GDPR & your privacy

Data subjects consent to holding data

By contracting with MJH Tax Limited, trading as MJH Tax Consultants (MJH TC) to act on your behalf, you, as a data subject are giving consent for MJH TC to hold data on yourself, your spouse/partner (if appropriate) and brief details of other family members that you might supply to MJH TC on the fact finding and other forms.

This data may include sensitive personal data, which is defined as: ‘data consisting of racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person's sex life or sexual orientation’.

You may withdraw MJH TC permission to hold any data at any time by writing to MJH TC’s usual business address. Withdrawal of such permission may severely limit the ability to assist you with taxation work. If this is the case, MJH TC will advise you accordingly.

Use of data held

The data held may be used for the purposes of:

•    Advising you concerning the services that MJH TC offers to its clients.

•    The processing of business that you conduct through MJH TC. This may include the use of third party tax software which is used to produce tax returns, assist with tax calculations, manage for administration purposes company client base.

•    The ongoing reporting and administrative matters that arise regarding the business that you have conducted through MJH TC.

For regulatory reasons, some of the data MJH TC holds must be retained for 5 years and 10 months or longer if required for compliance or regulatory reasons from the end of the tax year concerned. This is predominantly in relation to any potential further enquiries from the UK HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

You may request MJH TC to either delete or transfer data to third parties of your choice (this may be subject to agency law limitations), should you so wish. In turn, MJH TC will advise you whether such deletion or transfer will affect the services provided to you.

Confidentiality

MJH TC treats the use and handling of your data very seriously and will not release data to any third party without your prior consent, save being instructed to do so by the UK HMRC or other government agency.

The rights of data subjects

As a data subject, your rights have recently been enshrined in EU and international law. They can be summarised as follows:

•    A right to require information about data being processed about you.

•    Access to the data in certain circumstances.

•    The right to have data that is wrong, corrected.

•    The right to restrict certain types of processing.

•    The right to object to data being used for direct marketing.

•    The right to ask for data to be sent to you, the data subject, in a format that is regarded as being standard and easily transferred.

•    The right to be forgotten. To have the data held on you erased, as a data subject. And to inform any interested parties this has been done. This is subject to the 5 year 10 months rule, as explained above.

Data security

Data will only be held by MJH TC on a desktop computer or associated devices that are password protected and cloud service from a third party provider that is securely managed. MJH TC will always ensure that data in paper form is held in a secure environment.

From a practical point of view MJH TC will correspond with you via email or, where agreed with you, other versions of media including Whataspp, Wechat, text message and skype, some of which will generally not be subject to encryption. This is principally due to the difficulties with compatibility. Should there be any occasion where there is evidence that emails have gone astray or in particular there is evidence of potential hacking, MJH TC will inform you without delay.

Data breaches

If the data held on your behalf has been subject to a data breach MJH TC will inform you as soon as MJH TC is aware of the problem.

Data breaches may occur due to technological breakdowns or where data has been transferred to a third party, either in error, or more unusually, through theft or misrepresentation. 

Please rest assured that MJH TC take the management of your data very seriously and employ robust practical and technological solutions to protect it.

If MJH TC become aware of any potential fraud surrounding your data held, MJH TC will inform you without delay and will suggest methodologies you may be able to use to mitigate the situation. If necessary, MJH TC will contact any third parties that have been accessed via MJH TC to try to ensure that they do not deal with other parties purporting to be yourself.

The existence of Data Protection Agencies (DPA) varies from country to country. If there is a designated DPA in your country of residence, MJH TC must report any data breaches to them within 72 hours of becoming aware of the problem.

The responsibilities of holding data

MJH TC takes its responsibilities of holding data very seriously. Current international law requires that MJH TC thoroughly understands its own business to ensure the control and safety of data at all times.

Any questions?

By its very nature, and indeed as a legal requirement, this policy needs to be brief and to the point. Please do not hesitate to raise any questions should further clarification be required as MJH TC will be very pleased to assist you with your enquiry