The following standard terms of business apply to all engagements accepted by Anglian Cloud Accounting, a division of Whiting & Partners. All work carried out is subject to these terms except where changes are expressly agreed in writing.
We will observe the Bye-laws, regulations and ethical guidelines of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and accept instructions to act for you on the basis that we will act in accordance with those guidelines. Copies of these requirements are available for inspection in our offices.
You give us the authority to correct errors made by HM Revenue & Customs where we become aware of them.
Where you give us confidential information we shall at all times keep it confidential, except as required by law or as provided for in regulatory, ethical or other professional pronouncements applicable to this engagement.
We reserve the right to act during this engagement for other clients whose interests may not be the same as or are adverse to yours. We will notify you promptly should we become aware of any conflict of interest to which we are subject in relation to you.
We will endeavour to record all advice on important matters in writing.
Although we are not authorized by the Financial Services Authority to conduct Investment Business, we are licensed under the Designated Professional Body (DPB) Regulations of the ICAEW to provide certain limited investment services where these are complementary to, or arise out of, the professional services we are providing to you. In particular, we may:
Should you require us to assist in arranging any of your investment business, you must instruct us in writing.
If, at your request, we or our Financial Services Company undertake Investment Business services or corporate finance activities which are not integral to the general professional services rendered to you, this work would be subject to a further engagement letter from us and/or terms of business issued separately by them.
If you are dissatisfied in any way about our services described in this section, you should follow the procedures set out in the ‘Help us to give you the right service’ section of this letter and, if in the unlikely event that we cannot meet our liabilities to you, you may be able to claim compensation under the Chartered Accountants Compensation Scheme.
To enable us to provide you with a proper service, there may be occasions when we will need to contact you without your express permission concerning investment business matters. For example, it may be in your interests to sell a particular investment and we would wish to inform you of this. We may therefore contact you in such circumstances, but would only do so in our normal office hours of 9am to 5.30pm. We shall of course comply with any restrictions you may wish to impose which you notify to us in writing.
In some circumstances, commissions or other benefits may become payable to us in respect of introductions or transactions we arrange for you, in which case you will be notified in writing of the amount and terms of payment. The fees that would otherwise be payable by you generally as described above may be abated by such amounts. You consent to such commission or other benefits being retained by us without our being liable to account to you for any such amounts.
We may, from time to time, hold money on your behalf. Such money will be held in trust in a client bank account, which is segregated from the firm’s funds. The account will be operated, and all funds dealt with, in accordance with the Clients’ Money Regulations of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
In order to avoid an excessive amount of administration, interest will only be paid to you where the amount of interest that would be earned on the balances held on your behalf in any calendar year exceeds £25. Any such interest would be calculated using the prevailing rate applied by Barclays Bank Plc for small deposits subject to the minimum period of notice for withdrawals. Subject to any tax legislation, interest will be paid gross.
If the total sum of money held on your behalf exceeds £10,000 for a period of more than 30 days, or such sum is likely to be held for more than 30 days, then the money will be placed in a separate interest-bearing client bank account designated to you. All interest earned on such money will be paid to you. Subject to any tax legislation, interest will be paid gross.
We will agree fixed fees payable monthly by direct debit with you and will write to you clearly setting out the scope of our responsibility for your work and the matters which remain your responsibility. Once agreed these fees will be fixed until further notice.
Where work is required by you outside of the terms of our fixed price engagement then our fees will be computed on the basis of time spent on your affairs and assignments by the Principals and our Staff/Consultants, on the levels of skill and responsibility involved and on the importance and value of the advice that we provide, as well as the level of risk. Disbursements represent travel, accommodation and other expenses incurred in dealing with your affairs and will be added to our fees notes where appropriate.
Unless otherwise agreed our fees will be charged separately for each of the main classes of work described above. You will be billed at appropriate intervals during the course of the year. Payment of fees will be due within thirty days of the date of the payment request.
If you do not accept that a rendered fee is fair and reasonable you must notify us within 21 days of receipt. For illustration purposes, current typical hourly charge-out rates are as follows:- Partners £170 Managers £70 - £135 Seniors £45 - £70 Juniors £20 - £45 These typical charge-out rates applicable (excluding VAT) may be amended from time to time in the future; we will be pleased to supply details of current rates upon request. We will be pleased upon request to provide an estimate of the likely costs involved before commencement of work or any assignment.
In some cases, you may be entitled to assistance with your professional fees, particularly in relation to any investigation into your tax affairs by HMRC. Assistance may be provided through insurance policies you hold or via membership of a professional or trade body. Other than where such insurance was arranged through us you will need to advise us of any such insurance cover that you have. You will remain liable for our fees regardless of whether all or part are liable to be paid by your insurers. For normal ongoing continuous supply services the initial payment request issued will not be a tax invoice for VAT purposes but will include a notional amount for VAT. On receipt of your payment a tax invoice will be issued to enable you to recover input tax where applicable. However, please note that a VAT invoice will be issued in certain rare circumstances for exceptional “non-continuous” work only, and 30 day payment terms are similarly applicable.
If it is necessary to carry out work outside the responsibilities outlined in this letter it will involve additional time spent on your affairs and will therefore involve higher fees. Accordingly we would like to point out that it is in your interests to ensure that your records etc., are completed promptly to the agreed stage.
Fees rendered for work done are payable in full (including disbursements) irrespective of whether any report is signed or accounts are made available, unless otherwise agreed in writing. There are a variety of ways in which you may pay your fees; this can be done by Cheque or Cash, Electronic bank transfer, Credit Card or our Premium Credit facility. If you wish to pay monthly in advance by Standing Order or Direct Debit please advise us and we will agree with you an appropriate figure and take your necessary bank details. Similarly, if you would like to pay by Electronic bank transfer please contact our local office or Central Cashiers on 01284 752313, so that we can provide the necessary details/reference.
Our terms relating to payment of fees rendered, and not covered by pre-agreed advance Direct Debit/ standing orders where appropriate, are strictly 30 days net. Interest (and compensation for recovery costs) will be charged on all overdue debts at the rate for the time being applicable under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998.
You have a legal responsibility to retain records and documents relevant to your affairs. During the course of our work we will collect information from you and others acting on your behalf and will return any original documents to you following the preparation of your accounts and returns.
Whilst certain documents may legally belong to you, we intend to destroy correspondence and other papers that we store which are more than seven years old, other than documents which we consider to be of continuing significance. If you require retention of any document you must notify us of that fact in writing.
As part of our ongoing commitment to providing a quality service, our files are periodically subject to an independent quality review. Our reviewers are highly experienced and professional people and are, of course, bound by the same requirements of confidentiality as our principals and staff.
If at any time you would like to discuss with us how our service to you could be improved, or if you are dissatisfied with the service you are receiving, please let us know, by telephoning your Contact Partner, Mr J D Cater or the Chairman of Whiting & Partners, Mr P M Peters.
We undertake to look into any complaint carefully and promptly and to do all we can to explain the position to you. If you feel that we have given you a less than satisfactory service, we undertake to do everything reasonable to address your concerns. If you are still not satisfied, you may of course take up matters with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. In order for us to provide you with a high quality service on an ongoing basis it is essential that you provide us with relevant records and information when requested, reply to correspondence in a timely manner and otherwise follow the terms of the agreement between us set out in this Standard Terms of Business and associated Engagement letters. We therefore reserve the right to cancel the engagement between us with immediate effect in the event of:
In addition this agreement may be terminated for any reason if 90 days notice is given.
This engagement letter is governed by, and construed in accordance with English law. The Courts of England will have exclusive jurisdiction in relation to any claim, dispute or difference concerning this engagement letter and any matter arising from it. Each party irrevocably waives any right it may have to object to any action being brought in those courts, to claim that the action has been brought in an inappropriate forum, or to claim that those courts do not have jurisdiction.
In recent years there has been a move towards greater transmission electronically to and from Government, quasi Government bodies and other commercial organizations and this will in future be one of the normal methods of communication we use, unless we are specifically instructed otherwise. We may also transmit information to you electronically from time to time using your last known email/electronic address.
Internet communications including emails are capable of data corruption and interception by third parties, especially if unencrypted, and therefore we do not accept any responsibility for changes made to such communications after their despatch. It may therefore be inappropriate to rely on advice contained in an e-mail without obtaining written confirmation of it. We do not accept responsibility for any errors or problems that may arise through the use of internet communication/emails and all risks connected with sending and/or receiving commercially sensitive information relating to your office/your business are borne by you. If you do not agree to accept this risk, you should notify us in writing that internet/e-mail is not an acceptable means of communication. We will then communicate by paper mail, other than where electronic submission is mandatory. Any communication by us with you sent through the paper mail post system is deemed to arrive at your postal address two working days after the day that the document was sent.
It is the responsibility of the recipient to carry out a virus check on any e-mail and attachments received or internet based connection.
Transfer of information/data to or from our offices or held in our offices on a clients unencrypted data storage device is potentially not secure upon loss of such a device or digital storage media of any type. We do not accept responsibility for any loss of such unencrypted data and all risks relating to such unencrypted personal data or commercially sensitive information relating to your affairs/your business are borne by yourself if made available by you to us.
Electronic communications, including but not limited to telephone calls, facsimile and email messages, maybe be intercepted, monitored, recorded and stored in accordance with the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, the Telecommunication (Lawful Business Practices) (Interception of Communications) Regulations 2000 and the Data Protection Act 1998 for the purposes of quality assurance, system security, detection and prevention of crime and for other operational reasons.
We may obtain, use, process and disclose personal data about you, your family (and if applicable your directors, employees and associates) in order that we may discharge the services agreed under this engagement letter, and for other related purposes including updating and enhancing client records, analysis for management purposes and statutory returns, crime prevention and legal and regulatory compliance. You have a right of access, under data protection legislation, to the personal data that we hold about you. Also for the purposes of informing you of changes of technical or administrative matters relating to your current or potential affairs, notifying you of changes and developments to our organization, its personnel, activities and services and their marketing or public relations.
You have a right of access, under data protection legislation, to the personal data that we hold about you. We confirm that when processing data on your behalf we will comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998. For the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998, the Data Controller in relation to personal data supplied about you is Whiting & Partners, reference Mr J D Cater.
In accordance with GDPR 2018, this website will provide and require explicit consent to store/process your personal data where provided. If at any point a user wishes to obtain a copy of the data we hold on them or would like us to delete all data we have on them personally, users can contact us to request these processes.
The services, work and advice which we give to you are for your sole use and should not be used for any other purpose or disclosed to any other person without our express written consent. In the event that it is communicated to any third party by you then it does not constitute advice from our firm to any third party to whom we owe no duty of care, and we will not be liable for any reliance it chooses to place upon such information nor for any loss, damage or expense of whatsoever nature thereby arising. We accept no responsibility to third parties for any aspect of our professional services or work that is made available to them.
Persons who are not party to this agreement shall have no rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any term of this agreement. This clause does not affect any right or remedy of any person which exists or is available otherwise than pursuant to that Act.
In common with all accountancy and legal practices the firm is required by the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 to:
The offence of money laundering is defined by s. 340(11) of the Proceeds of Crime Act and includes concealing, converting, using or possessing the benefits of any activity that constitutes a criminal offence in the UK. It also includes involvement in any arrangement that facilitates the acquisition, retention, use or control of such a benefit. This definition is very wide and would include amongst others such crimes as deliberate tax evasion, deliberate failure to inform the tax authorities of known underpayments or excessive repayments, fraudulent claiming of benefits or grants; or obtaining a contract through bribery.
We are obliged by law to report any instances of money laundering to SOCA without your knowledge or consent. In fact, we may commit the criminal offence of tipping off under s. 333 of the Proceeds of Crime Act if we were to inform you that a report had been made. In consequence, neither the firms’ principals nor staff may enter into any correspondence or discussions with you regarding such matters.
We are not required to undertake work for the sole purpose of identifying suspicions of money laundering. We shall fulfil our obligations under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 in accordance with the guidance published by The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
If we have agreed to act as your Registered Office we will endeavour to communicate matters received by us in a timely fashion to you. This may be by postal service or otherwise and we cannot accept responsibility for failure to deliver or consequences arising from non-receipt. In the event that we are unable to contact you we reserve the right at our sole discretion to change the Registered Office address to your last known correspondence or physical location address.
We will provide our professional services with reasonable care and skill. However, we will not be held responsible for any losses arising from the supply by you or others of incorrect or incomplete information, or your or others’ failure to supply any appropriate information or your failure to act on our advice or respond promptly to communications from us or other relevant authorities.
Many clients have a specific Limitation of Liability or financial cap for compensation claims against the firm in respect of losses, damages, costs and expenses caused by our negligence or wilful default. Where this cap is operative, details are included within the body of the main engagement letter.
You agree to hold harmless and indemnify us against any misrepresentation, whether intentional or unintentional, supplied to us orally or in writing in connection with this agreement. You have agreed that you will not bring any claim in connection with services provided to you by the firm against any of our employees on a personal basis.
Intellectual property rights
We will retain all copyright in any document prepared by us during the course of carrying out the engagement save where the law specifically provides otherwise.
Insofar as we are permitted to do so by law or professional guidelines, we reserve the right to exercise a lien over all funds, documents and records in our possession relating to all engagements for you until all outstanding fees and disbursements are paid in full.
Whiting & Partners is a partnership. In the event of the partnership converting to a limited liability partnership ("LLP") the contract between us, which incorporates these terms and conditions, will transfer to the LLP and you agree that the performance by the LLP of the contract will be in lieu of performance by Whiting & Partners, the partnership. Similar transfer arrangements would apply in the event of the partnership converting to a company limited by shares, or to some other legal entity, and taking over all or part of the trading activities of the Whiting & Partners partnership.
If any provision of this engagement letter or enclosed schedules is held to be void, then that provision will be deemed not to form part of this contract and the remainder of this agreement shall be interpreted as if such provision had never been inserted.
In the event of any conflict between these terms of business and the engagement letter or appendices, the relevant provision in the engagement letter or schedules will take precedence.
We will not accept responsibility if you act on advice previously given by us without first confirming with us that the advice is still valid in light of any change in the law or your circumstances.
We will accept no liability for losses arising from changes in the law or the interpretation thereof that occur after the date on which the advice is given.
The Provision of Services Regulations 2009 ("Services Directive") In accordance with our professional body rules we are required to hold professional indemnity insurance. Details about the insurer and coverage can be found by enquiry at reception at our offices together other services related administration details listed there.
Unless otherwise agreed in the engagement covering letter our work will begin when we receive your implicit or explicit acceptance of that letter. Except as stated in that letter we will not be responsible for periods before that date.
Each of us may terminate this agreement by giving not less than 21 days’ notice in writing to the other party except where you fail to cooperate with us or we have reason to believe that you have provided us or HMRC with misleading information, in which case we may terminate this agreement immediately. Termination will be without prejudice to any rights that may have accrued to either of us prior to termination.
In the event of termination of this contract, we will endeavour to agree with you the arrangements for the completion of work in progress at that time, unless we are required for legal or regulatory reasons to cease work immediately. In that event, we shall not be required to carry out further work and shall not be responsible or liable for any consequences arising from termination.
Should we resign or be requested to resign we will normally issue a disengagement letter to ensure that our respective responsibilities are clear.
Should we have no contact with you for a period of 60 days or more we reserve the right to issue to your last known address a disengagement letter and thereafter cease to act.
We will inform you if we become aware of any conflict of interest in our relationship with you, or in relationship with you and another client/party. We have safeguards that can be implemented to protect the interests of different clients if a conflict arises.
Where conflicts are identified which cannot be reasonably managed in a way to protect your interests, such as by the clients/parties obtaining independent advice, then we regret that we will be unable to provide further services. If this arises, we will inform you promptly.
If there is a conflict of interest that is capable of being addressed successfully by the adoption of suitable safeguards to protect your interests then we will adopt those safeguards. Where possible this will be done on the basis of your informed consent. We reserve the right to act for other clients whose interests are not the same as or are adverse to yours subject of course to the obligations of confidentiality referred to above.
Tax services and/or advice provided relates only to taxation matters covered by UK Tax Return and UK Inheritance Tax of persons completing such UK Tax Returns plus UK domiciled persons, irrespective of where their assets are located in the world. Person refers to any individual, partnership, corporate body, Trust or other entity. Persons with assets located outside UK or beneficially entitled to income/gains/wealth created arising from such assets and also those domiciled, or previously resident, outside the UK may need to additionally complete Tax Returns for other national authorities; such persons should seek specialist advice from Agents and others providing appropriate taxation services relating to the relevant jurisdictions outside the UK. Under FATCA legislation some Trust investment assets, whether located within or outside UK, may need to be registered with /notified to tax authorities both within and outside the UK; such Trusts should seek specialist advice from their investment managers and also from others providing appropriate taxation services relating to the relevant jurisdictions outside the UK.
Whiting & Partners believe in your fundamental right to privacy and the principles laid down by the Data Protection Act 1998.
When you complete the contact form on www.thecloud.accountant (this site), we will receive personal information about you (Email, Name and Contact Number). It will be made clear to you that this data will be stored and processed before you provide it.
Contact information allows us to respond to enquiries from you about services which you have requested further information on.
All information obtained from these sources will be retained by us for as long as we deem appropriate. This information is held confidentially, in accordance with our normal internal data protection procedures, and is only used for marketing purposes. If you do not want us to use the information in this way, please contact us.
We use cookies to track your usage of this website in collaboration with Google Anlaytics - personal information (like user IP) is stripped from these cookies where possible. Cookie data is stored inside the EEA and the EU-US Privacy Shield. If any user wishes for their usage of websites to not be tracked by Google Analytics, they can visit the following website to deactivate this on their current browser https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
Apart from Google Analytics, no other information obtained from this site is disclosed to third parties, unless, where appropriate, to either our IT Services or Financial Services business divisions.
Under the Data Protection Act 1998, you may request details of personal information which we hold about you, or you may request that we remove any or all data relating to you personally. Please send such requests to our Data Controller, Mr J D Cater. If you believe any of this information to be incorrect, please advise us accordingly.
We reserve the right to change this privacy policy from time to time. Nothing in this statement is intended to create a contractual agreement between us and any visitor to this site.
All content on www.thecloud.accountant (this site) is provided for general guidance purposes only. Information is believed correct at time of publication but may alter. This information is not intended as a substitute for accounting, tax or other professional advice provided by Anglian Cloud Accounting and/or Whiting & Partners. Before making any decision or taking any action, you should consult one of our partners or other professional staff. Whilst all information on this site is checked for accuracy, the partners of this firm will not be held liable to you or anyone else for any action taken in reliance on the information in this site
Whiting & Partners does not guarantee or warrant that this site will be uninterrupted, without delay or free from viruses.
No content from this site, including trademarks, may be copied without our prior written approval. Materials on this site may not be publicly displayed or distributed for any public or commercial purpose.
Third party links in this site are provided for the convenience of users. We have no control over these sites, or their content, and, accordingly, we do not endorse them or make representations as to their accuracy or any other aspect of their content.
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