Airtax – Terms of Business
This statement was last updated on the date identified at: vialto.com/about.
1. About Airtax services (general)
Tax Compliance Services
The following is a summary of tax compliance services provided by Airtax, and applicable fees. Further information about eligibility, and terms of use for these tax compliance services is set out under section 2 below.
Vialto Partners may assist you with Australian tax compliance, as follows:
What assistance does Airtax offer you to complete your GST or ITR compliance obligations?
We may also agree to provide other services to you as part of our Airtax services. Additional items within the scope of our services may be agreed by email and will be subject to these Terms of Business.
2. Airtax tax services
Basis of providing our services
Our services are based on our understanding of current law and the current policy and practice of the ATO or other relevant tax authority as at the time we provide the relevant services.
Who is eligible to use Airtax?
a) All Airtax services
To use Airtax, you need to earn your income as an individual (i.e. not earning income as a partnership or an entity such as a company) and be eligible based on Vialto Partner’s client acceptance rules. We use information provided by you during the registration process to assist in determining your eligibility.
If you are eligible, you can start using the service immediately.
Unfortunately, you cannot use our Airtax services if you do not have a tax file number.
b) BAS lodgement services
You cannot use our Airtax services for preparation and lodgement of your BAS if you:
c) Income Tax services
You cannot use our Airtax services for preparation and lodgement of your ITR if, relating to the period being lodged, you:
Powers of tax authorities
It is important to keep in mind that the positions taken in activity statements, tax returns or other documents (including the BAS and ITR) lodged with tax and revenue authorities are not beyond challenge by the relevant authority and that tax and revenue authorities may have wide-ranging powers of investigation and discovery.
Record keeping
All tax and revenue laws in Australia require taxpayers to keep full and accurate records relating to their tax affairs. Penalties may be imposed if a taxpayer fails to comply with these requirements. Maintaining comprehensive records can also be beneficial in supporting your position in a tax dispute as the onus of proof is with the taxpayer.
Records must generally be kept for five years after the later of the date on which:
Communication preferences
The ATO have communication preferences that determine whether certain communications from them are sent to Vialto Partners (as your tax and/or BAS agent) or to you (per your postal address or myGov account).
Self assessment
The information provided in a statement or return, and lodgement itself, will in many cases, create a deemed assessment of the amount disclosed in the return or statement. However, the tax authorities are empowered to:
A taxpayer may lodge an objection disputing an assessment (or amended assessment), but this must be done within certain time limits. The time limits depend on individual circumstances and may be up to four years from the date of the original assessment.
If there is an adverse decision on an objection, it may be appealed through the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
Airtax Help Centre / FAQ
We will provide you with access to a Help Centre. This will provide general information that is publicly available. We will not provide you any information which is specific to your circumstances or anything that may constitute advice.
BAS and/or Tax Agent
You appoint Vialto Partners to be your BAS Agent and/or your Tax Agent to prepare and lodge the relevant BAS and/or ITR only. This includes authorising Vialto Partners to give the BAS and/or ITR to the Commissioner of Taxation.
For all users of Airtax, Vialto Partners will not be an authorised contact person with the ATO for you. Vialto Partners will not, as part of its scope of services, assist you with any dispute with the ATO.
Penalty regime
Tax authorities have strict penalty regimes for the late lodgement of tax returns.
Under the Australian regime, the base penalty is $275 for failing to lodge a tax return on time for each period of 28 days (or part of a period of 28 days) up to a maximum of 5 penalty units. If you provide us with all the relevant information in sufficient time for us to lodge the return by the due date, administrative penalties for late lodgement of the return may not apply if the return is actually lodged late.
Other penalties and interest can also apply where late payments are made, or where other forms are filed late.
Australian lodgement dates
The default lodgement date for all taxpayers in Australia is 31 October for the immediately preceding 30 June. Where a taxpayer is on a Tax Agent's lodgement program and the taxpayer is up-to-date with their prior year returns, the taxpayer may have an extended lodgement date of 31 March or 15 May following the preceding 30 June.
Taxpayers who are included on a Tax Agent lodgement program must lodge their Australian returns on-time and electronically, in order for the Tax Agent to continue to benefit from the extended lodgement dates. Accordingly, we reserve the right to remove you from our lodgement program if you do not authorise electronic lodgement of your return within a reasonable period prior to the due date.
If you are removed from our lodgement program, your lodgement date will revert to the default lodgement date of 31 October and any late lodgement penalties and interest will then be calculated from this date and not the extended lodgement date under the Tax Agent's lodgement program.
No legal services
Vialto Partners is a multi-disciplinary partnership which provides legal and non-legal services in certain states of Australia. The services do not include any legal services.
The Services provided under this engagement may be provided by partners or professional staff of Vialto Partners who are Australian legal practitioners (as defined in legislation regulating the provision of legal services in Australia). You acknowledge and agree that all Services provided under this engagement by Australian legal practitioners are provided to you in a capacity other than as an Australian legal practitioner (e.g. as a registered tax agent) and are not provided as legal services. As a result your, and Vialto Partner's, rights and obligations will be different to those arising had the Services been provided to you as legal services. In particular, the relevant State legal profession legislation does not apply to the provision of these services.
Terms & Conditions for use of Airtax tax compliance services
Set out below are the terms & conditions that apply to your use of Airtax, subject to Vialto Partners confirming that you are eligible. Vialto Partners will check your eligibility to use Airtax based on the information you have provided using Airtax.
A contract with Vialto Partners in relation to Vialto Partner’s provision of the Services is not formed unless and until Vialto Partners confirms your eligibility; however, clauses 4, 5, 6 and 15 of the terms & conditions, relating to confidentiality and privacy, liability, use of Airtax and data hosting, will have effect from when you click “Accept” on the terms and conditions.
If anything in these terms & conditions is inconsistent with any other information that we provide to you, including through Airtax, these terms & conditions take precedence.
1 Our Services
1.1 Scope – This agreement sets out the terms & conditions on which we permit you to use Airtax tax compliance services. We provide our Services to you via your use of Airtax.
1.2 Changes – We may modify these terms & conditions at any time by incorporating a revised version into Airtax or by notifying you. The effective date of any modification of the terms & conditions will be upon incorporation into Airtax. By continuing to use the Services after the effective date of any modification, you are bound by the modified terms & conditions. It is your responsibility to check the terms & conditions for modifications. Any other changes to the Services or these terms & conditions must be agreed between us in writing.
1.3 Services for your benefit – Our Services are provided solely for your use for the purpose of preparation of business activity statements (“BAS”) and/or income tax returns and lodgement of BAS and/or ITR with the Australian Taxation Office (“ATO”).
1.4 Authorisation to prepare and lodge BAS and/or ITR – By accepting these terms & conditions, you authorise us to prepare your BAS and/or ITR on your behalf, as your BAS agent and/or tax agent. By authorising us to lodge a BAS and/or ITR in Airtax, you authorise us to lodge the BAS and/or ITR on your behalf, as your BAS agent and/or tax agent.
1.5 No liability to third parties – We accept no liability or responsibility to any third party in connection with our Services. You agree to reimburse us for any liability (including reasonable legal costs) we incur in connection with any claim by a third party arising from your breach of this agreement.
2 Your responsibilities
2.1 Generally – You must ensure we are permitted to use any third party information or intellectual property rights you require us to use to perform the Services.
2.2 Information – You are responsible for the completeness and accuracy of all the information used to complete your BAS and/or ITR in Airtax, irrespective of the source of that data. We will rely on this information to provide Services to you and accept no responsibility for its completeness or accuracy.
2.3 Records – You must keep adequate records to substantiate all amounts referred to in a BAS and/or ITR, by retaining valid tax invoices or similar evidence.
2.4 Interdependence – Our performance depends on you also performing your obligations under this agreement. You agree we are not liable for any default to the extent it arises because you do not fulfil your obligations.
2.5 Third party information – You must authorise third parties who hold relevant information (for example, information about revenue) to provide that information to us for the purpose of use in Airtax, if requested by us.
2.6 BAS and/or ITR declaration – You must ensure that any declaration or other statement you make in connection with a BAS and/or ITR is correct.
3 Fees
The following applies to all users of Airtax
3.1 You must pay our fees for the Services.
3.2 $19 for the review and lodgement of ABN and GST registration applications, except where we are unable to automatically finalise these applications and need to resolve with the ABR/ATO. These applications will need to utilise the ABN service for $49.
3.3 $49 for preparation and lodgement of each BAS where income is >$0. Free for preparation and lodgement of each BAS where income is $0. Free for preparation and lodgement of the first BAS after the user connects their Uber, Square or QBSE account
3.4 The fee is $149 for a Business Assist service (which includes free BAS lodgement), $179 for a Tax Assist service (which includes free ITR lodgement and an optional accountant call), and $349 for a Tax Professional (formerly Tax Companion) service (which includes $19 credit applied to the user’s account). Payment is due on an annual basis and prior to the ITR lodgement.
3.5 All fees are inclusive of GST.
3.6 All fees must be paid by credit card. You consent to the fees being charged to your credit card through the use of the Stripe Australia Pty Limited payment facility (“Stripe”) which will process the credit card transaction. You consent to Vialto Partners providing your personal information and details of the Services to Stripe as required by the terms of the agreement between Vialto Partners and Stripe.
3.7 From time to time, at Vialto Partner’s discretion, a discount on the price stated above may be available. If you are entitled to the benefit of a discount then the discounted amount, rather than the amount stated above, will be the applicable price.
4 Confidentiality and privacy
4.1 Confidential information – We each agree not to disclose each other’s confidential information, except as otherwise contemplated in this statement (including the Vialto privacy statement) or otherwise as required by law, regulation or other disclosures by Vialto Partners in accordance with its policies.
4.2 Privacy – Our approach to privacy is set out in Section 4 and in our privacy statement, available at www.vialto.com/privacy. You agree to comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) when providing us with information. We agree to cooperate with each other in addressing our respective privacy obligations in connection with the Services.
4.3 You confirm that we are authorised to provide details contained in documents you provide to us for verification purposes (for example, your Australian passport) to our third party verification service providers. You consent to their use and transmission of, and access to, such details as set out in the Information Collection Statement – see below.
5 Liability
5.1 Accountants scheme – Our partners are members or affiliate members of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (“CAANZ”). Where CAANZ schemes have been approved under professional standards legislation in force in Australian states or territories, our liability in connection with the Services is limited in accordance with those CAANZ schemes. Legislation providing for apportionment of liability also applies.
5.2 Liability cap where no scheme – Where our liability is not limited by a scheme, you agree our liability for all claims connected directly or indirectly with the Services (including claims of negligence) is limited to an amount equal to the amount of the fees paid for the Services in the previous 12 month period.
5.3 Consequential loss – To the extent permitted by law, we exclude all liability for:
a) loss or corruption of data
b) loss of profit, goodwill, business opportunity or anticipated savings or benefits
c) indirect or consequential loss or damage.
5.4 Guarantees, warranties or conditions – All express or implied guarantees, warranties or conditions relating to this agreement or its subject matter, not contained in this agreement, are excluded from this agreement to the maximum extent permitted by law, and:
5.5 Indemnity – You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Vialto Partners, its partners and staff (Vialto Entities) from any claims, expenses or costs incurred by a Vialto Partners Entity which arise out of or in connection with any inaccuracies, errors or omissions in the information provided to us for the purposes of the Services (including but not limited to as a result of use of any data aggregation service as set out in these terms & conditions).
6 Electronic communications and use of Airtax
6.1 Electronic communications – We each agree to take reasonable precautions to protect our own information technology systems, including implementing reasonable procedures to guard against viruses and unauthorised interception, access, use, corruption, loss or delay of electronic communications.
6.2 Use of Airtax – We permit you to use Airtax on the terms & conditions of this agreement. In relation to your use of Airtax, and any data aggregation platform you use in conjunction with Airtax, you agree that:
6.3 Connecting to Airtax through a third party service – If you log on to Airtax through a third-party service, you give us permission to access and use your information from that service as permitted by that service, and to store your login credentials for that service.
7 Subcontractors (including other Vialto Entities firms)
7.1 Subcontractors – We may use subcontractors, including other Vialto Entities firms (in Australia or overseas) to perform or assist us to perform the Services. Despite this, we remain solely responsible for the Services.
7.2 No claims against other Vialto Entities firms - No other Vialto Entity firm has any liability to you in connection with the Services or this agreement and you agree not to bring and to ensure none of your affiliates brings any claim (including in negligence) against any other Vialto Partners firm or its partners or employees in connection with the Services (including in connection with Airtax) or this agreement. Any partner or employee of another Vialto Partners firm who deals with you in connection with the Services does so solely on our behalf.
7.3 Benefit of clause 7.2 - Clause 7.2 is for the benefit of other Vialto Partners firms and their partners and employees (each a beneficiary). You agree each beneficiary may rely on clause 7.2 as if they were a party to this agreement. Each beneficiary that provides or assists in providing the Services relies on the protections in clause 7.2 and we accept the benefit of clause 7.2 on their behalf.
7.4 Transfer of information - We use contractors or suppliers located in Australia and overseas to provide us with Services we use in performing Services and in our internal functions. Other Vialto Partners firms may be involved in our client relationship management and other admin systems and in quality reviews. You consent to information provided to us by you or on your behalf (including personal information and your confidential information) being transferred to those contractors and suppliers and to other Vialto Partners firms and our subcontractors, so long as they are bound by confidentiality obligations.
8 Filing and destruction of documents
You are responsible for keeping records in connection with any BAS and /or ITR prepared and lodged on your behalf. We provide an optional service to upload expense items including receipts to store digital documents. If you upload documents or material with us, we may at our discretion delete or destroy them (except to the extent we are required by law to retain them).
9 Termination
9.1 By notice – Either of us may terminate this agreement by giving the other 14 days notice via notification in Airtax (unless it would be unlawful to do so). This agreement terminates on expiry of that notice.
9.2 Changes affecting independence – Changes to the law or other circumstances beyond our reasonable control may mean that providing the Services to you results in us ceasing to be independent of an audit client. If that happens, we may terminate this agreement immediately by giving you notice in writing.
9.3 Fees payable on termination – You agree to pay us for all Services we perform before termination on the basis set out in the Fees section of Airtax.
9.4 Clauses applying after termination – The following clauses continue to apply after termination of this agreement: 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 2.3, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9.3, 9.4, 14 and 15.
10 Relationship
We are your independent contractor. You agree that we are not in a partnership, joint venture, fiduciary, employment, agency or other relationship with you. Neither of us has power to bind the other.
11 Corporations Act and SEC prohibitions
Nothing in this agreement applies to the extent that it is prohibited by the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) or the rules of the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
12 Force majeure
Neither of us is liable to the other for delay or failure to fulfil obligations (other than an obligation to pay) to the extent that the delay or failure arises due to an unforeseen event beyond their reasonable control which is not otherwise dealt with in this agreement. Each of us agrees to use reasonable endeavours to remove or overcome the effects of the relevant event without delay.
13 Assignment
You cannot assign or deal with your rights under this agreement without our prior written consent.
14 Applicable law
The law applying to this agreement is the law in force in New South Wales. Both of us submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of that state and waive any right either of us may have to claim that those courts do not have jurisdiction or are an inconvenient forum.
15 Data Hosting
We use third party providers of cloud-based PaaS and data hosting to host Airtax. We store the information in the cloud environment in an encrypted format. You acknowledge that any information inputted into Airtax (including any personal information) will therefore be transferred to the PaaS and data hosting providers (who may in turn provide the information to other parties) (together, the Data Host), which may be located outside of Australia. The Data Host may not be subject to privacy obligations that are similar to the Australian Privacy Principles, and may be subject to a foreign law that could compel the disclosure of information (including personal information) to a third party, such as an overseas authority. You agree that in no event shall Vialto Partners or its beneficiaries be liable for any loss of any kind (including loss of your data) arising from an act or omission (including a negligent or dishonest act or omission) of a Data Host, which may include the following:
As an end user of Airtax, you must not do anything or omit to do anything that would give rise to a liability of Vialto Partners (if it were our act or omission) under the below terms applicable to hosting:
16 Referrals / coupon codes
If you use the referral feature of Airtax, the following terms apply:
In addition, coupon codes cannot be used if your account is in credit and can only be used once.
17 Definitions
In this agreement the following words and expressions have the meanings given to them below
17.1 Vialto Partners firm – an entity or partnership which carries on business under a name which includes all or part of the name ‘Vialto Partners’, or is otherwise within or a correspondent firm of the global network of Vialto Partners firms, each of which is a separate and independent legal entity
17.2 Services – use of Airtax as set out in this agreement
17.3 this agreement – these terms & conditions
17.4 you – the client for whom the Services are provided
17.5 we, us, or Vialto Partners – the Australian firm of Vialto Partners, a partnership formed in Australia.
3. User confirmation
User Confirmation
I have read these terms & conditions and accept them. I acknowledge and agree that the terms & conditions (other than clauses 4, 5, 6 and 15) will not have effect unless and until Vialto Partners confirms my eligibility to use Airtax services.
4. PRIVACY NOTICE AND INFORMATION COLLECTION
Vialto Partners (Vialto Partners, we, us, our) respects and is committed to protecting your privacy in accordance with our legal and regulatory obligations, including, as applicable, the Privacy Act 1998 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.
We may collect the following categories of personal information to enable you to access and use our Airtax website and application and so we can provide you with our services: identifiers, name and surname, date of birth, home address, email address, nationality, national identification numbers, gender identity, financial details, dependent details and other personal information as may be required by governmental authorities in order for Vialto to provide services. You acknowledge that you have read, understood and agree to the terms of our privacy statement (available at www.vialtopartners.com) and, accordingly, have been informed of the legal basis for Vialto Partners processing personal information under data protection law. We generally do not collect sensitive information about you, unless you provide it to us voluntarily. You consent to us collecting sensitive information that you provide to us voluntarily, in accordance with our privacy statement. We have technical, organizational and administrative measures in place designed to ensure your personal information is protected.
If you provide us with personal information about others, you agree to inform the individual that the information is being collected and why, how it will be used and the matters outlined in this statement and that you have the authority to provide such information on their behalf.
Other than as disclosed in this statement, the Vialto privacy statement or as otherwise required by applicable law or regulation, Vialto Partners will not disclose your personal information to third parties without your consent. In addition to the information regarding storage and cross-border transfers set forth in our privacy statement, please note that we may transfer or disclose the personal information we collect to third-party service providers who are engaged by us in connection with the services and to support our internal ancillary processes, including, without limitation, IT infrastructure, hosting and verification. It is our policy to only use third-party service providers that are bound to maintain appropriate levels of data protection, security and confidentiality, and that comply with any applicable legal requirements for transferring personal data outside the jurisdiction in which it was originally collected. In addition, we may disclose such personal information to a third party as necessary in connection with a corporate reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, assets or capital.Given the nature of the services, we may also disclose your personal information to Australian regulators, including, without limitation, the ATO (for tax services) or the Department of Home Affairs (for Airtax Immigration).
You are not required to provide us with your personal information, but if you do not, we may not be able to offer you access to our App or our services, or we may be restricted in the way we provide our services to you.
Vialto Partners is a global network, with member firms located around the world. We may transfer or disclose your personal information to Vialto Partners member firms, but only for the purposes set out above. You can find a list of countries in which Vialto Partners member firms are located here: Vialto Partners territory sites We also use third party service providers such as IT, web hosting, data storage, back-up and data analysis service providers located in various countries to process information on our behalf. These service providers are bound to maintain appropriate levels of information security and confidentiality, and to process personal information only as instructed by Vialto Partners.
You may have a right to request access to any personal information we hold about you, and request us to update, correct or delete your personal information. For more information on how you can exercise individual rights that may be available to you or to contact us with any questions, concerns or privacy-related complaints please see our privacy statement, which is available at www.vialto.com/privacy. Any complaints received by us will be dealt with promptly and in accordance with our internal policies and procedures.
In relation to details in documents you provide to us for verification purposes (for example, your Australian passport):
For the purposes of the preceding paragraph: