1. About this policy

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Gavin Bateman (ABN 76 362 716 357) trading as The Tax Accountant ("we", "us", "our") is an Australian Chartered Accounting practice and registered tax agent. We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting the personal information we hold about you.

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This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we hold and protect it, who we disclose it to, and how you can access it, correct it or complain about the way we have handled it.

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We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). We also comply with the Privacy (Tax File Number) Rule 2015 and the confidentiality obligations imposed on us by the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 and by APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants.

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This policy is available free of charge on our website. We will provide it in an alternative format on request.

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2. Anonymity and pseudonymity

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You may deal with us anonymously or under a pseudonym for general enquiries. We cannot prepare or lodge a tax return anonymously, because the law requires us to identify you and to lodge in your correct legal name.

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3. The personal information we collect

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Because we prepare and lodge tax returns, the information we collect is detailed. It may include:

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Identity and contact information Name, previous names, residential and postal address, email address, telephone numbers, date of birth, and copies of identification documents such as a passport, visa, driver licence or Medicare card.

Government identifiers Tax file number, Australian Business Number, ATO client identifiers, and, for visa holders, your visa subclass and passport details.

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Financial and taxation information Salary and wage income, PAYG payment summaries and income statements, business and sole trader income and expenses, rental property income and expenses, investment income, cryptocurrency transaction records, capital gains records, deductions and work related expenses, private health insurance details, spouse income details, study and training loan balances, bank account details for the payment of refunds, and prior year returns and assessments.

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Content creator information Where you are a content creator, information about your platform earnings, platform statements, business expenses and asset purchases.

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Self managed superannuation fund information Where we act for or audit a fund, information about members, trustees, contributions, benefits, investments and fund financial statements.

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Documents you upload Any document you upload through our online lodgement form, our tax return information forms, or by email.

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Sensitive information In limited circumstances we may collect sensitive information, which is a special category of personal information under the Privacy Act. Examples include health information relevant to a medical or disability offset. We collect sensitive information only with your consent, or where the law requires or authorises us to do so.

Website information Information about your use of our website, as described in section 6.

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4. How we collect personal information

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We collect personal information directly from you wherever it is reasonable and practicable to do so, including through:

• our online lodgement form and our tax return information forms

• documents you upload or email to us

• meetings, telephone calls and correspondence

• our contact, booking, referral and enquiry forms

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We also collect personal information from third parties, including:

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• the Australian Taxation Office, through the Tax Agent Portal and pre-fill services

• ASIC, the Australian Business Register and other government agencies and registries

• your previous accountant or tax agent, on your authority

• your employer, bank, superannuation fund, share registry or cryptocurrency exchange

• your solicitor or other professional adviser

• accounting software you connect to us, such as Xero

• electronic identity verification providers

• the person who referred you to us, where you were referred under our referral programme

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Where we collect your personal information from someone other than you, we take reasonable steps to make you aware of that collection, unless an exception under the Privacy Act applies.

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5. Why we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information

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We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information in order to:

• prepare and lodge your income tax return and other returns and statements

• provide accounting, taxation, self managed superannuation fund and advisory services

• conduct self managed superannuation fund audits

• verify your identity, as we are required to do as a registered tax agent

• issue engagement terms, quotes, invoices and statements, and collect our fees

• arrange payment of refunds to you and administer our referral cash back programme

• communicate with you about your return, your lodgement and your obligations

• respond to your enquiries and manage our relationship with you

• meet our professional, legal and regulatory obligations, including those imposed by the Tax Practitioners Board, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, the ATO, ASIC and AUSTRAC

• obtain professional advice, respond to complaints and claims, and manage our professional indemnity insurance

• conduct quality reviews and practice reviews

• assess job applications and manage our workforce

• improve our services and operate our business

We will not use or disclose your personal information for a purpose other than the purpose for which it was collected, or a related purpose you would reasonably expect, unless you consent or the law requires or permits it.

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6. Our website, cookies and analytics

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Our website is built on the Wix platform. When you visit our website we may collect your IP address, browser and device type, operating system, referring page, the pages you view, and the date and time of your visit.

Wix sets cookies that are necessary for our website to function, and provides us with analytics about how visitors use our site. We may also use tag management and analytics tools such as Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics. These tools may set cookies that collect information about your visit, including your approximate location, the pages you view and how long you spend on them. We use this information in aggregate to understand which pages are useful and to improve our website. We do not use it to identify you personally.

You can set your browser to refuse cookies or to notify you when a cookie is set. Some parts of our website may not function correctly if you do. You can also opt out of Google Analytics using the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.

Our website may contain links to third party sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites, and we encourage you to read their privacy policies.

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7. Direct marketing

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We may send you tax reminders, newsletters and information about our services by email. We will always give you a simple way to opt out, and every marketing email we send includes an unsubscribe link. You can also opt out at any time by contacting our Privacy Officer.

Opting out of marketing does not stop us sending you communications we are required to send you about your return, your lodgement or your obligations.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not disclose personal information to other organisations for their own direct marketing purposes.

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8. Who we disclose personal information to

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We may disclose your personal information to:

• the Australian Taxation Office, the Tax Practitioners Board, ASIC, AUSTRAC and other regulators

• your bank, superannuation fund or share registry, where relevant to your return

• your solicitor, financial adviser, mortgage broker or other adviser, on your instructions

• auditors of self managed superannuation funds we act for

• our professional indemnity insurers, brokers, lawyers and debt recovery agents

• our software, hosting, communications, storage, identity verification and IT support providers

• our contractors and offshore service team, as described in section 9

• a purchaser or prospective purchaser in connection with a sale or merger of our practice, subject to confidentiality

• any person to whom you have authorised or directed us to disclose it

• any person where disclosure is required or authorised by law

We require our service providers and contractors to protect your personal information, to use it only for the purpose for which we provided it, and to comply with obligations equivalent to the APPs.

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9. Overseas disclosure and our offshore team

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Some of the people who work on our clients' files are engaged by us as contractors based in the Philippines. They work under our direction, on our systems, under written contracts that impose confidentiality and privacy obligations equivalent to the Australian Privacy Principles, and under the supervision of our Australian Chartered Accountants.

Some of our software, hosting and cloud providers also store or process data outside Australia. The countries in which recipients of your personal information are likely to be located are the Philippines, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Singapore, New Zealand and Canada.

Before we disclose personal information overseas we take reasonable steps to ensure the recipient does not breach the Australian Privacy Principles, including through contractual obligations, access controls and restrictions on the downloading and local storage of client data.

If you would like to know where a particular service we use stores your information, please contact our Privacy Officer and we will tell you.

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10. Tax file numbers and government identifiers

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We are a tax file number recipient. We collect and use tax file numbers only for the purposes permitted by taxation, personal assistance and superannuation law.

We will not use a tax file number to identify you in our records, we will not disclose it except as permitted by law, and we will not require you to provide it where the law does not require it. We take reasonable steps to protect tax file number information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, and to securely destroy it when we are no longer required to retain it.

We do not adopt a government related identifier, such as a Medicare number, visa number or driver licence number, as our own identifier for you.

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11. Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing

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From 1 July 2026, accounting practices that provide designated services under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 are reporting entities regulated by AUSTRAC. Where we provide a designated service to you, we are required to collect and verify information about your identity and about the identity of beneficial owners, directors and trustees, screen that information against sanctions and politically exposed person lists, monitor our relationship with you, keep records for at least seven years, and report certain matters to AUSTRAC.

We collect this information because the law requires it. If you do not provide it, we may be unable to act for you. Where we are required to report a matter to AUSTRAC, the law prohibits us from telling you that we have done so.

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12. Automated decisions and our use of artificial intelligence

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We use software, including tools with artificial intelligence and automation features, to assist us in preparing work, summarising documents, drafting correspondence and checking data. A qualified member of our team reviews the output of those tools before we act on it or provide it to you.

Where we use a computer program to make a decision, or to do something substantially and directly related to making a decision, that could reasonably be expected to significantly affect your rights or interests, we will tell you. At present, the categories of decision that may involve automated processing are automated identity verification and screening as part of our client onboarding, which may affect whether we are able to accept you as a client.

The kinds of personal information used in that process are your identity and contact information and your government identifiers.

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13. How we hold and protect personal information

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We hold personal information in electronic form in our practice management, document management and accounting systems, and in physical form in secure premises.

We protect personal information using measures that include multi-factor authentication, device management and endpoint protection, encryption in transit and at rest, role based access controls, restricted physical access to our office, staff confidentiality undertakings, and staff training.

No system is completely secure. If we suffer a data breach that is likely to result in serious harm to you, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as required by the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.

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14. How long we keep personal information

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We retain personal information for as long as we need it for the purpose for which we collected it, and for as long as the law requires us to keep it.

In practice we retain client records for at least seven years after our engagement ends. Longer periods apply in some cases, including records relating to capital gains tax assets, self managed superannuation funds, and matters that are or may become the subject of a claim.

When we no longer need personal information and we are not required to retain it, we destroy it or de-identify it securely.

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15. Accessing and correcting your personal information

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You may ask us for access to the personal information we hold about you, and you may ask us to correct it if it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading.

Please make your request in writing to our Privacy Officer using the contact details in section 17. We will need to verify your identity before we release information.

We will respond to your request within 30 days. We do not charge for making a request, but we may charge a reasonable fee for the cost of giving you access to a large volume of material.

There are limited circumstances in which we may refuse access or correction, including where the information relates to anticipated or existing legal proceedings, where giving access would unreasonably affect the privacy of another person, or where the law requires or authorises us to refuse. If we refuse, we will tell you in writing why, and how you may complain.

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16. Complaints

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If you believe we have breached the Australian Privacy Principles or the Privacy (Tax File Number) Rule, please contact our Privacy Officer using the details in section 17. Please set out your concern in writing so that we can investigate it properly.

We will acknowledge your complaint within five business days and give you a written response within 30 days. If we need longer, we will tell you why and agree a timeframe with you.

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17. Contact us

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Privacy Officer The Tax Accountant 21 Hill Street, Roseville NSW 2069 PO Box 105, Roseville NSW 2069 Telephone: 02 8318 1456 Email: mail@thetaxaccountant.com.au

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18. Changes to this policy

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We review this policy regularly and may update it from time to time. The current version is always available at www.thetaxaccountant.com.au/privacy-policy. Material changes will be notified on our website.

Last reviewed: September 2026.