Letters of Engagement for the 21st century. By Mark Lee

Posted by AccountingWEB PM | on Fri, 07/03/2008 - 10:01 8071 6 comments

Having noticed the recent references to engagement letters in the West Country Practitioner’s diary I have offered to put my head above the precipice.

A while back I volunteered to chair a working party which set out to update the professional bodies’ guidance on tax engagement letters.

The working party comprises representatives of all the major tax and accounting bodies.

Continued...

Eng letters...

Anonymous | Mon, 09/02/2009 - 13:56 | Permalink

Hi, we are in the process of updating our engagement letter and were planning on proceeding with

1. covering letter detailing basics of engagement
2. detailed schedules
3. terms of business

in line with the CIOT/Tax faculty guidance (29th August 2008). However, we are also trying to cover engagement where we do

audit
audit and tax
accounts and tax
accounts only etc

What is the most appropriate way when looking at PAS2/HS13 July 2007 to incorporate it

we dont really want to issue separate engagement letters for audit/accounts/tax but want to include the best of all

please can you advise how the ICAEW guidance can be incorporated into the template covering letter (appendix A), appendices B and aappendix c (CIOT

any news?

shaunmcguinness | Fri, 15/08/2008 - 09:03 | Permalink

Hi Mark
is there any news on the expected date of the new engagement letters?
thanks
shaun

http://www.tax-sorted.biz
http://www.welovebookkeeping.co.uk

letters of engagement

acountancy.lind... | Sat, 08/03/2008 - 07:42 | Permalink

I am pleased that further thought is being given to this subject.

I fully agree that these have become far too long. I think we really should just list precisely what services are covered and state that these are the only services we are carrying out, and additional services will be the subject of additional letters.

However, regarding fees, having lost out many years ago when a company that I was auditing went bust, I now have a clause in all my engagement letters, which admittedly I lifted from another practitioner, which states that if for any reason the company is unable to pay my fee, the directors undertake to be personally responsible. May I suggest that something along these lines be put into engagement letters where we are not carrying out services for an individual.