Accountancy Insurance

Accounting firms rather than the general public are the customers of this specialist insurer, which works solely with practices that want to offer tax audit protection to their own clients. Its main product is Audit Shield, and the company has been selling it since 2003.

What Audit Shield covers

Audit Shield is a tax audit insurance policy. It pays the professional fees a client incurs when a tax authority begins an official audit, enquiry, investigation, review or examination. In New Zealand that covers action by Inland Revenue or any other government authority. The aim, in the company's words, is to take the risk and hassle out of government-initiated tax audits so that accountants can offer better service and grow their practices.

Support for the firms that sell it

The company says it partners with thousands of accounting firms in towns, cities and the countryside of New Zealand, Australia and Canada. It helps firms add the product, including wording a statement about it into their terms of engagement, and it handles claims when a covered audit takes place. An online portal and an Audit Shield app let a firm check client status, generate quotes and receive notifications. Its site also carries material on its client service promise, policy cover, frequently asked questions, case studies and claims activity across New Zealand.

A specialist insurer with a regional footprint

Accountancy Insurance was founded in 2003, and its New Zealand operations began in 2011 when an office opened in Auckland. The company says it wants to become the main name in tax audit insurance for accounting firms across Commonwealth countries. Because it deals only with accountants, it says it understands how the industry works, and it describes continuing efforts to find improved tools for business intelligence, security, compliance and process. It adds that it works with its partner firms over the long term to put recommendations into practice.