Back Home

Privacy Notice

Introduction

This is the privacy notice of Sara Spencer Ltd, registration number 12304408, who’s registered office is at 8 Kingsway, Harrogate, HG1 5NQ, referred to as we, us or our in this privacy notice.

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.

We are a data controller within the meaning of GDPR and we process personal data. If you need to contact us in connection with the use or processing of your personal data, then you can contact our data protection representative, Sara Spencer by post at the above address or by email at sara.spencer@trustandestate.co.uk

We may amend this privacy notice from time to time. If we do so, we will supply you with and/or otherwise make available to you a copy of the amended privacy notice. We may be acting for you and handling your and also your clients’ data. The information below applies to both your and your clients’ data.

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 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 professional obligations to which we are subject as a member of the Chartered Institute of Tax and Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners.
• 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.
• 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

My 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. MLR 2017).
• We have a legitimate interest for the furtherance of our business.

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.

Categories of personal data collected

• Personal identifiers, contacts and characteristics (for example, name, address, email address, telephone number and any other contact details)
• National Insurance and Tax Reference numbers
• Information to enable us to check and verify your identity (for example date of birth, passport and driving license details)
• Information relating to matters on which you require our advice
• Your financial details relating to our work for you
• Details of your professional background for example membership of professional bodies, presence on professional websites, social media, and other publicly available sources

Source of personal data collected

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you. we also collect data from publicly available resources for example social media, professional bodies, and credit/identity check agencies.

Persons/organisations to whom we may give personal data

We may share your personal data with:

• HMRC
• Any third parties with whom you require or permit us to correspond
• Subcontractors for example IT support and software providers
• Credit and identity check agencies
• Professional indemnity brokers and insurers
• The professional bodies, the Chartered Institute of Tax and the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, and/or the Office of Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervisors (OPBAS) in relation to practice assurance and/or the requirements of MLR 2017 (or any similar legislation)
• Other regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory requirements.

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

Your personal data will be processed in the EEA only.

Retention of personal data

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

• Where tax returns have been prepared it is our policy to retain information for 7 years from the end of the tax year to which the information relates.
• Where ad hoc advisory work has been undertaken it is our policy to retain information for 7 years from the date the business relationship ceased.
• Where we have an ongoing client relationship, data which is needed for more than one year’s tax compliance (e.g. capital gains base costs and claims and elections submitted to HMRC) is retained throughout the period of the relationship, but will be deleted 7 years after the end of the business relationship unless you as our client ask us to retain it for a longer period.

Our contractual terms provide for the destruction of documents after 7 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. 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: five years and 10 months after the end of the tax year;
• Otherwise: 22 months after the end of the tax year.

We do not act as a data processor as defined in DPA 2018.

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, preferably in writing, marked for our attention.

To help us provide the information you want and deal with your request more quickly, you should include enough details to enable us to verify your identity and locate the relevant information. For example, you should 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 we may have given you, for example your national insurance number, your tax reference number 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 back 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 will 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/or receive our reply.

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 applicable, 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, so that the data can for example 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 (eg 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 Sara Spencer 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).

Please keep this note as you may need it.

Use of the website

The information below informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use and disclosure of Personal Information we receive from users of the Site.

We use your Personal Information only for providing and improving the Site. By using our Site you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy.

Information Collection And Use

While using our Site we may ask you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information which can be used to contact or identify you. Personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to: your name; Personal Information; Log Data. Like many site operators, we collect information that your browser sends whenever you visit our Site.

Log Data

This Log Data may include information such as your computer’s Internet Protocol & IP address; browser type; browser version; the pages of our Site that you visit; the time and date of your visit; the time spent on those pages and other statistics. In addition we may use third party services such as Google Analytics that collect, monitor and analyse this.  The Log Data section is for businesses that use analytics or tracking services in websites or apps, like Google Analytics.

Communications

‍We may use your Personal Information to contact you with newsletters;  marketing or promotional materials and other information.

Cookies

‍Cookies are files with small amount of data, which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a website and stored on your computers hard drive. Like many websites, we use “cookies” to collect information. You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our Site.

Security

The security of your Personal Information is important to us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security due to the nature of the process.

Changes To This Privacy Policy

‍This Privacy Policy is effective as of 2 October 2019 and will remain in effect except with respect to any changes in its provisions in the future, which will be in effect immediately after being posted on this page.We reserve the right to update or change our Privacy Policy at any time and you should check this Privacy Policy periodically. Your continued use of the Service after we post any modifications to the Privacy Policy on this page will constitute your acknowledgement of the modifications and your consent to abide and be bound by the modified Privacy Policy. If we make any material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you either through the email address you have provided us, or by placing a prominent notice on our Site.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us (details as above)

Date: 08/10/2019