Terms and Conditions | flexiscale by LeF

LEXeFISCAL LLP - Terms and Conditions of Business - General

THE NATURE OF OUR SERVICE AND OUR CONTACT DETAILS

We are LEXeFISCAL LLP, our address is 23 Berkeley Square, Mayfair London, W1J 6HE. Telephone: +44(0)2071291180. E-mail: info@lexefiscal.com. Website: www.lexefiscal.com.

2. OUR AIM

We aim to offer our clients quality taxation advice, tax planning , tax compliance and where appropriate non reserved legal advice with a personal service at a fair cost. We set out in this statement the basis on which we will provide our services. We are authorised, unless otherwise agreed, to take such action as we think necessary to satisfy your instructions to us. We shall not refer to you for specific instructions every time we take a step. If, therefore, there is a limit to what we are required to do, we must be notified in advance.

3. OUR SERVICES

We provide professional services and tax advice on domestic and international issues relating to:

• Corporation Tax

• Capital Gains Tax

• Inheritance tax

• Stamp Duty Land Tax

• Cross-border international tax

• Employment Taxation

• Intellectual Property Taxation

• Taxation issues on Incorporating abroad

• Corporation transaction

• Corporate Secretarial support

• Personal tax

• Domicile and residence

• Estate planning and Trust

• Taxation on Divorce

• Value Added Taxation

4. OUR HOURS OF BUSINESS

The normal hours of opening at our offices are between 9.00 am and 5.30 pm Monday to Friday. Messages can be left on the answerphone outside these hours. Sometimes during the day when the office is very busy the message service will be on. If you leave a message please give your name, the reason you are calling and your phone number if you want to be called back. Appointments can be arranged at other times when this is essential.

5. SERVICE STANDARDS

We will try to keep you informed by telephone, email or letter as necessary, regarding developments on your matter on a regular basis, but from time to time there are delays for reasons outside our own control, for example because we are awaiting a response from somebody else or from yourself. The fact that you have not heard from us for some time does not mean that we have forgotten about your affairs. If you are concerned that no action is being taken please do not hesitate to telephone or write to us and we will let you know the current position.
We will communicate with you in plain language.

We will explain to you by telephone, email or letter the work required as your matter progresses.
We will update you on the cost of your matter and/or risk/benefit issues between 3-6 months or at agreed events or at relevant stages as necessary.
We will update you on the likely timescales of your matter and any important changes in those estimates although sometimes they may be very general.

6. RESPONSIBILITIES

To achieve the best possible outcome for you, we need to work together with you. We will:

Review your matter regularly;
Advise you on the law;
Follow your instructions if it is permissible to do so and not contrary to law;
Update you on whether the likely outcomes still justify the likely costs and risks associated with your matter whenever there is a material change in circumstances.

You need to:

Provide us with clear, complete, accurate and timely instructions and information;
Keep safe any documents required and provide them to us when requested;
Respond promptly to requests from us for information and documents;
Tell us as soon as possible if your circumstances change or if your contact details change;

Tell us at once of any tax court or any other proceedings you are aware of (relating to your tax affairs) and forward copies of any documents you may have received straight away;
Safeguard any documents in your possession that are likely to be required or may affect your taxation affair, or any other non reserved legal matter that may affect your case.

7. OUR CHARGES AND EXPENSES

7.1 How we calculate Charges:

Our charges will be calculated mainly by reference to the time spent by the partners and other staff in respect of any work which they do on your behalf. This may include meetings with you and perhaps others, negotiation, reading, preparing and working on papers; making and receiving telephone calls, e-mails, faxes and text messages; preparation of any detailed costs estimates, schedules and bills and time necessarily spent travelling away from the office. From time to time we may arrange for some of this work to be carried out by persons not directly employed by us. Such work will be charged to you at the hourly rate which would be charged if we had done the work ourselves.

7.2 Hourly Rates:

Our hourly rates are set out below. We review our hourly rates each year on 1st April to take into account increases in overhead costs and inflation. We will notify you in writing if the rates you are being charged are increased and the date from which the increases will apply.

We will charge you the hourly rate of person who is dealing with your matter depending on their status. Where others are required to assist we will also charge their hourly rate depending on their status. The following are the current basic hourly rates for our fee earners:

Partners: £450 as advised

Senior Associates and consultants: £200-£450 as advised

Associates: £175-£125 as advised

Accounts Administrators: £85 as advised

Junior Associates: £50 as advised

Administrators: £50 as advised

All routine letters, e-mails and texts that we send out and those received and routine telephone calls that we make and receive are charged at one-twentieth (5%) of the hourly rate. The consideration on non-routine correspondence e-mails is charged at the hourly rate for the time this takes.

We will add VAT to our fees at the rate that applies when the work is done. The current VAT rate is 20%.

We may take into account, when calculating the appropriate hourly rate, a number of factors including any need to carry out work outside our normal office hours as a result of urgency, the value of the case, the complexity or novelty of the issues involved, the speed at which action has to be taken, any particular specialist expertise which the case may demand and/or where a large number of documents need to be considered. An increase in the basic rate may be applied to reflect such factors and you will be notified if this is the case.

If, for any reason, your matter does not proceed to completion, we will be entitled to charge you for work done and expenses incurred.

7.3 Scale Plans

You could choose any of proposed scale plans.

Get Ready: £4,000 per annum or £350 per month. 

1 hour consultation;  
Business Plan;  
Marketing Plan;

Choice of business structure (company/sole trader/partnership/LLP/or other); 
Incorporating your business structure or appropriate agreement (Partnership); 
Terms of business;  
Company secretarial service (issuing shares, first board minutes, confirmation statement); 
Registered office;

Bank introduction;  
Registering with authorities (HMRC); 
LICENCES: Certain types of business need a licence from local administration offices to trade legally.

Let's Go: £5,500 per annum or £500 per month.  

All of Get Ready;
Accounting system set up;  
Annual accounts; 
VAT returns;  
Individual annual self-assessment;

Company Corporation tax return; 
Unlimited telephone support;  
1-hour meetings per annum.

Step Up: £8,000 per annum or £750 per month.  

All of Lets Go;
Accounting system set up;  
Annual accounts; 
VAT returns;  
Individual annual self-assessment;

Company Corporation tax return; 
Unlimited telephone support;  
1-hour meetings per annum; 
Employ personnel: (Tax registration PAYE);  
Management accounts (six months);

Business and marketing plan review (at fixed fee of £750); 
VAT compliance (excluding any investigation fee to be agreed);  
Employment contract (up to 3 contracts); 
Administering: payroll (up to 3 employees);  
Employment handbook;

1 hour tax planning review meetings per annum; 
Implementation of tax planning (cost to be agreed from £2,500); 
Tax investigation: cost to agreed (fee protection policy available).

Move-on: from £5,000 per service.

Unlimited telephone consultations;  
Meeting as appropriate;  
Dedicated account manager; 
Selling your business; 
Buying a business;

Asset sale or purchase;  
Taking on a new partner or shareholder;  
Inheritance tax Planning and estate planning  
Making a will  and or Lasting Power of Attorney (from £500.00); 
Transfer pricing issues;

Expanding aboard (repatriating of profits); 
Raising capital; 
Royalty planning;  
Franchising your business;  
Protecting your intellectual assets;

Improving your balance sheet (recognising intellectual assets); 
Liquidating of your business; 
Company voluntary arrangements.

7.4 Flexible Solution for Members

The annual price of the membership is £250 per year and it is automatically renewed until further notice or cancellation. 

Flexible solution for members include:  

1 hour free consultation;
Possibility to speak to member of the team responsible for your work and arrange online meetings; 
Payment for the hours purchased – control over your budget;

Fixed hourly rate (no hidden extras); 
The hourly rate is reserved to the members at a price of £250 per hour; 
Flexible plan;
Barristers opinion available with the purchase of additional hours as required;
Communication through secured client portal;

No need to change your existing Accountants, Solicitors or professional advisors;
Professional indemnity insurance for the work we do;
If you cancel the service after we have commenced any unused hours will be refunded in full;
Receiving updates on tax changes on a monthly or quarterly basis;
Participation in cultural, social, rewards or other community programs.

7.5 Other Expenses:

Where we have to pay out various other expenses on behalf of clients to third parties ranging from Companies house fees, court fees, experts' fees, barrister’s fees, fees for expert reports and so on. We have no obligation to make such payments unless you have provided us with the funds for that purpose. These will be listed separately on your bill or statement of account. VAT is payable on certain expenses. We refer to such payments generally as 'disbursements'.

As we become aware of payments which will need to be made we will ask you to provide funds to cover the payments. If you do not do so, we reserve the right to terminate our agreement and withdraw from the case.

When we send you bills, we will give credit for the amount you have already paid. If there are any advance funds left over, we will hold them as a credit against future costs and disbursements. The total bill may be greater than the amount which you have paid in advance.

8. PAYMENT ARRANGEMENTS

For matters not subject to fixed fees, we will send you an interim application for payment for our fees and expenses every month while the work is in progress. A valid VAT invoice will be issued on receipt of payment. This enables you to budget as the work progresses. We will send a final application for payment shortly before or after completion of the work. Payment is due within 7 days of our sending you an application for payment. Interest will be charged on a daily basis at 1.5% over Barclays Bank’s base rate from time to time from the date of the application for payment in cases where payment is not made within 14 days of delivery of the application. If requests for payments on account or applications are not met with prompt payment, delay in the progress of a case may result, and we may terminate our retainer.

You may agree a limit on the fees and expenses we can incur in relation to your matter. This means you have to pay our fees and expenses up to this limit and we must ask your permission to continue working on your matter if the costs are likely to exceed the limit. We will write to you before we reach the limit and explain why your matter is likely to cost more, review our estimate of how much your matter is likely to cost and ask you to agree a new limit, before we do more work, unless we have to do work in an emergency, to meet a deadline and/or to ensure compliance.

The common law entitles us to retain any money, papers or other property belonging to you which properly come into our possession pending payment of our costs, whether or not the property is acquired in connection with the matter for which the costs were incurred. This is known as a ‘general lien’. We are not entitled to sell property held under a lien but we are entitled to hold property, other than money, even if the value of it greatly exceeds the amount due to us in respect of costs.

If we are conducting ‘tax litigation’ for you, we have additional rights in any property recovered or preserved for you whether it is in our possession or not and in respect of all costs incurred, whether billed or unbilled.

We do not accept payments in cash in excess of £1,000. Monies due to you from us will be paid by cheque or bank transfer, not in cash, and will not be made payable to a third party without your written authority. We charge a telegraphic transfer fee for bank transfers (£20.00), which will be advised in writing.

In the event that you are not satisfied with our application for payment, you have the right to complain about it, within 14 days of our application for payment. To the extent that the application remains unpaid we will have the right to charge interest on that sum at the rate of 4% over Barclays Bank’s base rate from time to time until the sum is paid or the resolution of the complaint is determined.

9. OTHER PARTIES' CHARGES AND EXPENSES

In some cases a client may be entitled to payment of costs by some other person, or if your matter is successful, you may obtain an order from the court for the payment of your costs by another person. However, in practice this usually results in only a part of the costs being recovered for you, because of the way in which the court measures the costs. If costs are awarded to you and the other party is able to pay, the costs will be assessed by the court on a standard basis, whereas we are entitled to charge you on an indemnity basis.

It is important that you understand that in such circumstances, the other person may not be required to pay all the charges and expenses which you incur with us. You have to pay our charges and expenses in the first place and any amounts which can be recovered will be a contribution towards them. If you are successful and a court may orders another party to pay some or all of your charges and expenses.

10. PAYMENTS RECEIVED AND INTEREST PAYMENT

Any money received on your behalf will be held in our Client Account with Barclays Bank. Subject to certain minimum amounts and periods of time set out in the Solicitors' Accounts Rules 1998, interest will be calculated and paid to you at the rate from time to time payable on Barclays’s Designated Client Accounts. The period for which interest will be paid will normally run from the date(s) on which funds are received by us until the date(s) of issue of any cheque(s) from our Client Account.

Any payments which are deposited in to our Client Account must be notified to us immediately in writing, identifying who has made the payment, date of payment and the amount. We will require certified identity of any third party, who is not our client, and who makes a payment into our Client Account on your behalf.

If you try to avoid this policy by third parties depositing money directly with our bank we will charge you for any checks we need to make to prove the source of the funds.

11. FINANCIAL SERVICES AND INSURANCE CONTRACTS

If, while we are acting for you, you need advice on investments, we will have to refer you to someone who is authorised by the Financial Services Authority.

12. LIMITED COMPANIES

When accepting instructions to act on behalf of a limited company, we may require a Director and/or controlling shareholder to sign a form of personal guarantee in respect of the charges and expenses of this firm. If such a request is refused, we will be entitled to stop acting and to require immediate payment of our charges.

13. IDENTITY, DISCLOSURE, ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING AND CONFIDENTIALITY REQUIREMENTS

The law requires us to obtain satisfactory evidence of the identity of their clients and sometimes people related to them. This is because tax advisors who deal with money on behalf of a client can be used by criminals wanting to launder money and we need to know that you are the person you purport to be. We must and are required to comply with the proceeds of crime legislation and we can be prosecuted if we do not make appropriate inquiries about a client’s identity.

We are entitled to refuse to act if you fail to supply, when asked, appropriate proof of identity for yourself or for any principal whom you may represent. We may arrange to carry out an electronic verification of your identity if we consider that a saving of time and cost will be achieved by doing so. The cost of any such search will be charged to you. If the amount is in excess of £10 including VAT, we will seek your prior agreement.

As tax attorneys and legal advisors we are under a professional and legal obligation to keep the affairs of the client confidential. This obligation, however, is subject to a statutory exception: legislation on money laundering and terrorist financing has placed tax advisor under a legal duty in certain circumstances to disclose information to the National Crime Agency. Where a tax advisor knows or suspects that a transaction on behalf of a client involves money laundering, the tax advisor may be required to make a disclosure. If it becomes necessary to make such a disclosure, we may not be able to inform you that it has been made, or of the reasons for it, because the law prohibits ‘tipping-off’. Where the law permits us, we will tell you about any potential money laundering problem and explain what action we may need to take. We may also have to cease acting in your matter for a period of time and may not be able to tell you the reasons for it.

As part of the process of maintaining standards, our firm may be subject to audit or quality checks by external firms or organisations such as the HMRC Regulation Authority. This organisation is required to maintain confidentiality in relation to your file. We assume that you have no objection to your file being reviewed unless you tell us otherwise.

We may also outsource work. This might be, for example, typing or photocopying or costing of files, or research and preparation to assist with your matter. Information from your file may therefore be made available in such circumstances. We will always aim to obtain a confidentiality agreement with the third party.

In order to comply with the tribunal rules, all documentation relevant to any issues in litigation, however potentially damaging to your case, has to be preserved and may be required to be disclosed to the other party. This aspect of proceedings is known as ‘disclosure’. Subject to this, we will not reveal confidential information about your case except as provided by these terms of business and where, for example, your opponent (HMRC) is ordered to pay your costs, we have to meet obligations to reveal details of the case to them and to the court. A fuller explanation will be given if necessary.

We will not discuss your case with friends or family unless you specifically give us permission to speak to named people.

14. COMMUNICATION BETWEEN YOU AND US

We will aim to communicate with you by such method as may be expedient and appropriate. We may need to virus check discs or email. Unless you withdraw consent, we will communicate with others when appropriate by e-mail or fax but we cannot be responsible for the security of correspondence and documents sent by e-mail or fax.

Where we act for two or more clients jointly it is on the clear understanding that we are authorised to act on instructions from either, both or any of them.

15. DATA PROTECTION ACT 2018

The Data Protection Act 2018 requires us to advise you that your particulars are held on our database. Personal data that we obtain and keep about you will be processed fairly and lawfully. We use the information you provide primarily for the provision of legal services to you and for related purposes including, updating and enhancing our client records, analysis to help us manage our practice, statutory returns, and legal and regulatory compliance .

Our use of that information is subject to your instructions, the Data Protection Act 2018 and our duty of confidentiality. Our work for you may require us to give information to third parties such as expert witnesses and other professional advisers. You have a right of access under data protection legislation to the personal data that we hold about you.

We may, from time to time, use these details to send you information which we think might be of interest to you. If you do not wish to receive that information please notify our office in writing.

By instructing us to act on your behalf you are consenting to the storage, processing and use of your personal data.

16. EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY

We are committed to promoting equality and diversity in all of our dealings with clients, third parties and employees. Please contact us if you would like a copy of our equality and diversity policy.

17. PROFESSIONAL INDEMNITY INSURANCE

We are obliged to have professional indemnity insurance. Our cover is provided by Falcon Insurance (Continental RE 100%). Our cover is arranged through our Appointed Representative Professional Indemnity Specialists Ltd of Office A3 Imex Business Park, Kings Road, Tyseley, England, B11 2AL. We have professional indemnity insurance for £500,000 per any one claim and in all (aggregate).

18. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

The advice which we give to you is for your sole use and does not constitute advice to any third party to whom you may communicate it. We will provide the professional services outlined in this letter with reasonable care and skill. However, we will not be responsible for any losses, penalties, surcharges, interest or additional tax liabilities arising from the supply by you or others of incorrect or incomplete information, or from the failure by you or others to supply any appropriate information or your failure to act on our advice or respond promptly to communications from us or the tax authorities.

E-mail may be used to enable us to communicate with you. As with any other means of delivery this carries with it the risk of inadvertent misdirection or non delivery. It is the responsibility of the recipient to carry out a virus check on any attachments received.

Without affecting any other limitation in this appointment, LEXeFISCAL LLP liability under or in connection with this appointment shall be limited to the annual fee paid to LEXeFISCAL LLP in the aggregate. This limit shall apply however, that liability arises including a liability arising by breach of contract, arising by tort (including the tort of negligence) or arising by breach of statutory duty. Provided that this shall not exclude or limit the LEXeFISCAL LLP liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation

As Internet communications are capable of data corruption we do not accept any responsibility for changes made to such communications after their dispatch. For this reason it may be inappropriate to rely on advice contained in an e-mail without obtaining written confirmation of it. All risks connected with sending commercially sensitive information relating to your business are borne by you and are not our responsibility. If you do not accept this risk, you should notify us in writing that e-mail is not an acceptable means of communication.

19. APPLICABLE LAW

This terms and conditions is governed by and construed in accordance with English law. Any claim, dispute or difference concerning this engagement letter and any matter arising from it shall be submitted to Ad-hoc Arbitration before an approved Arbitration body. The seat of arbitration shall be in London, England before a single arbitrator, to be agreed upon by the parties jointly. Failing such agreement, the sole arbitrator shall be appointed by the appointing institution. The procedural rules of the ICC shall apply. Each party irrevocably waives any right it may have to object to any dispute being submitted to arbitration.

20. TERMINATION

You may terminate your instructions to us in writing at any time but we will be entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is money owing to us for our fees and expenses. If at any stage you do not wish us to continue doing work and/or incur charges and expenses on your behalf, you must give notice by letter to the person named in these terms of business as being responsible for your work.

We may decide to stop acting for you. If we decide to do so, we will tell you the reason and give you reasonable notice in writing. We may decide to stop acting only with good reason, for example because:

You do not maintain contact with us;
You do not pay a bill;

You fail to comply with a request for payment of money on account of our costs or disbursements;
You to not give us complete, accurate and timely instructions;
There has been an irretrievable breakdown in trust and confidence;
There is a conflict of interest;
If you ask us to conduct your matter in an unreasonable manner or which amounts to breach of the law

21. CONFLICT OF INTEREST

We are obliged to monitor any potential conflict of interests. Conflict is defined as a conflict between our duty to act in the best interests of two or more different clients ('client conflict') or between our interests and those of a client ('own interest conflict'). We must not act where there is a conflict, or a significant risk of conflict, between us and a client. When acting for two or more clients, there may be situations where we can continue to act.

If you or we decide that we should stop acting for you, you will pay our charges up until that point. These are calculated on an hourly basis plus expenses or by proportion of the agreed fee as set out in these terms and conditions.

22. STORAGE OF PAPERS AND DOCUMENTS

After completing the work, we are entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is money owing to us for our charges and expenses. We will ask you to collect your papers from our office at the end of your case as we do not have space to retain them. We will keep our file as follows:

Tax Compliance: 6 Years

Accounts: 6 years

Wills: 6 years

Other non reserved legal matters: 6 years

We keep files on the understanding that we can destroy them at the end of the above period without any further notice to you. If we ask you to collect your papers and you fail to do so, they will be destroyed without further notice to you.

We will not, of course, destroy any documents such as wills, deeds and other securities, which you ask us to hold in safe custody. No charge will be made to you for such storage unless prior notice in writing is given of a charge to be made from a future date which is specified in that notice.

If we retrieve papers or documents from storage in relation to continuing or new instructions to act in connection with your affairs, we will not normally charge for such retrieval. However, we may make a charge based on time spent at the junior executive hourly rate for producing stored papers or documents to you or another at your request. We may also charge for reading, correspondence or other work necessary to comply with your instructions.

If we are asked to retrieve our files from storage for any other reason, save our own fault, we reserve our right to charge an administration fee.

23. PROCEDURE FOR RESOLVING ANY PROBLEMS

LEXeFISCAL LLP is committed to high quality tax and non-reserved legal advice and client care. If you are unhappy about any aspect of the service you have received or about the bill, please contact the person responsible for your work in the first instance. If the matter cannot be resolved, we have a procedure in place which details how we handle complaints which is available on request. Please contact Practice Manager Mrs Marianna Penna for a copy, and follow the procedure for raising your complaint as set out in our Complaints procedure, save that if the person responsible for your work is Dr Clifford J Frank PhD, the complaint should be raised with Mrs Marianna Penna, and if the person responsible for your work is other person, the complaint should be raised with Dr Clifford J Frank PhD.

You must make your complaint within six month of something going wrong. We have eight weeks within which to consider your complaint. If we have not resolved it within this time you may complain to the Association of Incorporated Public Accountants. If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Association of Incorporated Public Accountants to consider the complaint. Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Association of Incorporated Public Accountants within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint.

The Association of Incorporated Public Accountants can be contacted at 52 Market Street Wigan WN1 1HX or by calling 01942 244200. Website: http://www.aipa.org.uk. Email: admin@aipa.org.uk

24. TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS FOR FUTURE MATTERS

Unless otherwise agreed, and subject to the application of our hourly rates applicable at the time and any changes to the law, these Terms and Conditions of Business shall apply to any future instructions given by you to this firm.

25. THE CONSUMER CONTRACTS (INFORMATION, CANCELLATION AND ADDITIONAL CHARGES) REGULATIONS 2013

If we accept your instructions this will create a contract between you and us and that contract is subject to The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.

You have a right to cancel your contract with us within 14 days after the day on which the contract is entered into without providing reasons. This is known as the “cancellation period”. To confirm your acceptance of our terms and conditions and initiate that 14 day cancellation period, you must sign and return the ‘Notice of Acceptance’ form at the end of this document.

Because of your right to cancel our contract, we will normally only commence work 14 days after we receive your signed Notice of Acceptance form.

You can, however, ask us to start work before then, and within the 14 day cancellation period. Should you require us to commence work on your matter within the cancellation period (because of, for example, the urgency of your case) you must confirm your agreement for us to proceed with your case by immediately signing and returning to us the ‘Request to Commence Work Immediately’ form at the end of this document. We will accept the scanned versions of the signed form.

If you request us to begin work or provide tax advice or non reserved legal services during the 14 day cancellation period and then cancel the contract, you must pay us for the work we have done, which is in proportion to what has been performed until you have communicated to us your cancellation from this contract, in comparison with the full coverage of the contract.

Your right to cancel your contract ceases if we have already done the work requested and the work was commenced after your request to commence work immediately within the cancellation period.

LEXeFISCAL LLP

April 2021

LEXeFISCAL LLP, 23 Berkeley Square, Mayfair London, W1J 6HE.

Telephone: +44(0)2071291180. E-mail: info@lexefiscal.com. Website: www.lexefiscal.com.