  It is your responsibility to seek updated advice if you intend to rely on our advice at a later stage.
  3. We note that Australian taxation laws are often subject to frequent change and our advice will not be updated unless specifically requested by you at the time of the change in law or announced change in law.

Your rights and obligations to comply with tax laws

  1. You have certain rights under the taxation laws, including the right to seek a private ruling from the ATO or to appeal or object against a decision made by the Commissioner.  As relevant, we will provide further information to you concerning your rights under the Australian taxation laws during the conduct of the engagement contemplated by this letter.
  2. As part of our services, we will keep you informed of any specific rights and obligations that may arise for you under the Australian taxation laws.

Your Responsibilities

  1. You agree to pay for the Services in accordance with this Agreement.
  2. You will promptly provide us with information we may reasonably require for the proper performance of the Services, including access to appropriate members of your staff and premises.
  3. We are entitled to rely upon the accuracy and completeness of all information provided to us by you or on your behalf. You will immediately inform us if you discover that any information that has been provided is inaccurate or incomplete, or should not be relied on.
  4. If our personnel are working at your premises, you will provide them with reasonable access to your computers and telephones as required to perform the Services. You will also provide our personnel with a safe working environment that complies with all occupational health and safety laws
  5. You warrant and represent to us that you have in place appropriate back-up, security (including anti-virus and anti-spyware software), licensing and virus checking procedures for any electronic devices you use in connection with this engagement or which you provide to us or our personnel. We will not be responsible for any security breach, including fraud, which affects your information systems (including electronic devices) due to any virus or malicious software.
  1. We will not be treated as having notice of information which has been provided to or is otherwise known to our personnel not involved in this engagement.
  2. You are responsible for any commercial decisions you make based on our advice and must have regard to the scope of our work and any other factors (commercial or otherwise) of which are you are or should be aware from sources other than our work.

Our reports and advice to you

  1. Our advice is limited to the particular issue(s) or scope of work to which the Services directly relate.
  2. We do not accept liability for, and no reliance should be placed by you or any other person on, our verbal advice or draft written advice or reports.
  3. Unless otherwise agreed, any advice or report by us is provided solely for your use and benefit and only in connection with the purpose for which the Services are provided and must not be relied upon by any other person.
  4. Unless otherwise agreed or required by law, you will not provide any of our work product, advice or reports (including any copy or extract from such advice or reports) to any third party, without our prior written consent.
  5. Unless otherwise agreed, we are under no obligation to update any advice or report for changes in law or other events occurring after the advice or report is given in final form.
  6. If we give you our work in draft form or verbally, we do so only on the basis that you may not rely on it in that form, unless agreed to otherwise. Accordingly, we will not be responsible if you or anyone else relies on our draft work or verbal comments or advice.

Fees & Disbursements

  1. Our fees will be calculated and charged on the basis set out in our Engagement Letter.
  2. You will pay our fees and disbursements immediately on receipt of invoice. If you fail to pay an invoice within 30 days, we may:
    1. charge interest at 8% per annum on the outstanding fees;
    2. choose not to do any further work for you until all sums, including interest, are paid in full;
    3. commence debt collection proceedings; and/or
    4. terminate this Agreement.
  3. Our professional fees and disbursements are exclusive of GST, unless otherwise stated. In addition to the professional fees and disbursements, you must pay GST at the applicable rate on those amounts, if applicable. Our tax invoice will include details of GST charged.
  4. You must fully indemnify us for our actual professional costs and expenses incurred in relation to any notice, demand or subpoena issued by any third party (including ASIC, ATO, ASX, any statutory body, any court or tribunal).
  5. If this engagement relates to work to be undertaken for two or more clients (whether together or individually), each client is jointly and severally liable to pay our fees and disbursements, regardless of whether we, at your request or for any other reason, direct our accounts or statements to only one of the clients or to a third party, or obtain instructions in relation to this engagement from only one of the clients or from a third party.
  6. You or we, on your behalf, may engage third parties to assist in providing the Services under this Agreement, in which case you agree that:
    1. you are solely responsible for the work and fees of any other party engaged by you or by us on your behalf to participate in this engagement regardless of whether such party was introduced to you by us;
    2. in cases where we engage the third party, we do so strictly as your agent, and you take full responsibility and liability for all applicable third party costs and fees;
    3. we are not responsible for the quality, content or effect of advice given by any third party, and you release us from all liability arising from that advice unless otherwise agreed in writing; and
    4. we are entitled to rely on advice obtained from the third party without further investigation or consideration.

Documentation

  1. All original documents obtained from you arising from this engagement will remain your property.  However, we reserve the right to make a reasonable number of copies of the original documents for our records.
  2. Our engagement will result in the production of certain documents, such as income tax returns or financial statements.  Ownership of these documents will vest in you. All other documents produced by us in respect of this engagement will remain our property.
  3. We have a policy of exploring a legal right of lien over any of your documents in our possession in the event of a dispute between us.
  4. If you leave any documents or other papers with us once the engagement is complete (except documents deposited for safe custody in our document storage system) we will only keep them for seven years and they will then be destroyed. We may choose to retain your file electronically, in which case we may destroy the original documents, unless you instruct us otherwise in writing. Furthermore, we may charge an annual storage fee to cover the cost of storage.
  1. You authorise us to destroy all physical and electronic files and records relating to this engagement, including documents that you have not retrieved, after seven years after the end of this engagement.
  2. All intellectual property rights in all EQ8 Accountants materials and methodologies used in this engagement or incorporated into any report, advice or any other material created or provided to you remain the property of EQ8 Accountants.
  3. If you wish to retrieve papers or documents to which you are entitled or request us to transfer your file, we reserve the right to keep a copy of your file and all related documents.
  4. This clause 8 does not apply to titles, deeds and wills.

Confidentiality

  1. Subject to our statutory and professional obligations and any compulsory processes, we will comply with our obligations to keep information regarding your matter confidential and to avoid conflicts of interest.
  2. EQ8 Accountants is subject to review programs and processes conducted by various external bodies, including Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. You agree that our files in relation to this engagement may be made available under any such program or process with your prior written consent, which will not be unreasonably withheld.
  3. We engage external IT service providers, which include cloud computing services in the performance of our services under this engagement. You hereby authorise us and our third party contractors to disclose information to all such external IT service providers as we or our third party contractors may choose to engage.
  4. This may require the provision of your personal information such as your Tax File Number (TFN) to these contractors.
  5. A copy of our privacy policy is available at eq8.com.au/privacy

Electronic Mail

  1. We may communicate with you via electronic means. We cannot ensure the security of such communications. We do not accept any liability in respect of any error or omission or security breach arising from or in connection with the electronic communication of information from you or to you or from/to a third party on your behalf. You agree to accept the risks involved in those forms of communication, including the risk of viruses, defects, corruption or access by an unauthorized person.
  1. The Internet is an inherently insecure medium. EQ8 Accountants uses commercially reasonable measures to protect the security of electronic and digital information held by EQ8 Accountants, but does not warrant the secure operation of any electronic platform or portal maintained on behalf of EQ8 Accountants, or that any security technologies can prevent any misuse or unauthorised access by any third party or loss of any information stored electronically by EQ8 Accountants.
  2. To the maximum extent permitted by law, EQ8 Accountants does not accept liability for any loss or damage (whether direct, indirect, consequential or economic), including breach of confidentiality, privacy or security, that may result from any communication (including any attachments). Our liability is limited to the cost of re-supplying the communication.

Limitation of Liability

  1. Our liability is limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation. Further information on the scheme is available from the Professional Standards Council – professionalstandardsscouncil.gov.au
  2. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we exclude all warranties, conditions and/or terms, other than those expressly set out in this Agreement, including, but not limited to, all warranties, conditions and terms implied in fact or by law.
  3. If we are liable for any breach of warranty, condition or term, then our liability is limited, at our option, to either the resupply of the services or payment of the reasonable cost of having the services resupplied.
  4. In all other instances, other than as set out in this Agreement, our total liability to you for any loss or damage (including indirect and/or consequential loss or damage) caused by, resulting from, or in relation to the Services, including, but not limited to, loss or damage arising from:
    1. Breach of contract;
    2. Negligence;
    3. Any tort;
    4. Equity;
    5. Any statutory provisions; or
    6. Save for fraudulent or criminal conduct, any other conduct by us, (in each case, “Loss”) and whether or not we were advised of the possibility of such Loss, is limited (to the extent permitted by law) to an amount equal to three times the fees  paid  by you  in  respect  of the Services to which the claim relates.
  1. If EQ8 Accountants has more than one client under this engagement, you agree that our total liability to all clients under this engagement is limited in accordance with this clause 11, to be apportioned among the clients (including you).
  2. To the maximum extent permitted by law, commencing on the earliest of three years from:
    1. the date of completion of the Services;
    2. the date of our final invoice for the provision of the Services; or
    3. the date this Agreement is terminated,
    4. you release us from, and agree that you are estopped from commencing, any claim for any Loss in relation to:
    5. the performance or non-performance of the Services; and
    6. any act or omission in connection with the Services, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), equity, pursuant to statute or otherwise.

Governing Law and Jurisdiction

All aspects of the services and the engagement letter are governed by, and constructed in accordance with, the laws of Victoria, Australia. We submit to the jurisdiction of the courts of that state.

Indemnities

  1. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless EQ8 Accountants from and against any loss (including legal fees on an indemnity basis), expense, damage, liability or claim by any person (including any third party) arising out of or in relation to:
    1. any breach of your obligations under this Agreement; or
    2. any wilful, unlawful or negligent act of you, your officers, employees, agents or subcontractors in connection with this Agreement.

Termination

  1. Either party may terminate this Agreement by written notice if the other party fails to remedy a material breach of the Terms within 30 days of written notice of the breach.
  2. If this Agreement is terminated prior to completion of the services, then we will be entitled to all fees for work that has been undertaken and expenses incurred by us until the termination.
  3. On termination of this Agreement:
    1. each party must return all property and documentation of the other that is in the first party’s possession on request (provided that each party may retain one copy of such documents that it requires to maintain a professional record of its involvement in the engagement); and
    2. all fees and expenses in respect of the Services provided up to the date of termination are immediately due and payable.
  4. The Agreement will be considered finalised upon issue and payment of the final invoice relating to the Agreement.

Conflicts of Interest

We may act for clients who may compete with or, more rarely may be involved in business with you. Naturally, we will continue to represent these clients or new clients in matters that are not substantially related to work we are engaged to perform for you.

Non-Solicitation of EQ8 Accountants Personnel

You agree that during this engagement and for a period of twelve months following the end of the engagement, you will not, directly or indirectly, without our prior written consent, offer (or procure any third party to offer) employment or any engagement to any partners, members, directors, employees or contractors of EQ8 Accountants Pty Limited.

Miscellaneous Provisions

Part or all of any term or clause of this Agreement that is illegal or unenforceable will be severed from the Agreement and will not affect the continued operation of the remaining terms and clauses of this Agreement.

  1. Nothing in this Agreement prevents us from providing Services to other persons.
  2. Nothing in this Agreement shall prevent us from taking any such action as may be required by law, statute or standard or to comply with the regulations of any relevant professional body.
  3. We will not be liable for any delay or failure to fulfil obligations caused by circumstances outside our reasonable control.  If such reasons continue to prevent performance of the Services for a period of more than 60 days, we will consult with you for the purpose of agreeing what action should be taken.
  4. This Agreement operates as a deed poll and is for the benefit of, and may be enforced by, any related or associated person of EQ8 Accountants Pty Limited