Terms of engagement

1. Who we are

STL Accounting and Finance (“we”, “us”) is the accounting arm of STL Solutions Services Ltd, registered in Scotland (SC771971), which operates the website, your account and the payment facility. All accounting and tax work is signed off by Aspiration Accounts, an HMRC-registered accountancy firm, before it is sent to you or filed. Where a filing with HMRC must be made by an authorised agent, Aspiration Accounts acts as that agent on our behalf and yours.

2. What each plan includes

Levy Self-Service. You upload your booking exports each quarter. We prepare the Edinburgh visitor levy figures, the workings and the record pack, and you file the return and pay the levy yourself. This plan is self-service: you use the online tool, and no email or telephone support is provided.

Levy Submission Service. Everything in Self-Service, and we file the return on visitorlevy.scot as your agent under the authority in section 5, and send you the Council's confirmation and the amount to pay.

Accounts. Everything in Submission Service, and monthly bookkeeping for your short-term let business from the records you send us: platform exports, bank statements, invoices and receipts. We reconcile your platform payouts, categorise your income and expenses, keep your books in cloud accounting software, send you a monthly summary per property, submit your Making Tax Digital quarterly updates once you are in the scheme and we are authorised, and prepare a year-end summary for your tax return. Email advice on your short-term let accounts and tax is included.

Accounts + Support. Everything in Accounts, and telephone advice on the same working day, preparation and filing of your self-assessment tax return, and an annual review of your tax position.

Portfolio. Everything in Accounts + Support for up to five properties, with profit and loss per property and consolidated, VAT returns where you are registered, limited company accounts and a corporation tax return where the properties are held in one company, and a quarterly review call.

Agency. Everything in Portfolio for up to fifteen properties managed for owners, with monthly owner statements per property, client-money reconciliation across several entities, onboarding of each owner's records, and a dedicated contact.

Each plan includes the number of properties shown on the plan page; further properties are charged at the per-property rate shown. Anything not listed, including payroll, audit, tax investigations, personal tax matters unrelated to your lettings, company secretarial work, catch-up bookkeeping for earlier years and advice on a transaction such as incorporation or a sale, is outside the plan. We will quote a fixed fee for it before we start and will not begin without your agreement.

3. What you must do

Send us complete records for every property and platform on your plan: booking exports for every quarter by the 20th of the filing month; on the Accounts plans, bank statements, invoices and receipts for each month within ten days of the month end, and the information we ask for at year end within sixty days of your year end. Tell us about every bank account, card and platform used for the business, including personal accounts the business runs through. Answer the setup questions truthfully and tell us when your pricing, VAT position, ownership, mortgage or properties change. Tell us about bookings paid for before 1 October 2025 that meet the Council's four conditions. Check every return, update, set of accounts and statement we prepare before it is filed or relied on, and tell us promptly if anything is wrong. Pay the levy and your taxes on time; we do not hold or pay money on your behalf unless a separate written agreement says so.

4. Our responsibilities and their limits

We prepare your returns, accounts and advice with reasonable skill and care, using the law and the published guidance in force at the time, including the City of Edinburgh Council's guidance and VisitScotland's FAQs for the visitor levy, and applying the choices you made in your settings where the guidance leaves a choice to you. Our work is based on the records and answers you give us. We are not responsible for errors or penalties that arise from records that are incomplete, late or wrong, from income or accounts you did not tell us about, or from a choice you made in your settings after we explained the alternatives. You remain the liable person for the visitor levy and the taxpayer for HMRC purposes. Nothing we provide is legal, investment or financial-product advice, and our advice is for you alone; it may not be relied on by anyone else. Our total liability for all claims arising from the service in any twelve-month period is limited to the fees you paid us in that period. Nothing in these terms limits liability for death, personal injury, fraud or anything that cannot be limited by law.

5. Authority to act as your agent

Visitor levy (Submission Service and all Accounts plans). By ticking the authority box at sign-up you authorise STL Accounting and Finance to act as your agent for the purpose of preparing and submitting visitor levy returns for the properties on your plan to the City of Edinburgh Council through visitorlevy.scot, and to correspond with the Council about those returns. We submit each return only after it has been made available to you in your account. Payment of the levy remains your responsibility unless we agree otherwise in writing.

HMRC (Accounts plans). Making Tax Digital quarterly updates, self-assessment, VAT and corporation tax returns are filed through HMRC's agent services by Aspiration Accounts. HMRC requires you to authorise the agent through its own process, which we will walk you through at onboarding; until that authorisation is in place we prepare the figures and you file them. Each filing is made only after you have approved it in your account or by email.

You may withdraw either authority at any time by email, after which we make no further filings. We may decline to file anything we believe to be wrong or incomplete.

6. Identity checks and anti-money-laundering (Accounts plans)

Before we start bookkeeping or tax work we must verify your identity and address, and for a company or partnership the identity of its owners and controllers, as the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 require. We may use an electronic verification service to do this and may ask for documents or for information about the source of funds. We may decline or end the engagement if the checks are not completed or raise concerns. Like all accountants we are obliged to report certain suspicions to the authorities and may not be able to tell you we have done so.

7. Accounting software and your data

On the Accounts plans we keep your books in cloud accounting software. Where you already use Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent or similar, you give us advisor access and we work in your subscription; otherwise we provide a subscription under our practice account and its cost is included in your plan. The books and the data in them belong to you. You authorise us to connect bank feeds, receipt-capture tools and booking-platform exports you have given us access to, and to use software processors that help us read and categorise your records. If you leave us we give you an export of your books and, where the subscription is ours, help you transfer it to your own at the then current retail price.

8. Fees and cancellation

Fees are as shown on the plan page, exclusive of VAT, billed in advance by card through Stripe monthly or quarterly as selected, plus the per-property rate for properties beyond those included. Fixed fees for work outside the plan are quoted in advance. We may change plan prices with 30 days' notice by email. You may cancel at any time from your account; the plan ends at the end of the period already paid for and no refund is made for that period. Under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 you have 14 days from sign-up to cancel; because you asked us to start straight away, you pay for any work done in that period. If a payment fails we retry; if it remains unpaid after 14 days we pause new work until it is settled. We may end the engagement on 30 days' notice, or immediately for non-payment, failed identity checks, or conduct that makes it unreasonable for us to continue.

9. Records, confidentiality and data protection

We keep your uploads, books and the workings for every return and filing for six years from the end of the period they relate to, which covers the five years the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024 requires of you and HMRC's requirements, and then delete them. Booking exports contain guests' names; we use them only to prepare your returns and accounts. Bank statements and invoices are seen only by the people doing your books and by Aspiration Accounts for review. We keep what you tell us confidential except where the law requires disclosure. STL Solutions Services Ltd is the data controller and our privacy notice applies.

10. Advice and communications

Email advice is included on every Accounts plan and telephone advice on Accounts + Support and above. Advice is based on the facts you give us at the time and the law as it then stands; tell us if the facts change. We aim to answer emails within two working days and to return calls the same working day. We communicate through your account and the email address you registered, and you must keep it current.

11. Complaints, changes and law

If you are unhappy with our service, email hello@stlaccounting.co.uk; we acknowledge within two working days and respond within five. We may change these terms with 30 days' notice by email, and the version you accepted is recorded against your account. These terms are governed by Scots law and the Scottish courts have jurisdiction.