Terms & Conditions

About these terms

These terms are between you and Ola Accountancy Ltd ("we", "us", "our"), a company registered in England and Wales with company number 15007143, whose registered office is at 23a George Street, Luton, England, LU1 2AF. We are supervised by HMRC under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 and registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ZB873069).

They apply when you use our services or the online platform at ola-accountancy.com, including the client portal (together, the "Platform"). By creating an account, paying for a service or asking us to start work, you agree to them.

• Services means the accountancy, tax, advisory, payroll, HR and benefits support services we provide, as described on our websites and in any engagement letter.
• Consumer means an individual acting wholly or mainly outside their trade, business, craft or profession.
• Engagement letter means any letter or agreement setting out the scope of the work we do for you. If it conflicts with these terms, the engagement letter wins.

Our services

• Self-employed and individuals: Self Assessment tax returns, Making Tax Digital quarterly reporting, CIS and tax advice.
• Romanian tax residence: preparing and filing the ANAF Z017 questionnaire with your HMRC Certificate of Residence, for Romanian citizens living in the UK (see section 6).
• Limited companies: incorporation, annual accounts, corporation tax, VAT and payroll.
• Other support: Universal Credit and PIP support, financial consultations, and HR and payroll services.

The Platform is how we work with you. You give us information and documents, approve returns and sign authorisations through it. It supports our professional work and is not a substitute for advice. The exact scope of any service is what is described when you buy it on the Platform, or in your engagement letter.

If you join our affiliate programme, the programme terms on our affiliates page also apply.

Engagement and acceptance

Our agreement with you starts when you pay for a service on the Platform, sign an engagement letter, or ask us in writing to start work after receiving a quote.

Before we act for you, we must complete identity and anti-money-laundering checks (see section 12). We can decline to act, for example if those checks cannot be completed or the service is not right for your circumstances. If we decline after you have paid, we refund you in full.

Your account

• You must be 18 or over. Accounts are created by invitation from us or by registering on the Platform and verifying your email address.
• Keep your details accurate and your password confidential. You are responsible for activity under your account. Tell us straight away at support@ola-accountancy.com if you think someone else has used it.
• Do not misuse the Platform. That includes trying to reach other people's data, disrupting the service, uploading malicious files, or using it for anything unlawful.
• We may suspend or close an account to protect the Platform or its users, or where the law requires it.
• We aim to keep the Platform available but cannot promise it will never be interrupted, for example for maintenance.

Your responsibilities

• Give us accurate, complete information and documents in good time. Our work depends on what you tell us.
• Tell us promptly about changes in your circumstances or personal details.
• Review what we prepare before you approve or sign it. You remain legally responsible for your own tax returns and declarations.
• Keep to the deadlines set by HMRC and ANAF. We will use reasonable care to file what you have approved promptly.

Romanian tax residence (Z017)

This service is for Romanian citizens who have left Romania and live in the UK. It includes:

• a free eligibility pre-check before you are charged;
• completing the ANAF residence questionnaire (Z017) with you;
• guidance on requesting your Certificate of Residence from HMRC, and checking it when it arrives;
• a sworn Romanian translation of the certificate by a translator we instruct;
• assembling the case and filing it with ANAF under the authorisation (împuternicire) you sign; and
• tracking the case until ANAF issues its decision.

You agree to answer the questionnaire truthfully, to request the certificate from HMRC when we ask, and to sign the authorisation so that we can act for you with ANAF. You can revoke the authorisation at any time, but we cannot then file or follow your case. The price covers one person; each child included in the case adds the fee shown before you pay.

Submissions to HMRC

Where you complete HMRC's authorisation step, you appoint us as your tax agent for the services you have bought. We submit to HMRC only on your instruction, after you have approved the return or report in the portal.

When the Platform connects to HMRC on your behalf, HMRC requires us to send fraud prevention data with each submission, such as device identifiers, IP addresses, browser details and timestamps. Our Privacy Notice explains this.

Fees and payment

Our published fees include VAT:

• Services bought on the Platform are paid in advance at checkout through Stripe. Card details are entered on Stripe's page and never reach us.
• Invoices for other services are due within 14 days of the invoice date, by bank transfer or card where offered.
• Discount codes apply only as stated and cannot be exchanged for cash.
• If an invoice is overdue, we may pause work until it is paid. We may charge interest on late payments: for business clients, statutory interest at 8% a year above the Bank of England base rate plus fixed compensation under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998; for consumers, 4% a year above the Bank of England base rate.

Cancellation and refunds

If you are a consumer and our contract is made online, by phone or away from our offices, you can cancel within 14 days of the day it is made, without giving a reason. To cancel, tell us clearly in writing, for example by email to support@ola-accountancy.com.

• If you asked us to start work within those 14 days and then cancel, you pay a proportionate amount for the work done up to the time you told us. We refund the rest.
• If we have fully performed the service at your request within the 14 days, the right to cancel no longer applies.
• If we cannot provide a service you have paid for, we refund the part we have not provided.

We refund to the original payment method within 14 days of agreeing the refund. Your statutory rights are not affected.

Liability

We provide our services with reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for errors, penalties or losses caused by information or documents that are inaccurate, incomplete or late, or by decisions and delays of HMRC, ANAF or other authorities.

• If you are a consumer, we are responsible for loss that is a foreseeable result of our breaking these terms or failing to use reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for loss that was not foreseeable.
• If you are a business client, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, such as loss of profit, data or goodwill, and our total liability for any claim is limited to the fees you paid for the services concerned.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else the law does not allow us to limit, including a consumer's statutory rights.

Confidentiality and data protection

We keep your information confidential. We disclose it only with your consent, where the law or a regulator requires it, or where we need to in order to provide the services, for example to HMRC, ANAF or a sworn translator.

We process personal data under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, as described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Policy.

Anti-money laundering

The law requires us to verify your identity and, where relevant, the source of your funds. We may have to report suspicions to the National Crime Agency without telling you. We may decline or end an engagement if the checks cannot be completed.

Intellectual property

The Platform, its software and design, and the documents and materials we create remain ours unless we agree otherwise in writing. You may use what we give you for the purpose it was provided for. Your own data stays yours.

Ending our agreement

• You can end an ongoing engagement, such as bookkeeping, payroll or quarterly reporting, with 60 days' written notice. This is in addition to any consumer cancellation rights. Fees for work done up to the end date remain payable.
• You can stop a one-off service or close your account at any time, subject to section 9.
• We can end the agreement immediately if fees are unpaid, you give us false information, anti-money-laundering checks cannot be completed, or you seriously break these terms.

When our agreement ends we keep records for as long as the law requires, as set out in our Privacy Notice.

Events outside our control

Neither of us is liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond reasonable control, such as natural disasters, government action, war, terrorism, outages of HMRC or ANAF systems, or major technical failures.

Complaints and disputes

If you are unhappy with our service, email info@ola-accountancy.co.uk or support@ola-accountancy.com, or call 0330 1331 886. We will acknowledge your complaint and aim to resolve it promptly.

If we cannot agree, either of us may suggest mediation. For consumers, mediation or arbitration is voluntary and does not affect your right to go to court. Complaints about how we handle personal data can also go to the Information Commissioner's Office.

Governing law and jurisdiction

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction. If you are a consumer living in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also bring proceedings in your local courts.

General

• Changes. We may update these terms. The version in force when you engage us applies to that engagement unless we agree otherwise. We tell you about material changes through the Platform or by email.
• Entire agreement. These terms and any engagement letter are the whole agreement between us about the services.
• Third parties. No one else has a right under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce these terms.
• Severability. If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the rest still applies.