Here are some of our most frequently asked questions.
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:
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:
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:
Firstly, visit Tax Return Registration to register to have your tax return completed by us.
Once you have successfully registered you will be sent the link to our annual engagement proposal. This new electronic form is intended to streamline our processes and obtain your approval to act as your tax agent this year. It also provides a transparent costing of our services, so you have an estimate of costs up front.
As you near the end of the online engagement form process you will be provided with a link to the accountant’s appointment calendar to choose a time and date that suits you.
You will receive a confirmation of your booking details. Please bring proof of identity to your appointment as your accountant will need to sight it according to ATO requirements.
When your tax return appointment is completed and signed off by you, 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 your appointment, 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 Thursday, 11th July. If you are ‘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.