Online Privacy & Cookie Policy

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.

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Abigail Loveridge of Malmesbury Bookkeeping is a data controller within the meaning of the GDPR and I process personal data. I can be contacted via email at abi@malmesburybookkeeping.co.uk.

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

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

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The purposes for which I intend to process personal data

I intend to process personal data for the following purposes:

• To enable me to supply professional services to you as my client.

• To fulfil my 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).

• To comply with professional obligations to which I am subject to as a member of the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT).

• To use in the investigation and/or defence of potential complaints, disciplinary proceedings and legal proceedings.

• To enable me to invoice you for my 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.

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 your personal data for the purposes listed above.

• The processing is necessary for the performance of our contract with you.

• The processing is necessary for compliance with legal obligations to which we are subject (e.g. the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017).

• The processing is necessary for the purposes of the following legitimate interests which we pursue: investigating/defending legal claims.

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

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Personal data collected

I will collect information such as:

• Contact and personal details of your company directors and employees. This may include names, date of births, telephone numbers, business and residential addresses, email addresses, IP addresses, Unique Tax Reference numbers (UTR), and National Insurance numbers (NI).

• Bank account information including account numbers and sort codes, bank names and addresses, bank letters, and bank statements.

• Information about your income and expenses.

• Information about your VAT returns including return dates and amounts of VAT you have paid/been refunded.

• Information about your assets and debts.

• Details of your investments.

• Applications you have made for loans and grants.

• Applications you have made for insurance claims.

• Accounting information from previous years including statement of profit or loss and statement of financial position.

Sources of data collected

• Yourself, as the data subject. 

• Your accountants.

• Your employees.

• Public sites such as Companies House.

• Supplier bills to see your expenses. This may be electronically (via email) or paper copies.

• Invoices you have raised or details of monies received to see your income.

• Your cloud based accounting software (if you are using one e.g. Xero or QuickBooks) to see previous and current information including VAT returns, assets, debts, income, expenses, loans, and grants.

• Bank statements.

• Cheque/paying in books.

• Cash books.

• Sales and purchase ledgers.

• Loan, grant and insurance claim applications and correspondence.

• Investment details and correspondence.

How I transfer and store data will vary across organisations, for example some organisations may consent to providing me with their businesses email address login and password to download electronic supplier bills.  

If you choose to professionally engage with me, you will receive a Letter of Engagement. In this letter, you will see two sections titled ‘Secure communications and transfer of data’ and ‘Storage of data’ which will have been tailored to your business. Please check you have read, understood and consent to this before signing your Letter of Engagement.

Persons/organisations to whom I may give your personal data to

I may share your personal data with:

• HMRC.

• Any third parties with whom you require or permit me to correspond with.

• Your accountant.

• Subcontractors.

• An alternate appointed by us in the event of incapacity or death.

• Tax insurance providers.

• Professional indemnity insurers.

• My professional body (Association of Accounting Technicians) who are also my anti-money laundering supervisors, in relation to practice assurance and the requirements of the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 and any similar legislation.

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

• The police and law enforcement agencies.

• Courts and tribunals.

• The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

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

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Retention of personal data

When acting as a data controller and in accordance with recognised good practice within the tax and accountancy sector I will retain all of my records relating to you for up to ten years.

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If for any legal reason your data is required to be held past this time, you will be informed of the extension.

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

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You are responsible for retaining information that I send to you. 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: a minimum of five years and 10 months after the end of the tax year.

• Otherwise: a minimum of 22 months after the end of the tax year.

Companies, LLPs, and other corporate entities:

• A minimum of six years from the end of the accounting period.

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

You have a right to request access to your personal data that I hold. Such requests are known as ‘subject access requests’ (SARs). Please email all SARs to abi@malmesburybookkeeping.co.uk

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

1. Your date of birth.

2. Previous or other name(s) you have used.

3. Your previous addresses in the past five years.

4. 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.

5. 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 license and a recent utility bill.

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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).

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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 me for information about you, and/or receive my reply.

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

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Putting things right (the right to rectification)

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

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Deleting your records (the right to erasure)

In certain circumstances you have a right to have the personal data that I 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 me immediately and I will consider your request. In certain circumstances I have the right to refuse to comply with a request for erasure. If applicable, I will supply you with the reasons for refusing your request.

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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 me immediately if you want me to cease to process your information or you object to processing so that I can consider what action, if any, is appropriate.

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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 I 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, and when processing is carried out by automated means.

I will respond to any data portability requests made to us without undue delay and within one month. I may extend the period by a further two months where the request is complex or a number of requests are received but I 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 my processing of your personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Please inform me 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, I may not be able to continue to provide services to you.

• Even if you withdraw your consent, it may remain lawful for me to process your data on another legal basis (e.g. because we have a legal obligation to continue to process your data).

Complaints

If you have requested details of the information I hold about you and you are not happy with my response, or you think I have not complied with the GDPR or DPA 2018 in some other way, you can complain to me. Please email any complaints to abi@malmesburybookkeeping.co.uk

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