Mr CFO Pty Ltd (ABN 91 698 530 059) trading as Mr CFO (we, us, our) provides accounting, bookkeeping, taxation, virtual CFO and business advisory services to Australian businesses.
We are committed to protecting your privacy. This policy explains how we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information, and how you can access, correct or complain about our handling of it. It is written to align with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
As a registered tax agent, we receive tax file numbers and other sensitive financial information. We handle that information in accordance with the Privacy (Tax File Number) Rule 2015 and our confidentiality obligations under the Code of Professional Conduct in the Tax Agent Services Act 2009.
1. The information we collect
Through this website
When you complete an enquiry form on this website, we collect:
- your name
- your email address
- your telephone number, where you provide it
- your business name and business type, where you provide it
- any additional information you choose to include in a free text message field
Through our services
If you become a client, we collect information necessary to deliver our services. Depending on the engagement this may include:
- identity and contact details, including date of birth and residential address
- tax file numbers, Australian Business Numbers and Australian Company Numbers
- financial records, bank statements, accounting data and payroll information
- details of your business structure, shareholders, directors, trustees and beneficiaries
- information about employees, contractors and related parties where relevant to payroll, superannuation or taxation obligations
- information relating to self managed superannuation funds where we act in that capacity
Automatically
Our website hosting provider records standard technical information such as IP address, browser type and pages visited. If analytics tools are in use, they may set cookies in your browser. You can refuse or delete cookies through your browser settings, though some parts of the site may not function as intended.
2. How we collect it
We collect personal information directly from you wherever practicable, including through this website, by email, by telephone, in meetings and through documents you provide to us.
We may also collect information about you from third parties, including the Australian Taxation Office, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, accounting software providers such as Xero, your bank or financial institution, your previous accountant or adviser, and publicly available registers. We do this where you have authorised it or where it is reasonably necessary to deliver the services you have engaged us for.
3. Why we collect and use it
We collect and use personal information to:
- respond to your enquiry and assess whether we can assist you
- provide accounting, bookkeeping, taxation, advisory and virtual CFO services
- prepare and lodge documents with the Australian Taxation Office and other regulators on your behalf
- verify your identity, as required by the Tax Practitioners Board and anti money laundering obligations
- issue invoices and manage payment
- meet our professional, legal and record keeping obligations
- send you information about our services, where you have consented or where you would reasonably expect it
We will not use your personal information for a purpose unrelated to the reason it was collected, unless you consent or the law permits or requires it.
4. Who we disclose it to
We may disclose your personal information to:
- the Australian Taxation Office, the Tax Practitioners Board, ASIC and other regulators, where required
- our contractors and staff, including team members located overseas, who assist in delivering our services
- software and technology providers whose platforms we use to deliver our services, including accounting, document storage, email and practice management systems
- your other professional advisers, such as your solicitor, financial planner, auditor or banker, where you have authorised it
- our own professional advisers, insurers and auditors
- any person or body where disclosure is required or authorised by law
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not disclose it to third parties for their own marketing purposes.
5. Overseas disclosure
Some of the people and systems we rely on are located outside Australia. This means your personal information may be accessed from, stored in or transferred to countries including the Philippines, where members of our support team are located, and the United States and other jurisdictions where our technology providers host their infrastructure.
Before disclosing personal information overseas, we take reasonable steps to ensure the recipient handles it in a manner consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles. This includes contractual confidentiality and data handling obligations in our agreements with overseas contractors, and selecting reputable providers with appropriate security standards.
6. Tax file numbers
Tax file numbers receive specific protection under the Privacy Act. We collect tax file numbers only where we are authorised to do so for taxation, superannuation or personal assistance purposes. We use and disclose them only for those purposes, and we do not use a tax file number to identify you in our records or to match information across databases. We securely destroy or de identify tax file number information once it is no longer required by law or for the purpose it was collected.
7. How we store and protect it
We hold personal information in electronic form in cloud based systems, and occasionally in physical documents. We take reasonable steps to protect it from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification and disclosure. These steps include access controls and unique user accounts, multi factor authentication, encryption of data in transit, confidentiality obligations on all staff and contractors, and restricting access to those who need it to do their work.
No method of transmission or storage is completely secure. While we take these measures seriously, we cannot guarantee absolute security of information transmitted to us over the internet.
We retain records for the periods required by taxation and corporations law, which is generally at least five years and in some cases longer. When information is no longer needed and we are not required to keep it, we take reasonable steps to destroy or de identify it.
8. Data breaches
If we become aware of unauthorised access to, or disclosure or loss of, personal information that is likely to result in serious harm, we will investigate promptly and notify affected individuals and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as required under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.
9. Accessing and correcting your information
You may request access to the personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it if it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. Contact us using the details below. We will respond within a reasonable period, ordinarily within 30 days.
We do not charge for making a request. We may charge a reasonable fee for the time and cost of supplying the information, and we will tell you before we do. In limited circumstances the law permits us to refuse access or correction. If we refuse, we will tell you why in writing and explain how you can complain.
10. Marketing and unsubscribing
We may send you information about our services by email. Every marketing message includes an unsubscribe facility, and we will act on an unsubscribe request promptly, consistent with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). Unsubscribing from marketing does not stop communications necessary to deliver services you have engaged us for.
11. Third party websites
This website may link to third party sites. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of those sites, and we encourage you to read their privacy policies.
12. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always available on this page, and the date at the top shows when it was last revised.
13. Contact and complaints
If you have a question about this policy, want to access or correct your information, or wish to complain about how we have handled your personal information, contact us.
Mr CFO Pty Ltd
Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
nicholas.garland@mrcfo.com.au
1300 528 145
We will acknowledge your complaint and respond within a reasonable period. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may refer the matter to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.
Complaints relating to our conduct as a registered tax agent may also be made to the Tax Practitioners Board at tpb.gov.au.