Non-audit engagement letter

When you provide accounting and/or taxation services to clients, best practice dictates that you should issue them with an engagement letter to set out your mutual rights and responsibilities.

Engagement

The engagement letter (EL) forms the contract for services that you are to provide. In it you should set out which services you will undertake on the client’s behalf, e.g. accounts preparation, self-assessment and VAT returns. Using an EL can help to reduce your indemnity insurance premiums, and some insurers actually require it. Using one can also help avoid so-called engagement creep, where you end up slowly taking on more responsibilities without changing your fee.

Template letter

We have put together a template letter that covers accounts production, company tax returns and VAT returns. This should be sufficient to use as the basis of a letter for a small trading company. Services can be added or deleted as necessary.

Caution

This document is intended as a starting point, and should not be used without carefully reviewing each engagement on a case by case basis, and tailoring the letter accordingly. It is based on the current guidance published by the Chartered Institute of Taxation.

Note. It is essential that the sample privacy policy needs to be tailored by every user. The points in square brackets throughout the document should be reviewed and amended or deleted as appropriate.