STANDARD TERMS OF BUSINESS
The purpose of this schedule is to set out the standard terms of business that apply to all
engagements accepted. All work carried out is subject to these terms except where changes are
expressly agreed in writing.
These standard terms of business are applicable to all types of entities (e.g. companies, LLPs,
charities, friendly societies, academies, pension schemes, etc.). Any reference therefore to ‘director’
or ‘company’ should be interpreted as appropriate for the entity type (e.g. partner, trustee, governor,
charity, LLP, etc.)
1 Professional obligations
1.1 As required by the Provision of Services Regulations 2009 (SI 2009/2999), details of the
firm’s professional registrations can be found on our website.
1.2 We will observe and act in accordance with the bye-laws and regulations of our professional
body together with their code of ethics. We accept instructions to act for you on this basis. In
particular you give us authority to correct errors made by HM Revenue & Customs where we
become aware of them. We will not be liable for any loss, damage or cost arising from our
compliance with statutory or regulatory obligations.
Professional indemnity insurance
1.3 In accordance with the disclosure requirements of the Provision of Services Regulations
2009, details of our professional indemnity insurer are provided on our website.
2 Investment services
2.1 We are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to conduct Investment Business. If
you require investment business services we will refer you to a firm authorised by the
Financial Conduct Authority.
3 Commissions or other benefits
3.1 We do not accept commissions or other benefits for any transactions we may arrange for you.
4 Client monies
4.1 We do not hold Client Monies on your behalf. Any monies we receive for you will be paid
straight over to you.
5 Fees
5.1 Our fees are computed on the basis of time spent on your affairs by the principals and our
staff, including sub-contractors or consultants where necessary, and on the levels of skill and
responsibility involved. Disbursements represent travel, accommodation and other expenses
incurred in dealing with your affairs.
5.2 If it is necessary to carry out work outside the responsibilities agreed with you for each
service, we will advise you in advance. Any additional work will involve additional fees.
Accordingly, we would like to point out that it is in your interests to ensure that your records
etc. are completed to the agreed stage.
5.3 Invoices are payable in full (including disbursements) in accordance with the terms set out on
the invoice. If you do not accept that an invoiced fee is fair and reasonable you must notify us
within 21 days of receipt, failing which you will be deemed to have accepted that payment is
due.
1.01a
Lindsay Beckman & Co Ltd, Croft House, Childswickham Road, Broadway, Worcestershire WR12 7HB
01386 853653; [email protected]
5.4 We reserve the right to charge interest on overdue accounts at the current rate under the Late
Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. We also reserve the right to terminate our
engagement and cease acting if payment of any fees billed is unduly delayed. We do not
accept fees settled by credit card.
5.5 If a client company, trust or other entity is unable or unwilling to settle our fees, we reserve
the right to seek payment from the individual (or parent company) giving us instructions on
behalf of the client, and we shall be entitled to enforce any sums due against the group
company or individual nominated to act for you.
5.6 Insofar as we are permitted to so by law or by 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.
5.7 In the event that we cease to act in relation to your company’s affairs you agree to meet all
reasonable costs of providing information to the company’s new advisers. In particular you
agree to meet these costs where we are required by law to provide information to a successor
firm.
6 Retention of papers
6.1 You have a legal responsibility to retain documents and records relevant to your financial
affairs. During the course of our work we may collect information from you and others relevant
to your tax and financial affairs. We will return any original documents to you if requested.
Documents and records relevant to your tax affairs are required by law to be retained as
follows:
Individuals, trustees and partnerships:
• with trading or rental income: five years and 10 months after the end of the tax year;
• otherwise: 22 months after the end of the tax year.
Companies, Limited Liability Partnerships, and other corporate entities:
• six years from the end of the accounting period.
6.2 Although certain documents may legally belong to you, we may destroy correspondence and
other papers that we store electronically or otherwise that are more than seven years old,
except documents we think may be of continuing significance. You must notify us in writing if
you wish us to keep any document for a longer period.
7 Conflicts of interest and independence
7.1 We reserve the right during our engagement with you to deliver services to other clients
whose interests might compete with yours or are or may be adverse to yours, subject to
clause 8 below. We confirm that we will notify you immediately should we become aware of
any conflict of interest involving us and affecting you unless we are unable to do so because
of our confidentiality obligations. 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
managed in a way that protects your interests then we regret that we will be unable to provide
further services.
7.2 During and after our engagement, you agree that we reserve the right to act for other clients
whose interests are or may compete with or be adverse to yours, subject, of course, to our
obligations of confidentiality and the safeguards set out in the paragraph on confidentiality
below.
8 Confidentiality
8.1 We confirm that 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 statements relevant to our engagement.
8.2 You agree that, if we act for other clients who are or who become your competitors, to comply
with our duty of confidentiality, it will be sufficient for us to take such steps as we think
appropriate to preserve the confidentiality of information given to us by you, both during and
after this engagement. These may include taking the same or similar steps as we take in
respect of the confidentiality of our own information.
1.01a
Lindsay Beckman & Co Ltd, Croft House, Childswickham Road, Broadway, Worcestershire WR12 7HB
01386 853653; [email protected]
8.3 In addition, if we act for other clients whose interests are or may be adverse to yours, we will
manage the conflict by implementing additional safeguards to preserve confidentiality.
Safeguards may include measures such as separate teams, physical separation of teams,
and separate arrangements for storage of, and access to, information.
8.4 You agree that the effective implementation of such steps or safeguards as described above
will provide adequate measures to avoid any real risk of confidentiality being impaired.
8.5 We may, on occasions, subcontract work on your affairs to other tax or accounting
professionals. The subcontractors will be bound by our client confidentiality terms. You may
additionally need to consider your data protection responsibilities.
8.6 We will inform you of the proposed use of a subcontractor before they commence work,
except where your data will not be transferred out of our systems and the subcontractor is
bound by the confidentiality terms equivalent to an employee.
8.7 If we use external or cloud-based systems, we will ensure confidentiality of your information is
maintained.
8.8 This clause applies in addition to our obligations as to data protection below.
9 Quality control
9.1 As part of our ongoing commitment to providing a high quality service, our files are
periodically subject to an independent regulatory or 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.
Dealing with HM Revenue & Customs
9.2 When dealing with HMRC on your behalf we are required to be honest and to take reasonable
care to ensure that your returns are correct. To enable us to do this, you are required to be
honest with us and to provide us with all necessary information in a timely manner. For more
information about ‘Your Charter’ for your dealings with HMRC, see
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-charter. To the best of our abilities, we will
ensure that HMRC meet their side of the Charter in their dealings with you.
9.3 We will take account of the steps and checks suggested by HMRC in their ‘Agent Toolkits’.
While use of the Toolkits is voluntary, we will ensure that our quality control procedures match
or enhance the suggestions in the Toolkits so that, in the unlikely event that HMRC consider
any of your tax returns with which we assist to be inaccurate, we will be able to help you
demonstrate to HMRC that reasonable care has been taken in the preparation of the return,
thereby significantly reducing the possibility of an inaccuracy penalty being imposed. To
further reduce the possibility of an inaccuracy penalty, you will remain responsible for
maintaining good quality supporting records for each return, for providing us with all relevant
information and explanations and for acting on any advice that we give you.
10 Help us to give you the right service
10.1 We are committed to providing you with a high quality service that is both efficient and
effective. 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
contacting the principal contact named in the letter of engagement.
10.2 We undertake to look into any complaint carefully and promptly and do all we can to explain
the position to you. We will acknowledge your letter within five working days of its receipt and
endeavour to deal with your complaint within eight weeks. If we do not answer your complaint
to your satisfaction you may of course take up the matter with our professional body (see Key
Facts sent with letter of engagement).
10.3 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 schedules. We
therefore reserve the right to cancel the engagement between us with immediate effect in the
event of:
• your insolvency, bankruptcy or other arrangement being reached with creditors;
