1.1 We are a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and in our conduct are subject to its Code of Ethics which can be found at www.icaew.com/en/members/regulations-standards-and-guidance. We will observe and act in accordance with the bye-laws and regulations of the ICAEW. We accept instructions to act for you on this basis.
1.2 Where we become aware of errors made by HM Revenue & Customs you give us authority to correct them. We will not be liable for any loss, damage or cost arising from our compliance with statutory or regulatory obligations.
2.1 You agree that we may reserve the right to act during this engagement for other clients whose interests are or may be adverse to yours, subject of course to the obligations of confidentiality referred to below. We confirm that we will notify you immediately should we become aware of any conflict of interest to which we are subject in relation to you. 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.
2.2 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.
2.3 If we become aware of a dispute between the parties who own or are in some way involved in the ownership and / or management of the entity, it should be noted that the addressee of our letter of engagement is our client and we would not provide information or services to one party without the express knowledge and permission of all parties. Unless otherwise agreed by all parties we will continue to supply information to the normal place for which we send correspondence for the attention of the management of the entity. If conflicting advice, information or instructions are received from different members of management, we will refer the matter back to those charged with governance of the entity and take no further action until they have agreed the action to be taken.
2.4 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 pronouncements (such as by our insurers, or part of an external peer review) applicable to our engagement. 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.
2.5 We reserve the right, for the purpose of promotional activity, training or for other business purpose, to mention that you are a client. As stated above, we will not disclose any confidential information.
2.6 You agree that it will be sufficient compliance with our duty of confidence for us to take such steps as we in good faith think fit to preserve confidential information both during and after the termination of this engagement.
2.7 You hereby explicitly acknowledge and consent that we may make use of cloud based computing services to store personal information and other data relating to you. We will use commercially reasonable security technologies (such as encryption, password protection and firewall protection) to protect this personal information and other data from unauthorised disclosure. You, however, acknowledge and agree that it is impossible for us to guarantee the security of the personal information and other data with absolute certainty and that the use of cloud based computing services may therefore entail certain risks. We shall only be responsible if it has finally judicially been determined that we did not take commercially reasonable measures to protect the personal information and other data from unauthorised disclosure.
3.1 We will only assist with implementation of our advice if specifically instructed and agreed in writing.
3.2 The terms under which we provide our services are dealt with in a separate letter of engagement. We will also agree in a separate letter of engagement the provision of any services relating to investment business advice as defined by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
3.3 If during the provision of professional services to you, you need advice on investments, we may have to refer you to someone who is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. However, as we are licensed by the ICAEW, we may be able to provide certain limited investment services where these are complementary to, or arise out of, the professional services we are providing to you. In the unlikely event that we cannot meet our liabilities to you, you may be able to claim compensation under the ICAEW’s Compensation Scheme in respect of exempt regulated activities undertaken.
4.1 As part of our ongoing commitment to providing a quality service, our files are periodically subject to an independent quality control review. Our reviewers are highly experienced and professional people and, of course, are bound by the same requirements for confidentiality as our principals and staff.
5.1 In this clause, the following definitions shall apply:
5.2 We shall each be considered an independent data controller in relation to the client personal data. Each of us will comply with all requirements and obligations applicable to us under the data protection legislation in respect of the client personal data.
5.3 You shall only disclose client personal data to us where:
(i) you have provided the necessary information to the relevant data subjects regarding its use (and you may use or refer to our privacy notice available at www.alwynsllp.com for this purpose);
(ii) you have a lawful basis upon which to do so, which, in the absence of any other lawful basis, shall be with the relevant data subject’s consent; and
(iii) you have complied with the necessary requirements under the data protection legislation to enable you to do so.
5.4 Should you require any further details regarding our treatment of personal data, please contact our data protection officer.
5.5 We shall only process the client personal data:
(i) in order to provide our services to you and perform any other obligations in accordance with our engagement with you;
(ii) in order to comply with our legal or regulatory obligations; and
(iii) where it is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests and those interests are not overridden by the data subjects’ own privacy rights. Our privacy notice (available at www.alwynsllp.com) contains further details as to how we may process client personal data.
5.6 For the purpose of providing our services to you, pursuant to our engagement letter, we may disclose the client personal data to members of our firm’s group, our regulatory bodies or other third parties (for example, our professional advisors or service providers). We will only disclose client personal data to a third party (including a third party outside of the UK) provided that the transfer is undertaken in compliance with the data protection legislation.
5.7 We shall maintain commercially reasonable and appropriate security measures, including administrative, physical and technical safeguards, to protect against unauthorised or unlawful processing of the client personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, the client personal data.
5.8 In respect of the client personal data, provided that we are legally permitted to do so, we shall promptly notify you in the event that:
(i) we receive a request, complaint or any adverse correspondence from or on behalf of a relevant data subject, to exercise their data subject rights under the data protection legislation or in respect of our processing of their personal data;
(ii) we are served with an information, enforcement or assessment notice (or any similar notices), or receive any other material communication in respect of our processing of the client personal data from a supervisory authority as defined in the data protection legislation (for example in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Officer); or
(iii) we reasonably believe that there has been any incident which resulted in the accidental or unauthorised access to, or destruction, loss, unauthorised disclosure or alteration of, the client personal data.
5.9 Upon the reasonable request of the other, we shall each co-operate with the other and take such reasonable commercial steps or provide such information as is necessary to enable each of us to comply with the data protection legislation in respect of the services provided to you in accordance with our engagement letter with you in relation to those services.
5.10 In order to assist us in keeping your personal information accurate and up to date, please let us know of any corrections or changes to your personal information.
Please note that your details may be held on a computerised mailing list to be used to keep you informed about updates on business and accounting issues and other legitimate interests you may have. If you do not wish to receive these updates, please notify us in writing.
6.1 A person who is 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.
6.2 The advice, which we give you, is for your sole use and does not constitute advice to any third party to whom you may communicate it unless we have expressly agreed in the letter of engagement that a specified third party may rely on our work. We accept no responsibility to third parties, including any group company to whom the letter of engagement is not addressed for any aspect of our professional services or work that is made available to them.
7.1 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 or wilful default. 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, or yours or others’ failure to supply any appropriate information or your failure to act on our advice or respond promptly to communications from us or any public sector body (such as HMRC).
7.2 You agree to hold harmless and indemnify us, our principals, subcontractors and staff, to the fullest extent permitted by law, for any loss suffered by you arising from any misrepresentation (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 we provide to you against any of our principals or staff personally.
7.3 We will endeavour to record all advice on important matters in writing. Advice given orally is not intended to be relied upon unless confirmed in writing. Therefore, it we provide oral advice (for example, during the course of a meeting or a telephone conversation) and you wish to be able to rely on that advice, you must ask for the advice to be confirmed by us in writing.
7.4 Our work is not, unless there is a legal or regulatory requirement, to be made available to third parties without our written permission and we will accept no responsibility to third parties for any aspect of our professional services or work that is made available to them.
8.1 These Terms of Business, in conjunction with any additional letters of engagement shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, English law. Each party agrees that the Courts of England shall have exclusive jurisdiction in relation to any claim, dispute or difference concerning these Terms of Business in conjunction with any letter of engagement and any matter arising from it. Each party irrevocably waives any right it may have to object to an action being brought in those Courts, to claim that the action has been brought in an inconvenient forum, or to claim that those Courts do not have jurisdiction.
9.1 Unless otherwise agreed in writing, our fees are computed on the basis of time spent on your affairs by our staff, according to the levels of skill and responsibility involved. Travelling costs and other disbursements will be charged as appropriate and included in the total fee. VAT will be added to the total fee where it is chargeable.
9.2 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.
9.3 Unless otherwise agreed in writing, fees are due on presentation of an invoice or request for payment. When dealing with continuous or recurring work we may issue a request for payment in which case a VAT invoice will be issued to you upon receipt of your payment.
9.4 All queries on invoices or request for payments rendered by us must be raised in writing within 15 days of the presentation of the invoice or request for payment. Any account received by you and not queried in writing within 15 days will be deemed to be accepted as a reasonable charge for the work done.
9.5 We reserve the right to levy finance charges on overdue accounts at a rate of 2% per month.
9.6 If a client company, LLP, trust, or other entity is unable or unwilling to settle our fees we reserve the right to seek payment from the individual (or parent entity) giving us instructions on behalf of the client and we shall be entitled to enforce any sums due against the group, entity or individual nominated to act for you.
9.7 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.
9.8 In some circumstances commissions or other benefits may become payable to us, or to our associates, in respect of introductions to other professionals or transactions which we arrange for you. If this happens and the amount is over £100, you will be notified in writing of the amount, the terms of payment and receipt of any such commissions or benefits. The same applies where the payment is made to or the transactions are arranged by a person or business connected with ours. The fees you would otherwise pay will not be reduced by the amount of the commissions or benefits unless otherwise agreed in writing. Your consent to commission or other benefits being retained by us or our associates means we are not liable to account to you for these benefits. If you do not agree to this arrangement, please advise us in writing and we will only retain any benefits if you give your full and informed consent on each occasion, having received full disclosure of the amounts involved.
9.9 If, for any reason it becomes necessary for us to withdraw from the engagement, our fees for work performed up to that date will be payable by you.
10.1 We wish to provide a high quality of service which is both efficient and effective at all times. If at any time you would like to discuss with us how our service to you could be improved or if you are concerned with the service which you are receiving please let us know by telephoning Trevor Applin on 020 8502 0411.
10.2 We undertake to consider any comments carefully and promptly and to do all we can to explain the position to you. We undertake to do everything reasonable to resolve any problems and if you are still not satisfied you may, of course, take up matters with the ICAEW.
11.1 You have a legal responsibility to retain documents and records relevant to your financial affairs. During the course of 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 generally be retained six years from the end of the accounting period.
11.2 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 continued significance. If you require retention of any documents for any longer period, you must notify us of that fact in writing.
12.1 Electronic communications are capable of non-receipt, delayed receipt, inadvertent misdirection or interception by third parties 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. As electronic communication is not totally secure, we do not accept responsibility for any errors or problems that may arise through the use of electronic communications and all risk connected with sending sensitive information to you is borne by you. If you do not agree to accept this risk (which will achieve greater efficiency and lower costs), you should notify us in writing that e-mail is not an acceptable means of communication, and we will communicate by paper mail, other than where electronic submission is mandatory.
12.2 It is the responsibility of the recipient to carry out a virus check on any e-mails and attachments received. However, we do use virus-scanning software to reduce the risk of viruses and similar damaging items being transmitted through e-mails or electronic storage devices.
12.3 Any communication by us with you sent through the United Kingdom postal system is deemed to arrive at your postal address two working days after the day that the document was sent.
13.1 In accordance with the disclosure requirements of the Provision of Services Regulations 2009, details of our professional indemnity insurer can be obtained from contacting us on 020 8502 0411. The territorial coverage is worldwide excluding professional business carried out from an office in the United States of America or Canada and excludes any action for a claim brought in any court in the United States of America or Canada.
13.2 Alwyns LLP is registered to carry on audit work in the UK by the ICAEW and details of the audit registration can be viewed at www.auditregister.org.uk under reference number C002583379.
13.3 Alwyns LLP is licensed by the ICAEW to carry out the reserved activity of non-contentious probate work in England & Wales. Details about our probate registration can be viewed at www.ICAEW.com/probate under reference C002583379.
14.1 We may, from time to time, hold client money on your behalf. The 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 ICAEW.
14.2 If the total sum of money held on your behalf is over £10,000 and held for more than 30 days or is enough to give rise to a significant amount of interest or is likely to do so, then we will put the money in a separate, individually designated interest-bearing client bank account and pay the interest to you subject to a minimum cumulative interest of £50. Following the distribution of funds on designated accounts interest received after the distribution will be paid to you if that interest is more than £50. Subject to any tax legislation, interest will be paid gross.
14.3 We will return monies held on your behalf promptly as soon as there is no longer any reason to retain those funds. If any funds remain in our client account that are unclaimed and the client to which they relate has remained untraced for five years or we as a firm cease to practice then we may pay those monies to a registered charity.
15.1 As with other professional services firms, we are required to identify our clients for the purposes of UK anti-money laundering 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. If we are not able to obtain satisfactory evidence of your identity, we will not be able to proceed with the engagement.
15.2 If you undertake business that requires you to be supervised by an appropriate supervisory authority to follow anti-money laundering regulations including if you accept or make a high value cash payments of €10,000 or more (or equivalent in any currency) in exchange for goods you should inform us.
15.3 Any personal data received from you to comply with our obligations under The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer for Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (MLR 2017) will be processed only for the purposes of preventing money laundering or terrorist financing. No other use will be made of this personal data unless use of the data is permitted by or under enactment other than the MLR 2017, or we have obtained the consent of the data subject to the proposed use of the data.
16.1 Our staff are assigned to you on the mutual understanding that neither party will offer employment to, nor employ, the staff of the other who have been involved during the assignment, or dealing with you, within 12 months unless written consent has been obtained from either party. If such consent is given either party reserves the right to bill an appropriate fee of 25% of annual salary on appointment plus VAT.
17.1 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.
18.1 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.
18.2 In the event of termination of this contract, we will endeavor 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.
19.1 Should we resign or be requested to resign we will normally issue a disengagement letter to ensure that our respective responsibilities are clear. This will also assist in ensuring an efficient handover between professional advisers. Should we have no contact with you for a period of one year or more we may issue to your last known address a disengagement letter and hence cease to act.
20.1 If any provision of our letter of engagement or terms of business is held to be void, then that provision will be deemed not to form part of this contract. In the event of any conflict between these terms of business and the letter of engagement or appendices, the relevant provision in the letter of engagement or schedules will take precedence.
20.2 These Terms of Business set out the terms on which we (‘our’) are to act for a client (‘you, ‘your’).
21.1 If either party is impeded or prevented from carrying out any of its obligations under the contract for the supply of the services due to any circumstances beyond its reasonable control including without limitation, act of government, interruption of power supplies, failure of sources of supply, interference by a third party, industrial dispute or natural disaster (“circumstances of force-majeure”) the party affected shall be excused performance of such obligation for so long as and to the extent that the prevention or impediment lasts.
22.1 These Terms of Business were last updated on 30 September 2024.