Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

JMEC Hill Pty Ltd t/as Hill Accounting Services (“we”, “us” or “our”) is a registered tax agent practice providing tax, BAS, bookkeeping and related advisory services in Australia. We are committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information and complying with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act), including the 13 Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (Cth) (TASA), the Code of Professional Conduct administered by the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB), and the confidentiality requirements that apply to registered tax and BAS agents.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information, including tax file numbers (TFNs), and how you can access or correct that information, or make a complaint if you believe we have breached your privacy.

This policy applies to personal information we collect about individual clients, contacts of corporate clients, employees, job applicants and visitors to our website.

2. What is “personal information”?

“Personal information” has the meaning given in the Privacy Act — broadly, information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information is true or not. This includes “sensitive information” (such as health information) and tax file number information, both of which receive a higher level of protection under the Privacy Act and the TFN Rule (see section 6).

3. Kinds of personal information we collect

Depending on the services you engage us for, we may collect:

• Identity information — name, date of birth, address, contact details, and identity documents (e.g. driver licence, passport) for client verification and anti-money laundering purposes.
• Tax file numbers (TFNs) and Australian Business Numbers (ABNs).
• Financial information — income, expenses, assets, liabilities, bank account and superannuation details, business records, invoices and receipts.
• Employment information — salary and wage data, payment summaries, PAYG withholding details.
• Government-related identifiers — Centrelink or Child Support reference numbers where relevant to a tax matter.
• Health or other sensitive information, only where it is directly relevant to the tax or advisory service being provided (e.g. a medical expense claim) and with your consent.
• Records of communications between you and us, including meeting notes, emails and phone records.
• Technical information collected through our website, such as IP address, browser type and cookies (see section 11).

4. How we collect personal information

Wherever practicable, we collect personal information directly from you — for example, through client engagement forms, meetings, phone calls, email, our client portal, or documents you provide.

We may also collect personal information from third parties, including:

• the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), including through the ATO's Tax Agent Portal / Online Services for Agents, and pre-fill data;
• your employer, bank, superannuation fund, or other financial institutions;
• other professional advisers acting on your behalf (e.g. financial planners, solicitors, mortgage brokers), where you have authorised this;
• publicly available sources, such as ASIC or ABN Lookup registers.

If you provide us with personal information about another individual (for example, a spouse for a Medicare levy surcharge calculation, or an employee for payroll purposes), you must ensure that individual is aware of this policy and, where required, has consented to the disclosure.

5. Why we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information

We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information for purposes including:

• preparing and lodging income tax returns, activity statements, and other approved forms with the ATO;
• providing tax planning, bookkeeping, payroll, superannuation and business advisory services;
• verifying your identity in accordance with our client verification and anti-money laundering obligations;
• communicating with the ATO, TPB and other regulators on your behalf, where you have authorised us to act as your registered agent;
• invoicing and managing our business relationship with you;
• complying with our legal, regulatory and professional obligations, including under TASA, the TPB Code of Professional Conduct, and the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth);
• improving our services, and, where you have consented, sending you newsletters or updates about tax or business matters.

We do not use or disclose personal information for a purpose other than the primary purpose for which it was collected, unless an exception under APP 6 applies (for example, you have consented, the secondary purpose is related and you would reasonably expect it, or disclosure is required or authorised by law).

6. Tax file numbers

TFN information is subject to additional protections under Part 25A of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth) and the Privacy (Tax File Number) Rule 2015 (TFN Rule). We only collect, use, hold and disclose TFN information for taxation purposes, superannuation purposes, and other purposes authorised under taxation law. We will not disclose your TFN to any other person or organisation except where authorised or required by law, and we take reasonable steps to protect TFN information from unauthorised access, use or disclosure, and to destroy or permanently de-identify it once it is no longer required, subject to our record-keeping obligations (see section 8).

7. Disclosure of your personal information

We may disclose your personal information to:

• the Australian Taxation Office and other Commonwealth, state or territory agencies, where required to prepare and lodge documents on your behalf or as required by law;
• the Tax Practitioners Board, where required under TASA or a TPB investigation;
• our professional indemnity insurer, auditors, or professional bodies (e.g. CPA Australia, Chartered Accountants ANZ, Institute of Certified Bookkeepers), where necessary;
• our cloud-based practice management, accounting and document storage service providers (for example, tax and accounting software platforms), who are contractually required to protect your information and use it only for the purposes we specify;
• other professional advisers you have authorised us to liaise with;
• a prospective buyer of our practice, subject to appropriate confidentiality obligations;
• any other party where you have given consent, or where disclosure is required or authorised by law.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties, and we do not disclose it for direct marketing purposes by other organisations.

8. Storage, security and retention

We store personal information in secure electronic practice management and accounting systems, which may include cloud-based hosting, protected by access controls, encryption in transit, staff confidentiality obligations and multi-factor authentication. Physical records are kept in locked storage.

We retain client records for the period required under taxation law and the TPB Code of Professional Conduct — generally a minimum of five years from the date a return or document is lodged, or longer where required (for example, capital gains tax records relating to an asset still held). Once no longer required, records are securely destroyed or permanently de-identified.

9. Overseas disclosure

Some of the cloud service providers we use to store or process personal information may store data on servers located outside Australia (for example, in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Asia-Pacific). Before disclosing personal information to an overseas recipient, we take reasonable steps to ensure the recipient handles the information consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles, in accordance with APP 8. If you would like more information about the overseas storage arrangements of the specific software we use, please contact us.

10. Access and correction

You may request access to the personal information we hold about you, or request that we correct it if it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. To make a request, please contact us using the details in section 13. We will respond within a reasonable period (usually within 30 days).

We may need to verify your identity before providing access, and in some circumstances we may charge a reasonable fee to cover the cost of retrieving information. There are limited circumstances in which we may refuse access or correction (for example, where required by law), in which case we will provide written reasons.

11. Cookies and our website

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies to improve functionality and understand how visitors use our site. You can adjust your browser settings to refuse cookies, although this may affect the functionality of the website. We do not use website data to identify you personally unless you provide personal information directly (for example, through a contact form).

12. Direct marketing

With your consent, we may send you communications about tax deadlines, newsletters, or relevant updates to our services. You may opt out of direct marketing at any time by contacting us or using the unsubscribe facility in the relevant communication.

13. How to make a complaint

If you believe we have breached the Privacy Act or mishandled your personal information, please contact us using the details below. We will investigate your complaint and aim to respond within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC):

• Website: www.oaic.gov.au
• Phone: 1300 363 992
• Post: GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001

Complaints regarding our conduct as a registered tax agent may also be referred to the Tax Practitioners Board (www.tpb.gov.au).

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal obligations. The current version will always be available on our website, with the “last updated” date shown above.

15. Contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal information, please contact:

JMEC Hill Pty Ltd

Attention: Jodie Hill

Address: Shop 3, 5-7 Garnet Road, Tannum Sands QLD 4680

Phone: 07 4903 1977

Email: reception@hillaccountingservices.com.au