Privacy Notice

PRIVACY NOTICE issued by RB Taxation Services

Introduction

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

RB Taxation Services is a data controller within the meaning of the GDPR and we process personal data.  The firm’s contact details are: RB Taxation Services, 10 Parkside, Royston Road, Buntingford, Hertfordshire SG9 9RT; Telephone: 01763 847222 and email: rbarlow@rbtaxation.com.  The firm’s representative is Mr Robert B Barlow and his contact details are as above.

We may amend this privacy notice from time to time.  If we do so, we shall make it available to you either on our website or by sending you a copy of the amended 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;
  • To prevent fraud or criminal activity and to safeguard our IT systems;
  • 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 our legal and/or professional obligations in connection with our supervision for anti-money laundering purposes by HM Revenue & Customs;
  • 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; and
  • 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 one or more of 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 our legal obligations (e.g. under MLR 2017);
  • The processing is necessary for the purposes of the following legitimate interests which we pursue:

investigating potential complaints and legal claims and proceedings

defending all or any of the above

researching government information and legislation and their relevance to the circumstances of clients

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.

There may be occasions when we collect personal data, other than Special Category Data as defined in the GDPR, from third parties who have acted on your behalf or with whom you require or permit us to correspond: e.g. we may obtain details of income, interest or rent etc from HM Revenue & Customs, the relevant banks or institutions or the agents concerned.

Sharing of personal data

We may share your personal data with the following organisations and persons:

  • HM Revenue & Customs
  • any third parties with whom you require or permit us to correspond
  • subcontractors who carry out work on our behalf
  • an alternate appointed by us in the event of incapacity or death
  • tax insurance providers
  • professional indemnity insurers
  • HM Revenue & Customs in their capacity as our Anti-Money Laundering Supervisors and in relation to the requirements of MLR 2017 (or any similar legislation)

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 shall process your personal data in the UK only.  Some organisations which provide services to us may transfer personal data outside of the EEA but we shall only allow them to do so if your data is adequately protected.

Retention of personal data

When acting as a data controller and in accordance with recognised good practice within the tax and accountancy sector we shall retain our records relating to you as follows:

  • where tax returns have been prepared, it is our policy to retain information (apart from any documents which we may return to you following the preparation of your return) for between five and 10 years from the end of the tax year to which the information relates
  • where advisory work has been undertaken, it is our policy to retain information for between five and 10 years from the date the business relationship ceased
  • where we have an ongoing client relationship, or have prepared tax returns, data which may be relevant to more than one year’s tax compliance (e.g. capital gains base costs, records of reliefs claimed subject to a lifetime limit, and claims and elections submitted to HMRC) is generally retained throughout the period of the relationship, but may be deleted after five years from the date the business relationship ceases unless you as our client ask us to retain it for a longer period.

Our contractual terms provide for the destruction of documents after 10 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.

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.  Normally, documents and records relevant to your tax affairs are required by law to be retained by you as follows:

Individuals, partnerships and trustees:

  • 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 or return all personal data to the data controller, as agreed with the controller, either annually or at the termination of the contract.

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 Mr Robert B Barlow.

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

  • your date of birth
  • previous or other name(s) you have used
  • your previous addresses in the past five years
  • personal reference number(s) that may have been given to you, for example your national insurance number, your unique tax reference (UTR) 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 photo page of your passport or a copy of your driving licence; and
  • 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).  We shall not charge you for dealing with a SAR.

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 for him or her to receive our reply.  If you are a data controller and we act for you as a data processor, we will assist you with SARs on the same basis as that 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 any 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 appropriate, 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; and
  • 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 Mr Robert B Barlow as above.  If you are not happy with our response, you have a right to lodge a complaint with the ICO (www.ico.org.uk).

 

RB Taxation Services

March 2024