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.
Simply put – no you don’t. We refer to this as a ‘drop-off’ job.
Following is an outline of our process this tax season:
Firstly, visit Tax Return Registration page 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. At this point you can opt for no appointment.
When you have signed and submitted the form, your job will be created for the accountant and our team will be in touch with you via email with request for further documentation. Please promptly reply to requests for information.
You will then receive your return to approve and sign.
When the signed documents are received 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 to enable us to complete your tax return, please click here.
If you would like to make a tax return appointment, see our revised process here: How do I book an appointment?
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.
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.