Terms of Business

1. Applicable Law

These Terms of Business, in conjunction with the engagement letter including all appendices shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, English law. The courts of England shall have exclusive jurisdiction in relation to any claim, dispute or difference concerning this engagement letter (including the firm's terms of business) and any matter arising from it.

2. Limitation of Liability

We will provide our professional services with reasonable care and skill. Our liability to you is limited to losses, damages, costs and expenses caused by our negligence, willful default or breach of contract. However, to the fullest extent permitted by law, we will not be responsible for any losses, penalties, surcharges, interest or additional tax liabilities arising from the supply by you or others of incorrect or incomplete information.

We cannot be responsible for matters outside our control such as delay by a government department in dealing with an enquiry, information technology (IT) failures by government departments etc.

Our liability, which has arisen from an action or inaction by the firm, is limited to £100,000 irrespective of whether this gives rise to one or multiple claims, except where we act as an independent examiner in respect of a charity or where we act as reporting accountant to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in respect of an ATOL assignment.

3. Professional Obligations

We will observe and act in accordance with the bye-laws, regulations and ethical guidelines of the Institute of Financial Accountants (IFA) 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 your inspection at our offices and are also available on the internet at: https://www.ifa.org.uk/about-us/publicinterest/memberregulations

4. Conflicts of Interest and Confidentiality

You agree that we may act during this engagement for other clients whose interests are or may be adverse to yours, subject of course to the obligations of confidentiality. We confirm that we will notify you immediately should we become aware of any conflict of interest to which we are a subject in relation to you.

Where you give us confidential information, we shall keep it confidential, except as required by law or as provided for in regulatory, ethical or other professional pronouncements.

We may, on occasion, subcontract work to other professionals. Our subcontractors will be bound by our client confidentiality terms.

5. Quality Control

As part of our commitment to providing a quality service, our work is periodically subject to an independent quality control review. Our reviewers are highly experienced professional people and are bound by the same requirements for confidentiality as our principals, subcontractors, consultants and staff.

6. Data Protection

The Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018 as amended by the Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 contain requirements in relation to the processing of personal data.

We take your privacy and the privacy of the information we process very seriously. We will only use your personal information and the personal information you give us access to under this engagement to administer your account and to provide the services that you have requested from us.

We attach a copy of our Privacy Notice which sets out our approach to handling your data. Our Privacy Notice also details the use we make of cloud computing services.

7. Fees and Payment Terms

Our fees are computed on the basis of time spent on your affairs by principals and staff and on the levels of skill and responsibility involved. Fees will be as indicated in our engagement letter or otherwise notified to you from time to time.

Our fees are exclusive of VAT, which will be added where applicable. All invoices are payable within 14 days of receipt unless otherwise agreed.

8. Complaints

We aim to provide a high-quality service which is always efficient and effective. If at any time you would like to discuss with us how our service could be improved or if you are concerned with the service you are receiving, please let us know by telephoning Michael Loizou.

We undertake to consider any comments carefully and promptly and do all we can to explain the position to you. Regarding any complaints received (including fee disputes), we will acknowledge them in writing within five business days of receipt.

Where a complaint is made orally, our acknowledgment letter will also summarise our understanding of the nature of the complaint. We will endeavour to address your complaint within 8 weeks.

If you are still not satisfied you may take up matters with the Institute of Financial Accountants (IFA).

Institute of Financial Accountants (IFA)
502 Clerkenwell Workshops
27-31 Clerkenwell Close
Farringdon
London
EC1R 0AT

9. Retention of Records

You have a legal responsibility to retain documents and records relevant to your financial affairs. During our work, we will collect information from you and others relevant to your tax and financial affairs. We will return any original documents to you following the completion of the assignment.

Documents and records relevant to your affairs are required by law to be retained six years from the end of the accounting period.

10. Professional Indemnity Insurance

In accordance with the disclosure requirements of the Provision of Services Regulations 2009, our professional indemnity insurer is Hiscox of 22 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4BQ. The territorial coverage is worldwide excluding professional business carried out from an office in the United States of America or Canada.

11. Client Identification

As with other professional services firms, we are required to identify and verify our clients for the purposes of UK anti-money laundering, anti-terrorist financing legislation and anti-proliferation financing legislation. We may request from you, and retain, such information and documentation as we require for these purposes and/or make searches of appropriate databases.

12. Investment Advice

If during the provision of professional services to you, you require advice on investments, we may have to refer you to someone who is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), as we are not.

13. Right to Cancel

The following section is only applicable if you meet the legal definition of a consumer.

You have the right to cancel this contract within 14 days without giving any reason. The cancellation period will expire after 14 days from when we receive your written agreement to this engagement.

To exercise this right, you must provide us with a clear statement sent in the post or by email. To meet the cancellation deadline, it is sufficient for you to have sent your communication which confirms cancellation before the cancellation period has expired.

14. Disengagement

This engagement may be terminated by either party giving not less than 21 days written notice to the other party. However, if you fail to cooperate with us, or where we suspect that you have provided us or a regulatory or government body including HMRC with misleading information, we may terminate this engagement immediately.

We reserve the right to terminate the engagement between us with immediate effect in the event of: your insolvency, bankruptcy or other arrangement being reached with creditors; an independence issue or change in the law which means we can no longer act; failure to pay our fees by the due dates; or either party being in breach of their obligations if this is not corrected within 30 days of being asked to do so.

On disengagement, our fees for work performed up to that date will be payable by you. Should we have no contact with you for a period of more than one year, we may issue a disengagement letter to your last known address and cease to act.

Contact Us

If you have questions about these Terms of Business, please contact us at: michael@btnaccounting.co.uk