Changes To Our Terms of Business

Under Clause 32 of our Terms of Business we can change our terms of business:

By 30 days notice being given on the terms of business section of our website
By immediate notice on our website where circumstances dictate or if the update is of a minor nature

Up until March 2018 we didn’t log all changes. We are now doing so, and set these out below.

Read our current Terms of Business incorporating the changes below:

Date of change	Effective Date	Summary of changes
14 Match 2022	1st April 2022	Following introduction of our Fee Indexation policy section 7b has been expanded. Old wording “7b – Our quotations are normally fixed for two years, and are then subject to review in line with inflation. Obviously they will also be subject to review if there is a major change in the nature or size of your business or the services you require.” New wording “Our quotations are normally fixed for two years, and are then subject to review in line with inflation. Obviously they will also be subject to review if there is a major change in the nature or size of your business or the services you require. The inflationary review is at a rate set from time to time, by way of an indexation figure which applies to all clients.”
18 November 2021	Immediate	Section 30 heading changed from “Data security and electronic systems” to “Data security, privacy and electronic systems” and insertion of new clause 30l reading “Whitefield Tax Limited’s Privacy Policy is at Privacy and Cookie Policy and forms part of this agreement” The Privacy and Cookie policy is not new and has been in place for some years, with an update for GDPR in 2018. However it has been drawn to our attention it was not expressly linked into our Terms of Business.
24 September 2021	Immediate	Residual references to paying us by standing order have been removed from our Terms of Business. We transitioned to using Direct Debit in 2018, and no longer accept payment by Standing Order.
30 June 2020	Immediate	New clause 11m ” In respect of specific transactions, eg the sale of an asset, we only take responsibility for tax compliance work where you have instructed us in respect of those transactions.”. This is included for clarity and aligns the content of our Terms of Business with practice. It means that if, for example, you sell a property we will only deal with Tax Compliance matters where you instruct us to do so.
3 June 2020	immediate	Clause 24d changed from: “Where, on your request, we engage the services of specialists or third parties we do not accept liability for their work or advice.” to “Where, on your request, we engage the services of specialists or third parties, or recommend specialists and third parties to you, we do not accept liability for their work or advice.”
12 May 2020	immediate	Introduced section 7q, Fair Use: Our fixed fee packages are priced to cover the typical service level a client needs. In any given year some clients will need more support or service, others less, and our fees balance this. However occasionally a clients service needs, or the complexity of their requirements, will go beyond that anticipated. Rather than have a long list of exceptions or small print, we operate on a fair use basis. Where services cannot be accommodated in the fixed fee: we will endeavour to let clients know at the start of the engagement, or if not as early as possible we will avoid unreasonable suspension or withdraw of services at short notice. we will avoid incurring any material additional charges for clients without authorisation. we will work collaboratively with clients to resolve the issue, either by repricing, a service restriction, or by agreeing changes to record keeping and presentation. This codifies existing practice, and does not change the fees we charge or our approach to professional work. This paragraph was in our service schedules, but not our Terms of Business, so we are including it in Terms of Business for clarity.
16 April 2020	immediate	Section 20 on Tax Credits changed to refer to Universal Credit and Tax Credits – no change to our current practice
16 April 2020	immediate	New clause 5, previously unused, regarding Whitefield Tax group structure and IP ownership
23 September 2019	immediate	New section 21e regarding Auto Enrolment re enrolments, reading “We do not automatically advise on re-enrolment obligations / deadlines. You are responsible for monitoring these.” – this clarifies our current practices and is not a change in service. New section 34 on IR35 Compliance, which reads: “a. We offer both formal IR35 contract reviews and informal advice on IR35 compliance. Our advice is by nature of considered opinion, and by its nature cannot be definitive. A definitive ruling on IR35 status in the event of a dispute would need to come from Tax Tribunals. “b. Decisions on IR35 status are your responsibility to make based on your own considered judgement. We will not carry over advice we have given to preparation of your taxes, instead we will seek instructions from you.” This clarifies and records our current practice and is not a change in service.
11 August 2019	immediate	New Sections 30 i, j and k re cloud accounting. 30i Concerns security of logins that you give us 30j Concerns our reselling of systems eg Freeagent and that we are as agent/reseller not provider 30k Makes it clear that where a cloud accounting system is in use and we have logins, you must still go through year end/quarter end procedures, notably notifying us that year end/vat is ready to be processed.
11 August 2019	immediate	New section 33 on Anti Money Laundering. This covers our obligation to comply with UK AML rules, and clients obligations to provide us with identification, notify changes in control of their business, and provide information on translations
28 January 2019	immediate	Update to clause 17 regarding one off assignments to cover our “Ask an Accountant service” and to confirm that for one off assignments we do not offer any ongoing services or advice, and we do not commit to updating advice given if law or regulation changes.
28 January 2019	28 February 2019	New section 14g and sub sections to cover rights and responsibilities in respect of Making Tax Digital for VAT (MTDfV) being introduced in 2019. Consequential amendment 9a.i and 9c
26 March 2018	Immediate	Introduction of a summary of the terms of business Minor changes for readability