Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

About this policy

Tax LF Pty Ltd (ABN 95 650 337 474) (“we”, “us”, “our”) is committed to protecting your privacy and to handling your personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we collect and hold it, how and why we use and disclose it, and the rights you have in relation to it.

The personal information we collect and hold

In this policy, “personal information” means information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether or not the information is true and whether or not it is recorded in a material form.

The kinds of personal information we typically collect and hold include:

• Identity and contact details — name, date of birth, residential and postal address, email address and telephone number

• Government identifiers — Tax File Numbers (TFNs), Australian Business Numbers, and (for identity verification) identifiers from documents such as passports, driver licences and Medicare cards

• Financial, accounting and taxation information relating to you or entities you are connected with

• Identity-verification and customer due diligence information collected to meet our obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth) (the “AML/CTF Act”)

• Information about your engagements and dealings with us, including correspondence

How we collect personal information

We collect personal information in a number of ways:

• Directly from you — for example, when you engage us to prepare a tax return, complete our forms, or correspond with us.

• From third parties and publicly available sources — such as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) register, credit reference agencies and other parties, where relevant to the services we provide.

• As required or authorised by law — including under the AML/CTF Act (customer due diligence and ongoing monitoring) and the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth).

Why we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information

We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information for purposes including:

• Providing accounting, taxation, advisory and related professional services

• Verifying your identity and conducting customer due diligence, ongoing customer due diligence and transaction monitoring as required under the AML/CTF Act, and making reports to the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) where we are required to do so

• Complying with our other legal and regulatory obligations, including under taxation law, the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), and the requirements of the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ)

• Administering our practice, including billing, file management, quality reviews and risk management

• Sending you updates, newsletters and information about our services (see Direct marketing below)

We will generally only use or disclose your personal information for the purpose for which it was collected, for a directly related secondary purpose you would reasonably expect, with your consent, or where otherwise permitted or required by law.

Disclosure of your personal information

We may disclose your personal information:

• Where it is appropriate for the purposes described above

• Where required or authorised by law, or to comply with legal obligations or regulatory, court or government requests

• With your consent

Third parties to whom we may disclose personal information include:

• Professional advisers, such as law firms, other tax advisers and auditors

• Government bodies, including the ATO and other tax authorities, and AUSTRAC

• Regulatory and professional bodies, including the Tax Practitioners Board and CA ANZ

• Credit reference agencies

• Courts, police and law enforcement agencies

• Our support and service providers (see below)

Please note that some disclosures we make under the AML/CTF Act — such as a report to AUSTRAC — are subject to strict confidentiality (“tipping off”) rules, and we may be prohibited by law from telling you that such a disclosure has been, or may be, made.

Support and service providers

We disclose personal information to external service providers (and their subsidiaries and affiliates) engaged to support our internal and ancillary processes, including:

• General office support (printing, document management and archiving)

• Accounting, finance and billing support

• IT functions (system management and security, and data storage, including cloud hosting)

• Risk management and quality reviews

Overseas disclosure

Some of our service providers are located overseas, which means your personal information may be disclosed to, or stored in, other countries. The countries in which these recipients are likely to be located include USA, Ireland, France, Ukraine, Thailand and the Philippines.

Before disclosing personal information overseas, we take reasonable steps to ensure the recipient handles it consistently with the APPs, except where an exception under APP 8 applies.

Data security and retention

We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure — including physical, technical and organisational security measures.

We are required by taxation, corporations and AML/CTF laws to retain certain records for minimum periods (for example, many records must be kept for at least 5 years, and some AML/CTF records for 7 years).

Direct marketing

From time to time we may use your contact details to send you information about our services and other material we consider may be of interest to you. Every marketing message will include a simple way to unsubscribe, and you can also opt out at any time by contacting us using the details below. We will action your request promptly.

Accessing and correcting your personal information

You can ask for access to the personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it if you think it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. Please make your request using the contact details below. We will respond within a reasonable period and, if we are unable to give access or make a correction, we will let you know why. There is no charge to make a request, although an administrative fee may apply to some access requests.

How to make a complaint

If you have a query, or are concerned about a possible breach of the Privacy Act or the APPs by us, please contact us in the first instance using the details below. We will acknowledge and investigate your complaint and respond within 30 days.

• Email: info@taxLF.com.au

• Phone: 07 3110 8940

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner:

• Website: www.oaic.gov.au

• Phone: 1300 363 992

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version will be available [on our website / on request], and the “last updated” date above indicates when it was last revised.