C. PERSONAL TAX – INDIVIDUALS AND SOLE TRADERS
Your spouse is legally responsible for his/her own tax affairs and should be dealt with independently. However, if both spouses sign this letter you agree that we can disclose to your spouse such details of your financial affairs as are required to consider your combined tax position.
(a) We shall be pleased to act as your personal tax advisers in the UK.
(b) We will prepare your personal income tax and capital gains tax return together with all supporting schedules and prepare/check HM Revenue & Customs’ calculation of your self-assessment of tax and Class 4 National Insurance contributions.
(c) We will forward to you your tax return form, tax computations and supporting schedules for your approval and signature. Once the return has been approved and signed by you and returned to us, we will submit it to the HM Revenue & Customs. You authorise us to file the return electronically.
(d) We will advise you as to amounts of tax and National Insurance contributions to be paid and the dates by which you should make the payments, including payments on account and the balancing payment, and if appropriate we will initiate repayment claims when tax and National Insurance contributions appears to have been overpaid.
(e) We will deal with HM Revenue & Customs regarding any amendments required to your return and prepare any amended returns which may be required.
(f) We will advise as to claims and elections arising from the tax return and from information supplied by you and, where instructed by you, we will make such claims and elections in the form and manner required by HM Revenue & Customs.
(g) You have asked us to undertake all correspondence with HM Revenue & Customs on your behalf. To avoid any problems would you please send to us any forms or correspondence received from HM Revenue & Customs as soon as you receive them. In particular would you please ensure that no payments are made to HM Revenue & Customs without our confirmation that the demands are correct.
(h) HM Revenue & Customs has powers to charge both interest and penalties if there is a delay in submitting a tax return. Such charges are automatic if the tax return is submitted after 31st January following the end of the tax year, or if any payments are made after the respective due dates.
(i) It is therefore important that all details required for the preparation of your tax return are forwarded to us as soon as possible after 5th April each year and by 31st October at the latest. If the information is received after that date, we will not accept responsibility for any penalties or surcharges charged by HM Revenue & Customs.
(j) HM Revenue & Customs audits a number of tax returns each year, many of these audits are the result of a random selection. Assistance in respect of such an audit beyond the answering of straightforward queries regarding entries on the tax return is additional work and will result in separate charges. We will keep you fully informed before undertaking any extra work in respect of such an audit.
(k) We will provide our professional services outlined in this letter with reasonable care and skill. However, 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 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 the tax authorities.
(l) You agree that we can approach such third parties as may be appropriate for information that we consider necessary to deal with your affairs.
(m) We are acting for you only. Where you would like us to act for anyone else such as your spouse/a partnership/a limited company we will issue a separate engagement letter to them. HMRC will send you an agent authorisation code, which expires within 30 days of issue. Please send this to us as soon as you receive it. This code will enable us to register as your agent with HMRC. This authorises HMRC to communicate with us as your agent, although they consider that you should still take ‘reasonable care’ over your tax affairs.
(n) We will be pleased to advise on any other taxation matters referred to us and would strongly encourage you to approach us before entering into any complex or unusual transactions in order that we can assess their tax implications.