Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some of our most frequently asked questions.

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When you apply for finance, banks have limited ways to verify your income, so they often want a declaration or letter from your accountant stating that what you declare is accurate.

This often isn’t just to confirm income. We also get asked to sign off on things like:

  • your past income is representative of what your future income will be;
  • the loan is for a business purpose;
  • you will use an asset for a business purpose;
  • you have sought independent financial advice; and
  • you have the capacity to repay the proposed loan.

This puts us in a difficult position, as most of the time, what the bank wants us to sign off on is a declaration that a future event will be true, and we can’t know:

  • if your future trading will be similar to past trading;
  • that the car you are buying will actually be a fleet vehicle and won’t be for personal use;
  • how your loan monies will be used;
  • if you have sought financial advice; and
  • what all your personal expenses actually are to decide whether or not you can meet your loan repayments (and it is actually illegal for us to state that you can)

In short, we are happy to sign off on “factual information” (basically historical data that we can verify). That your income last year was $X, that your YTD figures are $X, and so on.

But… we will need to do our investigations. We will take our time to ensure that what we are signing off on is accurate.

Almost always, the bank’s template will not be acceptable because their templates are designed to push the risk of you not paying your loan onto us. Their business is to take a risk in loaning money – they charge fees and interest to compensate them for taking that risk – as you can hopefully understand, it’s not acceptable for the bank to push any of that risk onto us.

If the bank provides you with their own document, we can use that as a basis, but will update the wording as we see fit to mitigate the risk to our business. We cannot allow our licenses, reputation, qualifications, and family livelihoods to be at risk.

If you would like to go ahead with engaging our services to create an Accountant Declaration for you, please contact our Receptionist on 03 51749111 and ask for the ‘Accountants declaration form engagement letter’ to be sent to you for a full list of terms and conditions.

We have a different process this year for both booking appointments and dropping off documents for this tax season:

Visit: Tax Return Registration to confirm you are ‘Tax Ready’ and register to have your tax return completed by us.

Once you have successfully registered you will be sent the link to our annual engagement letter and intake form. This new combined form is intended to streamline our processes by gathering relevant information that will give us a head start in preparing your return. It also provides a transparent costing of our services, so you know what you are paying for up front.

When you have signed and submitted the form, based on your selection, you will be sent a link to the accountant’s calendar to choose a time and date that suits you.

You will receive a confirmation of your booking details.

When your tax return appointment is completed, the accountant will lodge your return.

Then it’s in the ATO’s hands!

Their standard processing time for refunds is 14 business days. Each year the ATO will hold back a random selection of returns to complete manual calculations and ensure their internal systems are working. If we receive notice your return has been held up we will advise you immediately and keep a track of the 14 days. If the return has not been processed by then we will follow up with the ATO regularly until they have completed it.

For information regarding the documents you may need to organise prior to completing the online tax intake form, please click here.

The ATO is not processing any returns in the first half of July, so even though we understand you are eager to get your return done and your refund in your bank, you will still have a wait if you register early in July.

Other possible delays will be if you are on Centrelink payments or have Private Health Insurance (PHI) cover. Centrelink does not typically provide its information to the ATO before mid-July.

Private Health Insurance providers send out their statements at different times throughout July and sometimes even into the following months. If you have cover, we cannot complete your return without your PHI statement. This means if you register early to get it done, you will still have a wait for your refund.

We highly recommend waiting until you have all documents required for your return before registering to have your tax returned prepared, so we can make the process as smooth as possible.

For a comprehensive guide on what to bring to your appointment see: Preparing for Your Tax Return.

Our calendar is open Monday, 10th July. If you ‘Tax Ready’ and have all your necessary documents in order, you’re welcome to register to have your tax return prepared by us!

Click here to register.

We appreciate the loyalty of our long-term clients. An engagement letter is written confirmation you have engaged us to be your tax agents and gives us the authority to access your information from the ATO for the relevant financial year.

Your engagement letter clearly outlines what services you can expect us to provide for that financial year. This is especially advantageous for business clients, who can choose from a range of supportive services we offer, such as bookkeeping, or preparing Activity Statements. We can adjust our scope of service according to your current needs.

Can’t find the answer you are looking for? Feel free to contact our office.