Principal Accountant Fees and Services
For the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016, our Company was billed by KPMG LLP for services in the following categories:
Audit Fees.
Fees for audit services totaled $3,642,500 in 2017 and $3,815,000 in 2016, including fees associated with the
annual audit of our Company and its subsidiaries and affiliates, audit of internal control over financial reporting, the performance of interim reviews of our quarterly unaudited financial information and review of our registration statement and
offering documents.
Audit-Related Fees.
No fees for audit-related services were paid to KPMG LLP in 2017 or
2016.
Tax Fees.
No fees for tax services were paid to KPMG LLP in 2017 or 2016.
All Other Fees.
All other fees consist of an annual license fee of $2,000 in each of 2017 and 2016 for use of accounting
research software.
Our Company has been advised by KPMG LLP that neither the firm, nor any member of the firm, has any financial interest, direct or
indirect, in any capacity in our Company or its subsidiaries.
Audit Committee
Pre-Approval
Policy
Consistent with the SEC rules regarding independence, the Audit Committee has
responsibility for appointing, setting compensation and overseeing the work of our independent registered public accounting firm. In recognition of this responsibility, the Audit Committee has established a policy to
pre-approve
all audit and permissible
non-audit
services provided by our independent registered public accounting firm. The Audit Committee approves a list of services
and related fees expected to be rendered during any fiscal-year period within each of four categories of service:
Audit
Services
include audit work performed on the financial statements, including audit of the effectiveness of internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as well as work that
generally only our independent registered public accounting firm can reasonably be expected to provide, including work associated with registration statements under the Securities Act, periodic reports and other SEC documents, statutory or other
financial audit work for subsidiaries and consultations surrounding the proper application of financial accounting and/or reporting standards.
Audit-Related Services
include assurance and related services that are reasonably related to performance of an audit or
traditionally performed by our independent registered public accounting firm, including due diligence or agreed-upon procedures related to mergers, acquisitions, dispositions or refinancings, special procedures required to meet certain financial,
accounting or regulatory requirements and accounting, regulatory or disclosure consultations.
Tax Services
include tax
return preparation, tax planning and related tax services, tax advice, tax compliance, tax reporting,
year-end
estimated taxable income and distribution projections and tax due diligence for REIT compliance
and other tax issues.
Other Services
include those permissible
non-audit
services
that do not fall within the above categories and are routine and recurring services that would not impair the independence of our accountants.
The Audit
Committee
pre-approves
our independent registered public accounting firms services within each category. In 2017, the Audit Committee
pre-approved
the retention of
KPMG LLP to perform various audit and audit-related services for our Company as described above. For each proposed service, our independent registered public accounting firm is generally required to provide documentation at the time of approval
to permit the Audit Committee to make a determination whether the provision of such services would impair our independent registered public accounting firms independence. The fees are budgeted and the Audit Committee requires our independent
registered public accounting firm and management to report actual fees versus the budget periodically throughout the year by category of service. During the year, circumstances may arise when it
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