This notice describes how bdh Sterling Tax Pty Limited trading as bdh Tax collects and uses personal data about you, in accordance with the UK’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and any other national implementing laws, regulations and secondary legislation, as amended or updated from time to time, in the UK (‘Data Protection Legislation’).
bdh Sterling Tax Pty Limited trading as bdh Tax is also subject to the Australian Privacy Act 1988. If you are a consumer in Australia you are able to have choice and control over how your data is shared through the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (“the OAIC”).
Contact details for the OAIC are here https://www.oaic.gov.au/contact-us
Please read the following carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.
bdh Tax takes the protection of your privacy very seriously. We will only use your personal information to deliver the services you have requested from us, and to meet our legal responsibilities.
HOW DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM YOU?
We obtain information about you when you engage us to deliver our services.
Information may be obtained about you when you use our website, for example, when you contact us about our services or when you download our monthly newsletter, for example, which articles you have visited and when you accessed them.
WHAT TYPE OF INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT FROM YOU?
The personal information we collect from you will vary depending on which services you engage us to deliver. The personal information we collect might include your name, date of birth, address, telephone number, email address, your job and financial circumstances, your Unique Tax Reference (UTR) number, your National Insurance number, your Australian Tax File Number, and your banking details.
HOW IS YOUR INFORMATION USED?
In general terms, and depending on which services you engage us to deliver, as part of providing our agreed services we may use your information to:
- contact you by post, email or telephone
- verify your identity where this is required
- understand your needs and how they may be met
- maintain our records in accordance with applicable legal and regulatory obligations
- process financial transactions
- report financial transactions to HM Revenue & Customs and the Australian Taxation Office, and communicate with them as necessary
- prevent and detect crime, fraud or corruption
If you refuse to provide us with certain information when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have entered into with you. Alternatively, we may be unable to comply with our legal or regulatory obligations.
We may also process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in accordance with this notice, where we are legally required or permitted to do so.
We are required by legislation, other regulatory requirements and our insurers to retain your data where we have ceased to act for you. The period of retention required varies with the applicable legislation but is typically five or six years. To ensure compliance with all such requirements it is the policy of the firm to retain all data for a period of seven years from the end of the period concerned.
WHO HAS ACCESS TO YOUR INFORMATION?
- We will not sell or rent your information to third parties.
- We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.
- Any of our staff with access to your information have a duty of confidentiality under the ethical standards that bdh Tax is required to follow.
THIRD PARTY SERVICE PROVIDERS WORKING ON OUR BEHALF
We may pass your information to third party service providers, agents, subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf, for example to process payroll or basic bookkeeping.
However, when we use third party service providers we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service.
At this time bdh Tax does not instruct any third party service providers.
Please be assured that we will not release your information to third parties unless you have requested that we do so, or we are required to do so by law, for example, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention and detection of crime, fraud or corruption.
BDH TAX WEBSITE
bdh Tax does not collect and store any personal information about individuals who access our website, except where you voluntarily provide your personal details via email, or by using the website’s electronic form, or enquiring about any of our services. In these circumstances, any personal information you supply will only be used to provide the information or service you have requested.
Please note that, unless encrypted, email messages sent via the internet may not be secure and could be intercepted and read by someone else. Please bear this in mind if you intend to include personal or sensitive information in an email you send to us.
Personal information is not disclosed to third parties unless indicated clearly to you.
SECURITY PRECAUTIONS IN PLACE TO PROTECT THE LOSS, MISUSE OR ALTERATION OF YOUR INFORMATION
We take the security of your data seriously and so all our systems have appropriate security in place that complies with all applicable legislative and regulatory requirements.
Whilst we strive to protect your personal information and will take all reasonable steps to ensure your information is treated securely and in accordance with this policy, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk.
Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems. Where we have given, or where you have chosen, a password which enables you to access information, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.
YOUR CHOICES
We may occasionally contact you by post or email or telephone with details of any changes in legal and regulatory requirements or other developments that may be relevant to your affairs and, where applicable, how we may assist you further. If you do not wish to receive such information from us, please let us know by contacting us as indicated under contact information below.
YOUR RIGHTS & HOW YOU CAN ACCESS AND UPDATE YOUR INFORMATION
We commit to regularly review and correct where necessary, the information that we hold about you. If any of your information changes, please email or write to us, or call us using the contact information noted below.
Access to your information: You have the right to request a copy of the personal information about you that we hold.
Correcting your information: We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up to date. You may ask us to correct any personal information about you that you believe does not meet these standards.
Deletion of your information: You have the right to ask us to delete personal information about you where:
- you consider that we no longer require the information for the purposes for which it was obtained
- you have validly objected to our use of your personal information – see ‘Objecting to how we may use your information’ below
- our use of your personal information is contrary to law or our other legal obligations
- we are using your information with your consent and you have withdrawn your consent – see ‘withdrawing consent to use your information’ below.
Restricting how we may use your information: In some cases, you may ask us to restrict how we use your personal information. This right might apply, for example, where we are checking the accuracy of personal information about you that we hold or assessing the validity of any objection you have made to our use of your information. The right might also apply where there is no longer a basis for using your personal information but you do not want us to delete the data. Where this right is validly exercised, we may only use the relevant personal information with your consent, for legal claims or where there are other public interest grounds to do so.
Objecting to how we may use your information: Where we use your personal information to perform tasks carried out in the public interest then, if you ask us to, we will stop using that personal information unless there are overriding legitimate grounds to continue.
Withdrawing consent to use your information: Where we use your personal information with your consent you may withdraw that consent at any time and we will stop using your personal information for the purpose(s) for which consent was given.
Please contact us in any of the ways set out in contact information below if you wish to exercise any of these rights.
CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY NOTICE
We keep this privacy notice under regular review and will place any updates on our website.
Paper copies of the privacy notice may also be obtained from us at the contact details below.
This privacy notice was last updated in October 2023.
CONTACT INFORMATION
bdh Tax
Level 23
500 Collins Street
Melbourne
VIC 3000
AUSTRALIA
T +61 3 9958 7969
E tax@bdhtax.com
COMPLAINTS
We seek to resolve directly all complaints about how we handle your personal information but you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office in the United Kingdom at:
Information Commissioner’s Office Wycliffe House
Water Lane Wilmslow Cheshire
SK9 5AF
T +44 303 123 1113 (local rate) or +44 1625 545 745
W https://ico.org.uk/concerns
In Australia you can submit a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (the OAIC).
Contact details for the OAIC are here: https://www.oaic.gov.au/contact-us