Nexus Tax & Accounting Solutions Terms & Conditions

ABN: 51 624 527 831

Lodging Your Tax Return:

1. Once you provide us with the requested information, you authorise us to access your records from the ATO Portal. You can provide us with the requested information via our website, mobile phone app, email, telephone and/or in person.
2. Confidentiality

Your personal information will be used for checking your tax records and income for past and present years. We have legal obligations to check your tax records to ensure that all your income is properly recorded.

Your personal information will be protected in accordance with the Privacy Act and will not be shared with third parties unless we are compelled to do so by law, or to provide you with the services for which we have been engaged. We are legally bound to protect your personal information.

This engagement includes attending to preparation of the individual Income Tax Return which includes, but is not limited to, the following:

1. Collection of information and conducting interview where required
2. Verifying Australian Taxation Office (ATO) Tax Agent Portal reports
3. Reconciling and preparing tax estimate and tax return including all relevant schedules
4. Reviewing tax return
5. Attending to queries and correspondence
6. Publishing tax return to client portal for signing
7. Rendering invoice to client files
8. Lodgement of tax return to ATO

Our Obligation to comply with the law

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 a material respect.

Client’s disclosure and record keeping obligations:

You are required by law to keep full and accurate records relating to your tax affairs.

It is your obligation to provide us with all information that would be reasonably expected/will be necessary to allow us to perform work contemplated under the engagement within a timely manner or as requested. This includes providing accurate and complete responses to questions asked of the client by the practitioner.  Inaccurate, incomplete or late information could have a material effect on services and/or conclusions.

The Taxation Administration Act 1953 now contains specific provisions that may provide you with “safe harbor” from administrative penalties for incorrect or late lodgement of returns.  These safe harbor provisions will only be available to you if, amongst other things, you provide “all relevant taxation information” to us/me in a timely manner (the safe harbour provisions apply from 1 March 2010).  Accordingly, it is to your advantage that all relevant information is disclosed to us as any failure by you to provide this information may affect your ability to rely on the “safe harbor” provisions and will be taken into account in determining the extent to which tax practitioners have discharged their obligations to clients. It is your responsibility to show that you have brought all matters to our/my attention if you want to take advantage of the safe harbors created under new regime.

Previous Returns

We have not been engaged to review the accuracy of any previous returns lodged by you or by a previous Tax Agent.

Client Substantiation Declaration:

I confirm that you have advised me that I must demonstrate that I have incurred an expense for income producing purposes.  In addition, you have advised me of the stringent Substantiation legislation I must satisfy in relation to work, car and business travel expenses.

Taxpayer must obtain original receipts and keep them for a minimum of five years from the date my return is lodged.  The receipts must contain the following details:

1. Name of supplier
2. Amount of expense
3. Nature of goods and services (noting the specific type of items purchased or expenditure incurred which I will be able to personally record up to the date of lodgement of my return where not adequately noted by the supplier).
4. Date of expense (which I will be able to personally record where not noted by the supplier), and the date of the documents

Penalties to apply with incorrect returns

Additional tax, penalties, interest and possible prosecution action may be taken against the taxpayer by the ATO if taxpayer provide details which lead to an incorrect tax return being lodged.

An important feature of the new tax agent services regime that commenced on 1 March 2010 is the provision of a “safe harbour” protection from penalties in certain circumstances for taxpayers who engage registered tax agents.  

In order to obtain the benefits of “safe harbour” protection, taxpayer must provide us with “all relevant taxation information” to enable accurate statements to be provided to the Australian Taxation Office.

Income from sources in and out of Australia for the year of income

As an Australian resident taxpayer must declare income from all sources, in and out of Australia, including net capital gains received, for the year of income in my tax return.

Service charges by Nexus Tax & Accounting Solutions:

Preparing & Lodging Tax return:

This work consists of collecting information concerning your taxable income, deductions and offsets. We will collate information and supporting documents for all your declarable income sources (e.g. salary, business, rental, foreign income, interest, dividends). We also collate information and documents for your expenses. This work can take from 20 minutes to a few days depending on the size and complexity of the taxation return.

Our fee structure for this work is not fixed and depends on time and effort involved in preparing and lodging your tax return. An estimate of our fees will be provided to you in the tax refund estimate after our initial conversation. If you are not happy with our fees or refund estimate you are under no obligation to proceed and you will not be charged anything for the initial conversation. However, if you do wish to proceed and we lodge your taxation return, then fees will be payable.

$0 Upfront Payment - Fee from Refund Authority:

1. Under the Fee from Refund Authority you are not required to pay our service fees upfront. You are requesting us to pay accounting fees from your tax refund. You understand that you will receive the balance of your tax refund after deducting our service fees electronically to your nominated bank account.
2. You are responsible for providing correct financial institution information and that incorrect information may cause delays in receiving your tax refund money.
3. Under the Fee from Refund Authority you are authorising ATO to deposit your tax refund into the relevant business trust account and deduct the fees as per the calculation shown in the invoice & fee from refund authority.
4. Under the FFR you acknowledge that.
   1. Should any variation arise with the Australian Tax Office (ATO) or my refund cheque is forwarded to me in error, I will pay the fee owing directly within 7 days of written notice.
   2. Where due to an error on the part of either FFR, the ATO or myself, payment is made to me in excessof the correct amount due to me by the ATO, I will refund the difference within 7 days. I further understand that in the event of me not repaying any outstanding amount, I am liable for collection costs and charges.
   3. There are no amounts outstanding to the ATO or any government department in relation to child support and/or Centrelink in myname.
   4. Privacy: I understand and authorise that my Tax File Number (TFN) may be used for the purposes ofreconciliation in paying my fees from my refund. It is under no circumstances to be made public

Same Day Tax Refund:

1. We need to do additional check on your account to process a same day refund which includes, but is not limited to, verification of your income, tax debt position and GST position. These verifications are important as they provide us with confirmation of your entitlement to a tax refund. We may verify/assess your Centrelink and Child Support Agency debts. Variations in any of these factors may reduce the amount of your income tax refund (if any).
2. You fully understand that despite all these verifications, your actual refund may be reduced as a result of undisclosed debts to the Australian Government. You understand that even after the assessments of your debt position, we cannot confirm, let alone guarantee, your debt position with respect to any Government agency. A government agency to whom you owe money may take part or all your income tax refund in satisfaction of outstanding debts.
3. Once the abovementioned checks have been completed, we retain full discretion to decide on your eligibility for a same day refund. We may decline to provide you with a same day refund without providing you with a reason.
4. The maximum same day tax refund we may offer is $1000. The additional fees will be charged on the amount borrowed on the same day. That fees would be depends on the amount of cash advance.
5. Once we receive your tax refund from the Australian Taxation office, we despite the balance of your tax refund into your nominated bank account within 2 business days from the refund received. The balance you receive is after deducting our service fees and the amount of cash advance paid to you as a same day refund. Electronic Funds Transfer may take 2-3 working days to clear.

On the Spot Refunds: Your Obligations to Us

1. Any Money received by you from us will be treated as an advance to you. This amount will be set off against your actual taxation refund to be paid by the Australian Taxation Office. You understand that once a taxation refund is issued by the Australian Taxation Office, you will receive the balance of your taxation return after subtracting the amount of your same day refund plus our fees. If a government agency takes part of your tax refund in satisfaction of an outstanding debt, then your actual refund will be lesser by that amount.
2. If your actual taxation refund from the Australian Taxation Office is less than the amount required to repay your same day refund and our fees, you will be required to pay all amounts outstanding to us within 14 days of the Australian Taxation Office’s assessment.
3. If you do not pay all outstanding amounts to us within 14 days of the Australian Taxation Office Assessment, we may, at our sole discretion, refer this debt to an external debt collection agency or commence proceedings against you in a local court.
4. Nexus Tax & Accounting Solutions have right to debit your account for any shortfall in fees or the amount of cash advance paid to you byusing Ezidebit and understand that this authority includes this Direct Debit Request.

*The ATO’s decision to enquire, hold, delay adjust and/or audit your information is outside of our service control and does not constitute an issue with, or failure of, our services.