PRIVACY NOTICE issued by Sterling Tax Limited
Introduction
This notice explains how Sterling Tax processes personal data about our clients as individuals when Sterling Tax is acting as a controller.
The Data Protection Act 2018 (“DPA 2018”) and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (“UK GDPR”) impose certain legal obligations in connection with the processing of personal data.
Sterling Tax Limited is a limited company registered in England and Wales with a registered number 15935333. Sterling Tax Limited is a controller within the meaning of the UK GDPR and we process personal data. The firm’s contact details are as follows: Sterling Tax Limited, 3rd Floor The Coade, 98 Vauxhall Walk, London, SE11 5EL.
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.
Where we act as a processor on behalf of a controller (for example, when processing payroll), we provide an additional contract setting out required information as part of that agreement however, the controller will be responsible for providing a notice to its data subjects in that situation.
If you want to contact us about how we process personal data or to exercise your rights please email: mark.allsopp@sterling-tax.co.uk
The Personal Data we process and its origin
We gather the majority of information we process about you from you when you instruct us and in the course of our relationship.
We process:
- Your name and contact details including email and telephone numbers
- Other personal details such as your date of birth, previous names, signatures, marital status
- ID documents for “know your client” checks, insurance numbers, passport details
- Detail relating to your financial situation, employment, domicile, income, credit history, bank account details, tax details
- Records of meetings and decisions relating to you
- Details of services you have purchased from us
- Details of the way you interact with our website and services
- Correspondence from you including expressions of opinion and feedback from you [recordings of calls], details of any complaints or claims
- Marketing preference information
The purposes for which we intend to process personal data
| Purpose | Legal Basis |
| To enable us to supply professional services to you as our client | processing is necessary for us to perform the contract between us, or because you have asked us to take specific steps before entering into the contract |
| To comply with professional obligations to which we are subject as a member of The Association of Taxation Technicians. | the processing is necessary for us to comply with the law. |
| To use in the investigation and/or defence of potential complaints, disciplinary proceedings and legal proceedings | The processing is in our legitimate interest in investigating, defending complaints and proceedings. |
| To enable us to invoice you for our services and investigate/address any attendant fee disputes that may have arisen | processing is necessary for us to perform the contract between us |
| To contact you about other services we provide which may be of interest to you | The processing is in our legitimate interest in keeping you up to date with our services if you are an existing customer or have expressed an interest in our services;
If you are not an existing customer we send this information with your consent. Consent may be withdrawn at any time. |
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.
Persons/organisations to whom we may give personal data
We share your personal data with:
- HMRC
- IRS
- any third parties with whom you require or permit us to correspond
- subcontractors and service providers; such as experts retained by us, software businesses we use for underlying services such as [Microsoft, AWS, Google, Generative AI tools]
- an alternate appointed by us in the event of incapacity or death
- tax insurance providers
- professionals such as our insurers, lawyers, auditors, accountants
- our professional body The Association of Taxation Technicians 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)
If the law requires us to do so, we will share your personal data with:
- the police and law enforcement agencies
- courts and tribunals
- the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)
Transfers of personal data outside the EEA
Your personal data will be processed in the UK and if we do need to transfer your information outside the UK we will make sure appropriate safeguards are in place. Where we are in a contractual relationship with the recipient, such protection will normally consist at minimum of appropriate contractual protections agreed between us and the recipient.
Retention of personal data
When acting as a 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 3 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 and the IRS) is retained throughout the period of the relationship, but will be deleted 3 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.
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 in writing marked for the attention of Mark Allsopp or Rikveer Mangat.
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.
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. If you would like your personal data to be erased, please inform us and we will consider 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. Please inform us 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, e.g. so that the data can easily be provided to a new professional adviser.
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 UK GDPR or DPA 2018 in some other way, you can complain to us. Please send any complaints to Mark Allsopp Mark.Allsopp@Sterling-Tax.co.uk or Rikveer Mangat Rikveer.Mangat@Sterling-Tax.co.uk.
If you are not happy with our response, you have a right to lodge a complaint with the ICO (www.ico.org.uk).