1. Electronic and other communication
1.1 Unless you instruct us otherwise, we may, where appropriate, communicate with you and with third parties via email or by other electronic means. The recipient is responsible for virus-checking emails and any attachments.
1.2 With electronic communication there is a risk of non-receipt, delayed receipt, inadvertent misdirection, or interception by third parties. We use virus-scanning software to reduce the risk of viruses and similar damaging items being transmitted through email or electronic storage devices. However, electronic communication is not totally secure, and we cannot be held responsible for damage or loss caused by viruses nor for communications which are corrupted or altered after despatch.
1.3 Nor can we accept any liability for problems or accidental errors relating to this means of communication- especially in relation to commercially sensitive material. If you do not wish to accept these risks, please let us know and we will communicate by paper mail, other than when electronic submission is mandatory.
2. Confidentiality
2.1 We will keep your information confidential, unless:
2.1.1 you consent to the disclosure of that information;
2.1.2 disclosure of the information is required or permitted by law or regulatory requirements that apply to us; or
2.1.3 these Terms of Business state otherwise.
2.2 Examples of organisations we may be required to disclose your information to include:
2.2.1 the National Crime Agency;
2.2.2 domestic and international tax authorities; and
2.2.3 regulatory authorities.
2.3 External organisations such as the Information Commissioner’s Office and the ICAEW may conduct audit or quality checks on our practice from time to time. They may wish to audit or quality check your file and related papers for this purpose. We will require that these external organisations maintain confidentiality in relation to any files and papers which are audited or quality checked.
3. Privacy and data protection
3.1 We use your personal data primarily to provide accounting and tax advisory services to you, but also for related purposes such as administration, billing and record keeping and to inform you of our services and events that we think may be of interest to you.
3.2 Our use of your personal data is subject to your instructions, the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), other relevant UK legislation and our professional duty of confidentiality.
3.3 We may record telephone calls and monitor emails for training, regulatory and compliance purposes.
3.4 We use third party service providers (including ‘cloud’ service providers) to help us deliver efficient, cost-effective tax advisory services. This may include document/information hosting, sharing, transfer, analysis, processing or storage. We ensure all third-party service providers operate under service agreements that are consistent with our legal and professional obligations, including in relation to confidentiality, privacy and data protection. If you instruct us to use an alternative provider for storing, sharing or exchanging documents/information, we are not responsible for the security of the data or the provider’s security standards.
3.5 We would like to use your personal data to send you updates (by email, text, telephone or post) about tax developments that might be of interest to you and/or information about our services, including exclusive offers, promotions or new services or products. If you are interested, please confirm your consent by:
3.5.1 contacting us by emailing stuart@stuartparsons.co.uk or calling +44 (0) 7881 282 667.
Please note that such consent can be withdrawn by using the ‘unsubscribe’ link in emails or ‘STOP’ number in texts.