Terms & Conditions - Grow SMSF Administration Services

Version 1.3
Effective: 01/07/2024

1. Service Offer
These terms & conditions form part of the SMSF Administration Services Agreement (Agreement) and should be read in conjunction with it. If you are unsure of the meaning of any of the terms or clauses herein, you should contact us. The scope of the services that we will be providing to you is expressed in our communication to you, together with what our charges to you will be for the provision of these services.

2. Acceptance of Offer
 Before accepting this offer, you have the right to obtain independent legal advice about the terms and effect of this Agreement. You are deemed to have accepted and will have entered this Agreement, which means you will be bound by the terms and conditions set out in this document (including being invoiced in accordance with it) if you either:
- Sign and return a copy of this document to us;
- Give us instructions to proceed with providing the services after receiving this document; or
- Sign an agreement or letter that references these terms & conditions; or
- Accept this agreement orally.

3. Grow SMSF's Commitment
 We agree that we will:
-  exercise all reasonable care and skill in providing the Services;
- provide the Services by appropriately trained and qualified staff based in Australia;
- where possible, we will endeavour to identify the information that will be required in advance;
- whilst not undertaking any independent audit of the financial statements, we will comply with our requirements under the Tax Agents Services Act 2009 to satisfy ourselves as to the reasonableness of the information and claims being made in your SMSF Annual Return;
- not handle or have access to any money or property belonging to you directly or indirectly (including through a trust account), or negotiate any cheques on your behalf without your express permission and authorisation.

4. Your Commitment
 The accounts and assets of your self-managed super fund (Fund) are held in your name(s) as Trustee and under your control.
Accordingly, we need your cooperation so that we can effectively provide our services. As Trustee (including as as Director of a corporate trustee) you acknowledge and agree that you will:
- ensure that any activity of the Fund is in compliance with the rules contained within the SMSF Trust Deed of the Fund and the laws then applicable. If in doubt you can contact us at any time to receive professional advice around these rules;
- ensure at least one bank account is open and maintained as the Cash Account of the Fund. The Cash Account must only be used for transactions relating to the Fund and will not be used for personal banking purposes;
- retain sufficient funds in the Cash Account to pay regular outgoings including any applicable fees under this Agreement;
- sign any third party authorities, other documents or take any steps necessary to ensure that we can either directly or via intermediaries receive all applicable bank account, share broker, wrap account or other provider transaction feeds and holding balance information. Access to this information is vital for our delivery of the services.
- ensure that all investments are made in the Trustee’s name;
- provide us with any documentation or information requested for the completion of your accounts, SMSF annual return or compliance audit including the issuance of the annual report by the independent auditor of the fund within 14 days. If we are required to contact you on more than two occasions to provide requested documentation or information, we reserve the right to pass on additional costs resulting from our time spent obtaining this information.
- indemnify us against all claims made against us or suffered by us as a direct or indirect result of you failing to comply, or failing to comply in sufficient time, with any of your responsibilities. You acknowledge and confirm that, for the purposes of this Agreement, any reference to the obligations of you applies to both you as the Trustee and you as a member of the Fund

5. Tax Agency
We will provide our services under our Tax Agent Number (26057627) and will remain appropriately registered as a Tax Agent and comply with the code of professional conduct as set out in the Tax Agent Services Act 2009. We are required under the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 to advise you of your rights and obligations when we are acting as your tax agent.

Specifically, we advise:
- You as Trustee of the Fund have sole responsibility for the timely and accurate lodgement of the income tax returns of the Fund.
- You as Trustee have an obligation to keep proper records that will substantiate the taxation returns prepared and which will satisfy the substantiation requirements of the taxation laws. Failure to keep such records could result in claims being disallowed, additional tax being imposed, and the imposition of penalty or general interest charges.
- You as Trustee are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the particulars and information required to comply with the various taxation laws.
- Your rights as a taxpayer include: The right to seek a private ruling, the right to object to an assessment by the Commissioner and the right to appeal against an adverse decision by the Commissioner.
Certain time limitations may exist for you to exercise these rights. Should you wish to exercise these rights at any time you should contact us to arrange advice.

6. Indemnity
We will exercise all reasonable care and skill in the provision of our services. We are not liable for any loss that occurs due to your actions. We are not responsible for any act, omission, deceit, neglect, mistake or default of any person, including our staff, except for any proven direct loss attributable to the gross negligence, deceit or fraud by us. To the extent permitted by law, you release us, our staff and our representatives from all liability in respect of any loss and expenses incurred by you. We, and our staff, will not be responsible or liable for any claims that arise, whether directly or indirectly, as a result or consequence of:
- you breaching the provisions of the Trust Deed of the Fund or any applicable laws which result in the Fund being deemed non-compliant with the Superannuation Laws; or
- you failing to comply, or failing to comply in sufficient time, with any of your responsibilities pursuant to the provisions of this Agreement.

 7. Confidentiality
We will treat as confidential and maintain the confidentiality of all information and records that you provide. This information will only be disclosed to a third-party where you provide specific authority for us to do so, or where we are subject to a legal duty to disclose the information.
Unless otherwise agreed between us, this Agreement provides us the authority to provide all necessary information to an independent Auditor nominated by us. From time to time whilst carrying out our services, we may engage various staff and or contractors who we consider appropriate for the effective provision of our services. These personnel will have access to your accounting and taxation records only for the purpose of completing their agreed engagements

8. Records
As part of the Agreement Grow SMSF will prepare various electronic records and notes consistent with its’ internal quality control systems. These records remain the property of Grow SMSF and will be retained by us to support any future queries on work completed.
Any original source records provided by the Trustee to Grow SMSF to assist in the completion of the Services upon written will be returned to the Trustee upon completion of the Services for the relevant financial year. Where appropriate Grow SMSF will make copies to retain on its’ records.

9. Termination and Dispute Resolution
- This Agreement may be terminated by either Party for any reason by giving 30 days’ notice in writing to the other party;
- If the Agreement is terminated, each party will remain liable for any outstanding fees under this Agreement or under any separate agreement.
- Upon formal termination of this agreement, Grow SMSF at it's discretion may require payment of a nominal fee relating to services consumed prior to termination including work performed and access to Grow SMSF's systems, software, support services and Electronic Service Address (ESA). Payment of this fee will enable the release of SMSF records, including electronic accounting data files where applicable.
- Following termination of the Agreement, not all information maintained by us will belong to you. For example, file notes, working papers, or internal emails will remain our property. If the Agreement is terminated, we will provide all appropriate information to you within 30 days.
- Notwithstanding the foregoing, we reserve the right to retain documents and information if there is money owing to us under this Agreement.
- This Agreement will continue to be enforceable against the Trustee’s estate until the Agreement is terminated by the Trustee’s estate representative.
- If a dispute arises as in relation to any aspect of this Agreement or the performance thereof and the dispute cannot be resolved between us, then the parties agree to resolve the dispute by mediation. The mediator shall be as agreed or failing agreement within 7 days by a mediator nominated by the President of the Law Society of Queensland. The costs of the mediation shall be met equally.

10. Authority Delegation
Access to relevant information and data from third parties including banks and other financial institutions is essential for the efficient delivery of our services. You agree to delegate to Grow SMSF the ability to complete third party data authorities on your behalf to enable investment, transaction and account data to be electronically feed to our nominated SMSF administration platform(s) or to obtain required reports or documentation for the completion of your SMSF Annual Return or audit where the provision of the authority does not include the authorisation of payment of monies from the SMSF Cash Account or dealing in anyway with the acquisition or disposal of investments or assets of the SMSF (i.e. the authority is read-only). This authority includes the application of electronic versions of your wet-ink original signatures to third party authority forms where electronic signing or authorisation is unavailable or not accepted by the relevant data or information provider. 

11. Scheduling of Work
Some of your agreed work is subject to specific lodgement dates. To allow us to comply with lodgement dates we rely on your timely provision of information. We will schedule your work to be completed at a suitable month throughout the financial year taking into consideration various factors. In most cases any information required for reporting to external parties will be available at anytime throughout the year.

12. Duration of Agreement
This Agreement remains in force for the financial year in which it is signed and for future years until terminated in accordance with the Agreement.

13. Scope of Service
If there is more than one individual acting as Trustee personally or as Directors of a corporate Trustee, then each individual is deemed to be an agent of each other individual and you each authorise and direct us to accept instructions from any one individual without the need to seek confirmation of those instructions from any other individual. Each of you agree, jointly and severally, to pay our tax invoices. Our costs are payable up to the termination of the services and for any work that we are required to do for you after termination.

14. Entire Agreement