American Tax UK Ltd t/a British American Tax – Customer Privacy Notice

1. Introduction
This privacy notice provides you with details of how we collect and process your personal data and your rights in respect of the processing of that data.

Please note that as a visitor to this site you may browse and are not required to disclose any data to us whilst browsing. Please read further ahead for cookie information.

American Tax UK Ltd trading as British American Tax is a UK and US tax compliance and consulting firm. We are registered in England and Wales as a limited liability company under number 05638971 and our registered office is located at: 7 Station Passage, South Woodford, E18 1JL. British American Tax Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary based in Florida with the US registered office of 4767 New Broad Street, Orlando FL 32814-6405.

For the purpose of the data protection legislation and this notice we are the ‘data controller’ and the ‘data processor’. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal data about you. We are required under the Data Protection Legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.

We have appointed a data protection manager who is our data protection point of contact and is responsible for assisting with enquiries in relation to this privacy notice and our treatment of your personal data. Should you wish to contact our data protection manager you can do so using the contact details noted below.

If you are not happy with any aspect of how we collect and use your data you have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We should be grateful if you would contact us first if you do have a complaint so that we can try to resolve it for you.

2. How we collect your personal data
The personal data that we hold to perform the services that you have engaged us to perform for you will be provided to us when:

• you request a proposal from us in respect of the services we provide
• you complete our annual tax return data questionnaire
• you provide back-up documentation to support the entries in the questionnaire
• you contact us by email, telephone, or post when you have a query about our services
• you have given your consent for us to receive personal information from third parties such as your employer or financial institutions
• we may also in specific circumstances acquire personal information from publicly accessible sources for example, Companies House.

Sensitive Data
Sensitive data refers to data that includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data.

We do not specifically collect any sensitive data about you. However, it may be possible to infer certain sensitive details about you from the other personal data we hold, this is wholly incidental to the information we are required to gather for tax purposes.

We do not collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

Sensitive data does not currently include financial data.

Job applicants
Please refer to information made available when applying for further details as to how Personal Information is collected, processed and how long it is retained for.

Cookies
A cookie is a small amount of data, which often includes a unique identifier that is sent to your device’s web browser from a website and is stored on your device’s hard drive.

How we use cookies
We use cookies for a number of purposes:

• For use in Google Analytics and other services to track website traffic data, which is reported anonymously for analytical purposes. This allows us to understand how our website is used and to improve its efficiency.
• To tailor our website to your specific needs.
• For advertising, ad targeting and remarketing purposes.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

We use third party cookies from Google AdWords and Google Analytics to collect data about user behaviour. Our remarketing strategies may place banner ads on subsequent websites you visit.

Our online advertising campaigns are hosted by third party vendors, including Google, who use cookies to base advertisements on information about you and your browsing behaviour, including your previous visits to our website.

You can choose to opt out of Google cookie tracking. You can also opt out of Google’s and other third-party vendors’ use of cookies by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative.

We may also use Google’s DoubleClick’s remarketing pixels. You can opt out of these on Google.

If you wish to turn off cookies it is usually possible to stop your browser from accepting them:

• Cookie settings in Internet Explorer
• Cookie settings in Firefox
• Cookie settings in Chrome
• Cookie settings in Safari web and iOS.

You also have the choice to deny cookies when you visit our website.

3. Types of information we hold about you
The information we hold about you may include the following:

• your personal details such as your name, address, date of birth
• your spouses and your children’s personal details
• tax reference numbers such as your and your family’s national insurance numbers, unique taxpayer reference numbers and social security numbers.
• employment related information such as employment contracts, the name and address of your employer, tax codes and compensation details.
• financial information such as details relating to your bank accounts, investments, financial assets, and pensions
• details of contact we have had with you in relation to the provision, or the proposed provision of our services
• details of any services you have received from us
• our correspondence and communication with you
• correspondence with tax authorities
• Information we have received from other sources such as publicly available information.

Your duty to inform us of changes
It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Should your personal information change please notify us as soon as possible.

4. How we use your personal data

• We may process your personal data for purposes necessary for the performance of our contract with you and to comply with our legal obligations.
• We may process your personal data for the purposes of our own legitimate interests provided that those interests do not override any of your own interests, rights and freedoms which require the protection of personal data. This includes processing for marketing, business development, statistical and management purposes.
• We may process your personal data for certain additional purposes with your consent, and in these limited circumstances where your consent is required for the processing of your personal data then you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

Please note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful basis depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data.

Situations in which we will use your personal data
Set out below are descriptions of the ways we may use your personal data and the legal grounds on which we will rely to process the data. If you require more details about the specific legal ground, we are relying on to process your personal data then please contact us.

• register you as a new client (performance of contract)
• to process and deliver product (performance of contract)
• notify you about any changes to tax law (legitimate interest)
• notify you of any tax planning opportunities (legitimate interest)
• notify you about any changes to our services (legitimate interest)
• comply with anti-money laundering regulations (legal obligation)
• collect and recover money owed to us (performance of contract)

In some circumstances we may anonymise or pseudonymise the personal data so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use it without further notice to you.

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.

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal ground for processing your personal data. The only time we will ask for your consent is if we receive a request for your personal data from a third party.

Marketing
We currently do not send marketing communications, but this may change in the future in which case we will only contact you for marketing purposes if we have obtained your written consent to do so.

5. Data retention
We will only retain your personal data for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it is collected.

When assessing what retention period is appropriate for your personal data, we take into consideration:

• the requirements of our business and the services provided
• any statutory or legal obligations
• the purposes for which we originally collected the personal data
• the lawful grounds on which we based our processing
• the types of personal data we have collected
• the amount and categories of your personal data
• the length of time under which you could require the data hold on your behalf to win a legal case or a tax dispute
• whether the purpose of the processing could reasonably be fulfilled by other means.

By law we must keep certain information about our customers for tax purposes (including contact, identity, and financial assets) for certain time periods even after they cease being customers. If you require more information, please contact us.

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data (see below for further information).

Change of purpose
Where we need to use your personal data for another reason, other than for the purpose for which we collected it, we will only use your personal data where that reason is compatible with the original purpose.

Should it be necessary to use your personal data for a new purpose, we will notify you and communicate the legal basis which allows us to do so before starting any new processing.

6. Disclosures of your personal data
In some situations for example filing your tax return or responding to tax authority enquiries we may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below. We will always contact you before any personal data is shared and let you know exactly what data has been shared.

• HM Revenue and Customs
• Internal Revenue Service
• United States Treasury
• US State / Local tax authorities

In addition, we may also be required to share your personal data with the following:

• Service providers who provide IT and system administration services
• Taxation software providers where your information is held on their server
• Professional advisors such as IFA’s, rental agents, lawyers, accountants where we have your specific consent
• Archiving / storage company where we store data offsite.

To do this, we require you sign our Disclosure Authorization before we can commence work on your returns.

Transfers out of EEA
Countries outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) do not always offer the same levels of protection to your personal data so European law has prohibited transfers of personal data outside of the EEA unless the transfer meets certain criteria. The US requires a signed Disclosure Authorization to transmit data outside the USA.

We regularly transfer your personal data between the US and the EEA. We will do our best to ensure a similar degree of security of data by ensuring that the non-EEA country (the USA) has been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission and vice versa. When we use providers based in the United States, we only transfer data to them if they are part of the EU-US Privacy Shield which requires them to provide similar protection to personal data shared between Europe and the US.

If no safeguards are available, we will request explicit consent to the transfer and you have the right to withdraw this consent at any time.

7. Data Security
We have put in place appropriate security measures and will take reasonable steps to protect your personal data from misuse, loss and from unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure.

All company employees have access to and are required to comply with our data protection policy to minimise the risk of your personal data being compromised.

We have also put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data breaches and we will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

Our policies, procedures and IT systems are reviewed regularly to ensure that your personal data is stored safely and that we have adequate protection from cyber-threats.

8. Your legal rights
Under certain circumstances by law you have right to:

• Request access to your personal data
• Request correction of your personal data
• Request erasure of your personal data
• Object to processing of your personal data
• Request restriction of processing your personal data
• Request transfer of your personal data
• Right to withdraw consent

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, then please contact us. Please note that under US law we cannot erase US tax returns we have prepared until three years after completion of the tax return.

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive, or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your rights to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case we will notify you and keep you updated.

9. Changes to this notice
Any changes we make to our privacy notice in the future will be provided to you at the next point of data collection and will be updated on our website: www.BritishAmericanTax.com

This privacy notice was last updated on 2 April 2019.