1. Who we are

This policy applies to AlphaTax (Alpha Tax Accountants Limited), a member of Patras & Co Group, located at 586 Great South Road, Greenlane, Auckland 1051. In this policy, “we”, “us” and “our” mean AlphaTax.

We are bound by the Privacy Act 2020 and its Information Privacy Principles, and by the professional confidentiality obligations that apply to Chartered Certified Accountants.

Privacy Officer: info@alphatax.co.nz · 09 222 4027 · 586 Great South Road, Greenlane, Auckland 1051.

2. What we collect

Depending on the services you use, we may collect:

• Contact and identity details, such as your name, address, email, phone number and date of birth
• Identity verification documents, where required by law
• Your IRD number and information about your tax affairs
• Financial information, such as income, expenses, bank statements, assets, loans and property records
• Business information, such as company, trust or partnership details and accounting records
• Employee information for payroll clients, such as names, tax codes, pay rates, KiwiSaver details, leave and bank account numbers
• Records of our communications with you, including enquiries made through this website

We do not ask for more information than we need. If you choose not to provide certain information, we may not be able to provide some services.

3. How we collect it

We collect most information directly from you. With your authority, or where the law allows, we may also collect information from other sources, including:

• Inland Revenue, once you link us as your tax agent
• Your bank, through bank feeds you authorise
• Your accounting or payroll software, such as Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks
• Your previous accountant, lawyer or other advisers
• Public registers, such as the Companies Office and property records
• Your employer or business, if you are an employee of one of our payroll clients

When we collect personal information about you from someone else, we will take reasonable steps to let you know that we hold it, why we hold it and how to contact us, as required by Information Privacy Principle 3A, unless an exception under the Privacy Act applies. Payroll clients agree to tell their employees that we process payroll information on their behalf.

4. Why we use it

• To provide tax, accounting, payroll and advisory services you have engaged us for
• To prepare and file returns and deal with Inland Revenue on your behalf
• To verify your identity and meet our legal obligations, including under tax and anti-money laundering laws
• To respond to your enquiries and manage our relationship with you
• To send you service updates and, if you agree, useful tax reminders and news
• To improve our services and this website

We only send marketing emails in line with the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

5. Who we share it with

We do not sell or rent your personal information. We only share it where needed to provide our services, where you have authorised it, or where the law requires or allows it. This may include:

• Inland Revenue, the Companies Office, ACC and other government agencies
• Software and cloud service providers we use to deliver our services, such as accounting, payroll, document storage and email providers
• Other professional advisers acting for you, with your authority
• Our professional body, for quality assurance reviews, under strict confidentiality
• Other Patras & Co Group businesses that provide shared administrative or IT support to us, only to the extent needed to provide that support and under confidentiality obligations

We do not share your information with other Patras & Co Group businesses for their own marketing without your consent.

6. Overseas storage and processing

Some of our service providers, including cloud accounting, email and artificial intelligence services, may store or process information outside New Zealand, for example in Australia or the United States. Before disclosing information overseas, we take reasonable steps to make sure it will be protected by safeguards comparable to those in the Privacy Act, as required by Information Privacy Principle 12.

7. Our website and chat assistant

• Enquiry form: information you submit is used only to respond to your enquiry.
• Chat assistant: messages you type are processed by a third party artificial intelligence provider to generate replies and may be processed overseas. The assistant gives general information only. Please do not enter IRD numbers, bank details or other sensitive information.
• Browser storage: our website uses your browser’s own storage to remember simple settings, such as whether background music is on or off. This stays on your device and is not used to identify you.
• Cookies and analytics: we do not use advertising cookies. If we introduce analytics tools in future, we will update this policy.
• Other websites: links to social media and other sites are governed by those sites’ own privacy policies.

8. Security and how long we keep it

We take reasonable steps to protect your information from loss, misuse and unauthorised access, including secure cloud systems, access controls, multi-factor authentication and staff confidentiality obligations.

We keep information only as long as we need it for the purpose it was collected, or as required by law. For example, tax and business records are generally kept for at least seven years under the Tax Administration Act 1994, and some identity records must be kept for at least five years under anti-money laundering laws. After that, we securely destroy or de-identify the information.

9. Your rights

You have the right to ask for access to the personal information we hold about you, and to ask us to correct it if you believe it is wrong. To make a request, contact our Privacy Officer. We will respond as soon as practicable and no later than 20 working days after receiving your request, as required by the Privacy Act. We may need to verify your identity first. We generally do not charge for access requests.

If we decline to correct information, you can ask us to attach a statement of the correction you requested.

10. Privacy breaches

If a privacy breach occurs that has caused, or is likely to cause, serious harm, we will notify the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and affected people as soon as practicable, as required by the Privacy Act.

11. Questions and complaints

If you have a question or concern about how we handle your information, please contact our Privacy Officer first so we can try to resolve it. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can make a complaint to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz or on 0800 803 909.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version will always be available on this page, with its effective date shown at the top.