Your Tax Help Accountants ("we", "us", "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we use and store it, and the rights you have over it. We handle your data in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Contents
1. Who we are
Your Tax Help Accountants is an HMRC-registered accountancy practice based in Stanmore, London HA7, providing Self-Assessment, CIS, landlord tax, limited company, VAT and payroll services. For the purposes of data protection law, we are the "data controller" responsible for your personal data.
We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), registration number ZB108349.
As an accountancy practice we are supervised for anti-money-laundering purposes under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), anti-money-laundering registration number XEML00000136116.
2. Information we collect
Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect:
- Contact details — your name, email address, phone number and the trade or service you enquire about.
- Enquiry & calculator information — figures you choose to enter into tools on our site (such as income, tax deducted and expenses in our CIS refund calculator) and anything you tell us about your situation.
- Client information — if you become a client: your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR), National Insurance number, income and expense records, CIS statements, bank details and other information needed to prepare and file your accounts and returns.
- Identity & verification documents — proof of identity and address, which we are legally required to obtain under anti-money-laundering (AML) regulations.
- Correspondence — records of our communications by phone, email or our booking system.
- Technical data — basic information your browser sends when you visit our website (see Cookies, below).
3. How we collect it
We collect personal data when you complete a form or calculator on our website, request a quote, book a call, email or phone us, are referred to us, or engage us to act on your behalf.
4. Why we use it & our lawful basis
We only use your data where the law allows. Our lawful bases are:
- Consent — when you submit an enquiry or calculator form so we can respond to you. You can withdraw consent at any time.
- Contract — to provide the accountancy services you have engaged us for.
- Legal obligation — to meet our duties under tax law, HMRC requirements and the Money Laundering Regulations 2017.
- Legitimate interests — to run, improve and secure our practice, and to contact you about services related to those you have requested, provided this does not override your rights.
We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use it for unrelated marketing without your consent.
Anti-money-laundering checks
As a regulated accountancy practice, we are legally required under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 to carry out "customer due diligence" — verifying your identity and, where necessary, your source of funds — before and during our work for you. We cannot act for you until these checks are complete. If we know or suspect that funds or activity may be linked to money laundering, we are required by law to make a Suspicious Activity Report to the National Crime Agency (NCA). In those circumstances the law may prevent us from telling you that a report has been made, or the reason for it.
5. Who we share it with
We share data only where necessary, and only with parties who are required to keep it secure:
- HMRC and, where relevant, Companies House and other authorities, to file and manage your tax affairs.
- Trusted service providers (processors) who help us operate, such as our accounting and bookkeeping software, secure cloud storage, our website form provider, our online booking tool and our email provider. These act on our instructions under contract.
- Professional advisers and AML/identity-verification services where required.
- Regulators or law enforcement where we are legally obliged to disclose.
6. Where your data is stored
Your data is stored securely on systems within the UK or European Economic Area (EEA) wherever possible. Some of our service providers may process data outside the UK/EEA (for example, certain website or software providers based in the United States). Where this happens, we take steps to ensure your data receives an equivalent level of protection, such as relying on approved transfer mechanisms (for example, the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or adequacy regulations).
7. How long we keep it
We keep your information only as long as necessary:
- Enquiries that do not become clients — typically kept for up to 12 months and then deleted, unless you ask us to keep in touch.
- Self-employed and sole-trader client records — kept for at least five years after the 31 January Self-Assessment filing deadline for the relevant tax year, in line with HMRC requirements.
- Limited company client records — kept for at least six years from the end of the financial year to which they relate, in line with HMRC and Companies Act requirements.
- VAT records — kept for at least six years.
- Anti-money-laundering records — under Regulation 40 of the Money Laundering Regulations 2017, copies of the identification and due-diligence records we obtain are kept for five years from the end of our business relationship with you, after which they are securely deleted (unless we are required by law to keep them longer).
In some cases we may keep records for longer — for example, where there is an ongoing HMRC enquiry or dispute, where a return is filed late, or where we are otherwise required to by law.
8. How we protect it
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to keep your data secure, including restricted access, secure storage, and secure communication channels for sensitive documents. While no system can be guaranteed completely secure, we take reasonable steps to protect your information and to notify you and the ICO of any breach where we are required to.
9. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- be informed about how your data is used;
- access the personal data we hold about you;
- have inaccurate data corrected;
- have your data erased in certain circumstances;
- restrict or object to our processing in certain circumstances;
- data portability; and
- withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent.
Some rights are limited where we have a legal duty to keep certain records. To exercise any right, contact us using the details below. We will respond within one month.
10. Cookies
Our website uses only the cookies necessary for it to function and, where applicable, to understand how the site is used so we can improve it. Embedded tools (such as our online booking calendar) may set their own cookies. You can control cookies through your browser settings. If we introduce non-essential or analytics cookies, we will ask for your consent first.
11. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top shows when it was last revised. Significant changes will be highlighted on this page.
12. How to contact us & complain
For any questions about this policy or to exercise your rights, contact us:
- Email: info@yourtaxhelp.co.uk
- Phone: 020 8050 4564 (office) or 07478 645331 (mobile)
- Post: Your Tax Help Accountants, Stanmore, London HA7
If you have any concerns about how we have handled your data, please contact us first using the details above — we will always try to put things right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator.