PRIVACY POLICY

OUR COMMITMENT TO YOU

In this privacy policy, we explain how we collect, store, use and disclose personal information and the steps we take to comply with privacy laws. It also explains how you may access and seek correction of the personal information we hold about you and make privacy-related enquiries or complaints. This privacy policy may be updated from time to time if our practices or obligations change.

APPLICATION OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY

This privacy policy applies to the personal information we collect about our clients, their nominated contacts and their representatives (including trustees, company directors and officers, officers of co-operatives and associations, spouses and dependents) and to other individuals whose personal information we collect, or that our clients or their representatives provide to us in the course of our services. It also applies to applicants for positions with us.

In this policy ‘we’ or ‘us’ means Australian Taxation Services (Aust) Pty Ltd trading as Expat Taxes Australia ABN 60 119 976 948 and its related entities (‘Expat Taxes’).

We may also provide you with separate privacy notices when we collect your personal information. These notices may outline additional uses and disclosures not detailed in this policy. If there is any inconsistency between these separate privacy notices and this privacy policy, you should rely on the information in those notices.

This policy does not apply to the personal information we collect and hold about our employees.

If you find any links to other websites on our website, this privacy policy does not apply to them. Always check the privacy policy of any website you access.

PRIVACY

We recognise the importance of protecting the privacy of information collected about visitors to our sites, in particular information that is capable of identifying an individual (“personal information”).

This Privacy Policy together with the Terms & Conditions governs the manner in which your personal information, obtained through this website, will be dealt with. This Privacy Policy and the Terms & Conditions should be reviewed periodically so that you are updated on any changes.

YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Personal information about visitors to our sites is collected only when knowingly and voluntarily submitted. For example, we may need to collect such information to provide you with further services or to answer or forward any requests or enquiries. It is our intention that this policy will protect your personal information from being dealt with in any way that is inconsistent with applicable privacy laws in Australia.

TYPES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION WE MAY COLLECT ABOUT YOU

We will only ask for personal information that is relevant to our relationship with you and the services that we provide to you if it is reasonably necessary for one or more of our functions or activities. We may ask you for your:

  • Name, address, telephone number, email and other contact details
  • Date of birth, gender and marital status
  • Financial and investment information including shareholdings, debts or debts owed, bank account details, shareholder reference numbers
  • Government identifiers including your tax file number
  • Superannuation and insurance information
  • Your opinion about our services and our team
  • Occupation and employment details including past employment (in respect of job applicants for positions with us or our clients)
  • Your sensitive information such as professional memberships, racial or ethnic origin, criminal record and health information (from job applicants seeking a role with us)

HOW WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION FROM YOU AND OTHERS

We will usually collect personal information directly from you in person, over the phone, via email, and/or electronically via our website.

In the course of providing our services, we collect personal information in a variety of ways. For example, we collect personal information directly from our conversations with you in person and over the telephone, and from mail and electronic communications with you. We also collect personal information from you via documents and materials you provide to us when you:

  • visit our website,
  • make an enquiry about our services,
  • subscribe to one of our mailing lists,
  • respond to one of our surveys
  • become a client or debtor of the company, or
  • apply for a job with us.

Sometimes we may collect information about you from someone else. For example, from someone acting on your behalf or your representatives (such as financial advisers, accountants, and/or solicitors), your employer (if they are our client), your insurers or brokers, publicly available sources (such as publications and online profiles), referees, referrers or other intermediaries.

We may also collect personal information about you from our clients in the course of providing services to them.

When you provide us with someone else’s personal information you should only do so with their authority or consent or if you are required or authorised by law. You should also refer them to this privacy policy and any separate privacy notices we provide you.

THIRD-PARTY ANALYTICS

We may allow third parties to use cookies and other technologies in order to advertise or promote our services on other websites and social media platforms. We allow third-party cookies from Google to inform, report, optimise and serve ads based on your visits to other websites.

INFORMATION COLLECTED THROUGH COOKIES AND SIMILAR TECHNOLOGIES

We and various third parties (whose services we may use from time to time) use cookies, web beacons, and other technologies to receive and store certain types of information whenever you interact with our website through your computer or mobile device.

A “cookie” is a small piece of data sent from a website and stored on the user’s computer by the user’s web browser while the user is browsing. When you visit the website again, the cookie allows the website to recognise your browser.

Cookies may store unique identifiers, user preferences and other information. You can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent.

However, some website features and/or services may not function properly without cookies.

These data files allow us to recall important information about your visit to our website and help to improve your experience if you return.

When you visit our website, we use and analyse the cookies stored on your computer and/or mobile device by us and/or by various third parties to collect personal information and other information such as:

  • your name and email address
  • the pages that you have visited,
  • the date and time of your visit,
  • details of your web browser (e.g. Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari etc)
  • details of the device that you used
  • your IP address

We may also collect referring and onward URLs of websites you have visited or will visit; data about the activities you undertake and how you interact with us online, such as what data is displayed, clicked on or shared by you, click stream patterns, and the length of time you spend on our site or page.

We use this information to:

  • identify you and personalise our content for you,
  • improve the quality of our service,
  • for storing your user preferences (where applicable), and
  • for tracking user trends.

HOW WE USE THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT

Personal information that visitors submit to our sites is used only for the purpose for which it is submitted unless we disclose other uses in this Privacy Policy or at the time of collection.

We collect retain, use and disclose your personal information to enable us to provide our services, respond to your inquiries, assess your employment applications and to comply with the law.

Some of the purposes for which we use your personal information include (but are not limited to):

  • providing you with professional services
  • communicating with you, including responding to your inquiries and feedback, sending you articles and other material that we believe may be of interest to you, and keeping you informed of news and events
  • conducting client satisfaction surveys and feedback activities
  • conducting administration activities
  • undertaking recruitment activities for us
  • complying with legislative and regulatory requirements including under the Corporations Act, the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth), and taxation and employment laws
  • marketing our services (see the section below titled ‘Marketing Our Services’)

Copies of correspondence sent from the website, that may contain personal information, are stored electronically as archives for record-keeping and backup purposes only.

You should be aware that we may use your email address to contact you in the future.

We will not sell or pass on your details to third parties.

USE OF THE INFORMATION FOR A SECONDARY PURPOSE

We may sometimes use the personal information we collect for a secondary purpose, that is, for use in a way different from the original reason for collection.

We will only do this in the following circumstances:

  • where you have consented,
  • where the secondary purpose is directly related to the primary purpose, and you would reasonably expect us to use or
  • disclose the information in such a way, or
  • where we are permitted or required by law, or it is in the interests of public safety to do so.

CORRECTING INFORMATION

You can also request that information about you be corrected or deleted. This is part of our commitment to take all reasonable steps to ensure that the information we hold about you is accurate, complete and up-to-date.

MARKETING OUR SERVICES

From time to time we may also use and disclose your personal information to inform you about other services and products we provide and/or that other companies offer which we think may be of interest to you.

If at any time you do not wish to receive direct marketing communications from us you may:

DISCLOSURE

We may be required to disclose your personal information by law e.g. under Court Orders or Statutory Notices, or under laws relating to sanctions, anti-money laundering or counter-terrorism financing, corporations law, taxation and employment or where we are appointed to administer companies under the Corporations Act.

SECURITY

We strive to ensure the security, integrity and privacy of personal information submitted to our site. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be totally secure.

However, we will endeavour to take all reasonable steps to protect the personal information you may transmit to us or from our online products and services. Once we do receive your transmission, we will also make our best efforts to ensure its security on our systems.

In addition, our employees and the contractors who provide services related to our information systems are obliged to respect the confidentiality of any personal information held by us. However, we will not be held responsible for events arising from unauthorised access to your personal information.

LINKS TO OTHER SITES

We provide links to Web sites outside of our website, as well as to third-party websites. These linked sites are not under our control, and we cannot and do not accept responsibility for the conduct of companies linked to our website. Before disclosing your personal information on any other website, we advise you to examine the terms and conditions of using that website and to examine its privacy statement.

FURTHER PRIVACY INFORMATION

For more information about privacy issues in Australia and protecting your privacy, visit the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.