Requirements of the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

  1. The DPA 2018 and GDPR set out a number of requirements in relation to the processing of personal data.
  2. Here at Taxacc Solutions Ltd, we take your privacy and the privacy of the information we process seriously. We will only use your personal information and the personal information you give us access to under this contract to administer your account and to provide the services you have requested from us.
  3. We attach our privacy notice setting out our approach to handling your information. In signing one copy of this letter, you will be indicating that you have read and agreed to the terms under which we operate as set out in this notice. In addition, please note that we require your agreement on several specific points, which are also included in the acceptance section below:
    1. Continuity arrangements: Please note that we have arrangements in place for an alternate to deal with matters in the event of permanent incapacity or illness. This provides protection to you in the event that I cannot act on your behalf, and in signing this letter, you agree to the alternate having access to all of the information I hold in order to make initial contact with you and agree the work to be undertaken during my incapacity. You can choose to appoint another agent at that stage if you wish
    2. Secure communications and transfer of data: We will communicate or transfer data using the following
      1. Adobe e-signature
      2. Boxsync
      3. Bright Pay
      4. Post hard-copy documents
      5. Emails*
      6. Google Drive
      7. Microsoft Teams
      8. Microsoft One Drive
      9. Quickbooks
      10. Senta
      11. GoProposal
      12. Xero

*If you require us to correspond with you by email that is not encrypted or password-protected, you also accept the risks associated with this form of communication.

PRIVACY NOTICE effective from 25th May 2018 issued by Taxacc Solutions Ltd

Introduction

The Data Protection Act 2018 (“DPA 2018”) and the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) impose certain legal obligations in connection with the processing of personal data.

Taxacc Solutions Ltd is a data controller within the meaning of the GDPR, and we process personal data. The firm’s contact details are as follows:

Taxacc Solutions Ltd, 117A St. John’s Hill, Sevenoaks, Kent – TN13 3PE

We may amend this privacy notice from time to time. If we do so, we will supply you with and/or otherwise make available to you a copy of the amended privacy notice.

Where we act as a data processor on behalf of a data controller (for example, when processing payroll), we provide an additional schedule setting out required information as part of that agreement. That additional schedule should be read in conjunction with this privacy notice.

The purposes for which we intend to process personal data

We intend to process personal data for the following purposes:

  • to enable us to supply professional services to you as our client and manage our firm and work
  • to fulfil our obligations under relevant laws in force from time to time (e.g. the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (“MLR 2017”))
  • to comply with professional obligations to which we are subject as a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
  • to use in the investigation and/or defence of potential complaints, disciplinary proceedings and legal proceedings
  • to enable us to invoice you for our services and investigate/address any attendant fee disputes that may have arisen
  • to contact you about other services we provide which may be of interest to you if you have consented to us doing so
  • for promotional activities of our firm

The legal bases for our intended processing of personal data

Our intended processing of personal data has the following legal bases:

  • at the time you instructed us to act, you gave consent to our processing of your personal data for the purposes listed above
  • the processing is necessary for the performance of our contract with you and managing our firm
  • the processing is necessary for compliance with legal obligations to which we are subject (e.g. MLR 2017)
  • the processing is necessary for the purposes of the following legitimate interests, which we may have to pursue regarding any investigations or defending legal claims

It is a requirement of our contract with you that you provide us with the personal data that we request. If you do not provide the information that we request, we may not be able to provide professional services to you. If this is the case, we will not be able to commence acting or will need to cease to act.

How do we collect personal data?

  • Directly. We obtain personal data directly from individuals in a variety of ways, including obtaining personal data from individuals who provide us with their business card(s), complete our online forms, visit our offices or for recruitment purposes. We may also obtain personal data directly when, for example, we are establishing a business relationship, performing professional services through a contract, or through our hosted software applications.
  • Indirectly. We obtain personal data indirectly about individuals from a variety of sources, including recruitment services and our clients. We may attach personal data to our customer relationship management records to better understand and serve our business clients, subscribers and individuals, satisfy a legal obligation, or pursue our legitimate interests.
  • Public sources. Personal data may be obtained from public registers (such as Companies House), news articles, sanctions lists, and Internet searches.
  • Business clients. Our business clients may engage us to perform professional services, which involves sharing personal data they control as part of that engagement. For example, we will review payroll data as part of an audit, and we often need to use personal data to provide global mobility and pension services. Our services may also include processing personal data under our clients’ control on our hosted software applications, which may be governed by different privacy terms, policies and notices.
  • Recruitment services. We may obtain personal data about candidates from an employment agency and other parties, including former employers and credit reference agencies.
  • Lead generation services. We may obtain personal data about prospective clients via lead generation services, for which we may have to pay a fee to acquire the client’s contact details.

What categories of personal data do we collect?

We may obtain the following categories of personal data about individuals through direct interactions with us or from information provided through client engagements, from applicants, our suppliers and through other situations, including those described in this Privacy Notice.

  • Personal data. Here is a list of personal data we commonly collect to conduct our business activities.
    • Contact details (e.g., name, company name, job title, work and mobile telephone numbers, work and personal email and postal address).
    • Professional details (e.g., job and career history, educational background and professional memberships, published articles).
    • Financial information (e.g., taxes, payroll, investment interests, pensions, assets, bank details, insolvency records).
  • Sensitive personal data. We typically do not collect sensitive or special categories of personal data about individuals other than our own employees. When we do need to process sensitive personal data from data subjects who are not our employees, it is either on the instructions of a third party, with the express consent of the individuals or as required by law. Examples of sensitive personal data we may obtain, or otherwise hold, include:
    • Personal identification documents that may reveal race, religion or ethnic origin, possibly biometric data of private individuals, beneficial owners of corporate entities, or applicants.
    • Expense receipts submitted for individual tax or accounting advice that reveal affiliations with trade unions or political opinions.
    • Adverse information about potential or existing clients and applicants that may reveal criminal convictions or offences information.
    • Information provided to us by our clients in the course of a professional engagement.

Persons/organisations to whom we may give personal data

We may share your personal data with:

  • HMRC
  • Your pension provider
  • Any third parties with whom you require or permit us to correspond
  • Employees and Subcontractors
  • An alternate appointed by us in the event of incapacity or death
  • Tax insurance providers
  • Professional indemnity insurers
  • Third-party software providers used by us to provide services and manage our firm, and work
  • Our professional body (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and/or the Office of Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervisors (OPBAS) in relation to practice assurance and/or the requirements of MLR 2017 (or any similar legislation)
  • Potential clients seeking references or for promotional activities of our firm

If the law allows or requires us to do so, we may share your personal data with:

  • the police and law enforcement agencies
  • courts and tribunals
  • the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”).

We may need to share your personal data with the third parties identified above in order to comply with our legal obligations, including our legal obligations to you. If you ask us not to share your personal data with such third parties, we may need to cease to act.

Transfers of personal data outside the EEA

We back up personal data on servers located in the European Economic Area (EEA). We may, from time to time, have to store personal data on servers located outside the European Economic Area (EEA). In order to provide the services you have engaged us for, we may transfer personal data to our associated sister organisations Shruti Soni Ltd, Tacpro Solutions Limited and reputable third party organisations situated inside or outside the EEA when we have a business reason to engage these organisations to support us. Each organisation is required to safeguard personal data in accordance with our contractual obligations and data protection legislation applicable in the country.

Retention of personal data

When acting as a data controller and in accordance with recognised good practise within the tax and accountancy sector, we will retain all of our records relating to you as follows:

  • Where tax returns, annual accounts have been prepared, and independent examination, audit or work under-reporting accountants report undertaken, it is our policy to retain information for 6 years from the end of the tax year to which the information relates.
  • Where ad hoc advisory work has been undertaken, it is our policy to retain information for 2 years from the date the business relationship ceased.
  • Where we have an ongoing client relationship, data which is needed for more than one year’s tax compliance (e.g. capital gains base costs and claims and elections submitted to HMRC) is retained throughout the period of the relationship but will be deleted 2 years after the end of the business relationship unless you as our client ask us to retain it for a longer period.

Our contractual terms provide for the destruction of documents after 6 years, and therefore, an agreement to the contractual terms is taken as agreement to the retention of records for this period and to their destruction thereafter.

You are responsible for retaining information that we send to you (including details of capital gains base costs and claims and elections submitted), and this will be supplied in the form agreed between us. Documents and records relevant to your tax affairs are required by law to be retained by you as follows:

Individuals, trustees and partnerships

  • with trading or rental income: five years and 10 months after the end of the tax year
  • otherwise: 22 months after the end of the tax year.

Companies, LLPs and other corporate entities

  • six years from the end of the accounting period.

Where we act as a data processor as defined in DPA 2018, we will delete all personal data at the end of 6 years from the end of the accounting year it was last used.

Requesting personal data we hold about you (subject access requests)

You have a right to request access to your personal data that we hold. Such requests are known as ‘subject access requests’ (“SARs”).

Please provide all SARs in writing marked for the attention of Shruti Soni.

To help us provide the information you want and deal with your request more quickly, you should include enough details to enable us to verify your identity and locate the relevant information. For example, you should tell us:

  • Your date of birth
  • previous or other names you have used
  • your previous addresses in the past five years
  • personal reference number(s) that we may have given you, for example, your national insurance number, your tax reference number or your VAT registration number
  • what type of information you want to know

If you do not have a national insurance number, you must send a copy of:

  • the back page of your passport or a copy of your driving licence
  • a recent utility bill.

DPA 2018 requires that we comply with a SAR promptly and in any event within one month of receipt. There are, however, some circumstances in which the law allows us to refuse to provide access to personal data in response to a SAR (e.g. if you have previously made a similar request and there has been little or no change to the data since we complied with the original request).

You can ask someone else to request information on your behalf – for example, a friend, relative or solicitor. We must have your authority to respond to a SAR made on your behalf. You can provide such authority by signing a letter which states that you authorise the person concerned to write to us for information about you and/or receive our reply.

Where you are a data controller, and we act for you as a data processor (e.g. by processing payroll), we will assist you with SARs on the same basis as is set out above.

Putting things right (the right to rectification)

You have a right to obtain the rectification of any inaccurate personal data concerning you that we hold. You also have a right to have incomplete personal data that we hold about you completed. Should you become aware that any personal data that we hold about you is inaccurate and/or incomplete, please inform us immediately so we can correct and/or complete it.

Deleting your records (the right to erasure)

In certain circumstances, you have a right to have the personal data that we hold about you erased. Further information is available on the ICO website (www.ico.org.uk). If you would like your personal data to be erased, please inform us immediately, and we will consider your request. In certain circumstances, we have the right to refuse to comply with a request for erasure. If applicable, we will supply you with the reasons for refusing your request.

The right to restrict processing and the right to object

In certain circumstances, you have the right to ‘block’ or suppress the processing of personal data or to object to the processing of that information. Further information is available on the ICO website (www.ico.org.uk). Please inform us immediately if you want us to cease to process your information or you object to processing so that we can consider what action, if any, is appropriate.

Obtaining and reusing personal data (the right to data portability)

In certain circumstances, you have the right to be provided with the personal data that we hold about you in a machine-readable format, e.g. so that the data can easily be provided to a new professional adviser. Further information is available on the ICO website (www.ico.org.uk).

The right to data portability only applies:

  • to personal data an individual has provided to a controller
  • where the processing is based on the individual’s consent or for the performance of a contract
  • when processing is carried out by automated means

We will respond to any data portability requests made to us without undue delay and within one month. We may extend the period by a further two months where the request is complex or a number of requests are received, but we will inform you within one month of the receipt of the request and explain why the extension is necessary.

Withdrawal of consent

Where you have consented to our processing of your personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Please inform us immediately if you wish to withdraw your consent.

Please note:

  • the withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of earlier processing
  • if you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to continue to provide services to you
  • even if you withdraw your consent, it may remain lawful for us to process your data on another legal basis (e.g. because we have a legal obligation to continue to process your data).

Automated decision-making

We do not intend to use automated decision-making in relation to your personal data.

Complaints

If you have requested details of the information we hold about you and you are not happy with our response, or you think we have not complied with the GDPR or DPA 2018 in some other way, you can complain to us. Please send any complaints to our office addressed for the attention of Shruti Soni.

If you are not happy with our response, you have a right to lodge a complaint with the ICO (www.ico.org.uk).

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