Privacy Policy

Accountant Bookkeeping Ltd ("we", "us", "our" or "the Firm") is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store and protect your personal data when you visit our website, contact us, or engage us to provide accountancy, bookkeeping, tax and related services.

We are a UK-based accountancy practice registered with the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) and authorised by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) as a Tax Agent. We act as the data controller of your personal data and are responsible for its protection in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

This policy applies to all visitors to www.accountantbookkeeping.co.uk, prospective clients, existing clients, and any individual whose personal data we process in the course of providing our services.

The data controller responsible for your personal data is:

• Accountant Bookkeeping Ltd
• Director: Donatas Mendelis FMAAT AATQB
• AAT Licensed Accountant (License No. 1004934) · HMRC Tax Agent · Companies House ACSP (Ref: AP009571)
• Registered Address: 167-169 Great Portland Street, Fifth Floor, London, W1W 5PF
• Email: info@accountantbookkeeping.co.uk
• Telephone: (+44) 07734 216580
• Website: https://www.accountantbookkeeping.co.uk/

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal data, please contact us using the details above.

We collect and process personal data that is necessary to provide our services, comply with our legal obligations, and communicate with you. The categories of personal data we may collect include:

• Identity data: full name, former names, date of birth, nationality, and signature.
• Contact data: postal address, email address, and telephone number.
• Identity verification data: passport details, driving licence details, and identity documents provided for Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and ACSP verification purposes.
• Financial and tax data: income details, tax references (UTR, NI number), bank account details, and records relevant to your tax and accounting affairs.
• Company data: company name, registration number, registered office, director and shareholder information.
• Technical data: IP address, browser type, and usage information collected via cookies and analytics.

We only collect personal data that is relevant, adequate, and limited to what is necessary for the purposes for which it is processed.

When you use the contact form, quote request form, WhatsApp enquiry widget, or "Refer a Friend" feature on our website, we collect the information you choose to provide, which typically includes:

• Your name, email address, and telephone number.
• The nature of your enquiry and any service you are interested in.
• Any message content you submit.
• If you request a call back, your preferred contact time and service of interest.

This information is used solely to respond to your enquiry and to provide the information or services you have requested. We do not use contact form data for marketing unless you have separately given us consent to do so.

When you engage our services, we collect onboarding information necessary to establish the professional relationship and meet our regulatory obligations. This includes:

• Full legal name, address, and contact details.
• Proof of identity and proof of address for AML compliance.
• Details of your business, company, or self-employment.
• Tax references such as your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) and National Insurance number.
• Bank account details for billing and, where applicable, for processing payments on your behalf.
• Information about other advisors, banks, or third parties you authorise us to liaise with.

Onboarding information is collected through engagement letters, client questionnaires, and secure document upload. Providing this information is a condition of engaging our services.

As a Companies House Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP) and an AAT Licensed Accountant, we are required to verify the identity of directors, persons with significant control (PSCs), and other relevant individuals. For this purpose we collect:

• Full name including former names, date of birth, and nationality.
• Passport number, driving licence number, or other government-issued identity document details.
• Document reference numbers, expiry dates, country of issue, and document dates.
• Uploaded copies or images of identity documents.
• Current home address and address history for the preceding 12 months.

Identity verification data is collected through our secure ACSP Verification Portal. Documents you upload are stored privately and access is restricted to authorised personnel. A fee of £50 per person applies to ACSP identity verification services.

To prepare accounts, tax returns, and other submissions, we collect financial and tax information including:

• Income, dividends, rental income, and other earnings records.
• Bank statements, invoices, receipts, and bookkeeping records.
• Payroll information including employee details, PAYE references, and pension scheme details.
• VAT records, CIS records, and corporation tax computations.
• Details of capital gains, investments, and reliefs claimed.

This information is processed for the purpose of preparing accurate returns and fulfilling our obligations as your tax agent. You remain responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the information you provide to us.

We provide a secure client portal and document upload facilities to enable you to share records with us safely. When you use these facilities:

• Documents are uploaded to private, access-controlled storage and are not publicly accessible.
• Access to your documents is restricted to authorised members of our team who require access to perform your engagement.
• Files are encrypted in transit using TLS and at rest within our cloud storage provider.
• Download links, where provided, are time-limited and signed to prevent unauthorised access.

We recommend that you use the secure portal rather than email for transmitting sensitive documents. Where documents are sent by email, we cannot guarantee the security of the transmission before the message reaches our systems.

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies to operate effectively and to understand how the site is used. The cookies we use fall into the following categories:

• Essential cookies: required for the website to function correctly, such as remembering your preferences.
• Analytics cookies: help us understand visitor behaviour and improve the website. We use privacy-respecting analytics that aggregate data and do not identify individuals.
• Preference cookies: remember choices you make, such as display settings.

We do not use cookies to build individual advertising profiles or to sell your data to third parties. You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings; however, disabling essential cookies may affect the functionality of the website.

We process your personal data for the following purposes:

• To provide the accountancy, bookkeeping, tax, payroll, and verification services you have engaged us to perform.
• To respond to enquiries, quote requests, and callback requests.
• To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, including AML, tax, and company law requirements.
• To file returns and submissions with HMRC, Companies House, and other regulatory bodies on your behalf.
• To manage client relationships, including onboarding, billing, and ongoing communication.
• To maintain records as required by law and by our professional body.
• To improve our website and services.

We do not process your personal data for automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects.

We rely on the following lawful bases under the UK GDPR when processing your personal data:

• Contract (Article 6(1)(b)): to provide services under our engagement letter with you.
• Legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c)): to comply with tax, AML, company law, and professional regulation obligations.
• Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)): to operate our business, maintain records, and communicate with you, where this does not override your rights.
• Consent (Article 6(1)(a)): for marketing communications and certain non-essential activities, where you have given consent.

For special category data (such as information revealed through identity documents), we rely on the substantial public interest condition for AML and identity verification purposes where applicable.

As your agent and as a regulated firm, we are required to disclose certain information to HMRC, Companies House, and our professional body. This includes:

• Tax returns, accounts, and other filings submitted on your behalf to HMRC and Companies House.
• Identity verification outcomes submitted to Companies House through the ACSP service.
• Information required to comply with AML regulations and reporting obligations.
• Information disclosed where required by law, court order, or regulatory request.

We will only disclose your personal data to the extent necessary to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations. We will not share your data for commercial purposes without your consent.

We use trusted third-party service providers to help us deliver our services. These providers act as data processors on our behalf and are bound by contractual obligations to protect your data. They include:

• Cloud storage and document management providers used to store client records securely.
• Accounting and bookkeeping software providers.
• Email and communications service providers.
• Identity verification and AML screening providers.
• Website hosting and analytics providers.

We select providers that demonstrate appropriate security standards and data protection compliance. We do not allow our processors to use your personal data for their own purposes.

Your personal data is primarily stored and processed within the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area. Where any processor is located outside the UK, we ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your data, such as:

• Standard Contractual Clauses or equivalent transfer mechanisms.
• Assessments of the adequacy of the destination country's data protection regime.
• Supplementary measures where necessary to ensure a level of protection essentially equivalent to that within the UK.

We will not transfer your personal data outside the UK without ensuring appropriate protections are in place.

We take the security of your personal data seriously and have implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect it, including:

• Encryption of data in transit using TLS and at rest within our storage systems.
• Access controls limiting data access to authorised personnel on a need-to-know basis.
• Secure document upload and signed, time-limited download links.
• Regular security reviews and staff training on data protection.
• Procedures for detecting, reporting, and responding to suspected data breaches.

Despite our safeguards, no method of transmission or electronic storage is completely secure. In the unlikely event of a personal data breach, we will notify affected individuals and the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) where required by law.

We may send you service-related communications and, where you have consented, occasional updates such as newsletters or tax deadline reminders. You can opt out of marketing communications at any time by:

• Clicking the unsubscribe link in any marketing email.
• Replying to a marketing email asking to be removed from our list.
• Contacting us using the details in this policy.

We will not send you marketing communications without your consent or another valid lawful basis. We will never sell your personal data to third parties.

We retain your personal data only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including for legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Our retention approach includes:

• Client records and working papers are generally retained for a minimum of six years after the end of the relevant tax year or engagement.
• AML and identity verification records are retained for five years from the end of the business relationship, as required by the Money Laundering Regulations 2017.
• Contact form and enquiry data is retained for a reasonable period to respond to enquiries and for record-keeping.
• Marketing data is retained only while consent remains active.

When data is no longer required, we will securely delete or anonymise it in accordance with our retention schedule.

As a regulated accountancy practice, we are subject to the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017. To comply with these obligations we:

• Conduct customer due diligence (CDD) and, where appropriate, enhanced due diligence (EDD).
• Verify the identity of clients, directors, PSCs, and beneficial owners.
• Maintain records of identity verification and due diligence for at least five years.
• Monitor transactions and report suspicious activity to the National Crime Agency where required.
• Provide ongoing training to staff on AML obligations.

These obligations mean we may need to collect and retain certain personal data even after our engagement ends, and we may be unable to proceed with an engagement where we cannot complete required checks.

Under the UK GDPR, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Right of access: to be informed of, and access, the personal data we hold about you.
• Right to rectification: to have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected.
• Right to erasure: in limited circumstances, to have your data deleted.
• Right to restrict processing: to limit how we process your data in certain circumstances.
• Right to data portability: to receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Right to object: to object to processing based on legitimate interests or for marketing.
• Right to withdraw consent: at any time where processing is based on consent.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details in this policy. We will respond within one month, as required by law. Some rights are limited; for example, we may not be able to erase data we are legally required to retain.

If you believe we have not handled your personal data in accordance with this policy or the law, you have the right to complain. Please first contact us using the details in this policy so we can investigate and attempt to resolve your concern.

If you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's independent authority for data protection:

• Information Commissioner's Office
• Website: ico.org.uk
• Telephone: 0303 123 1113

We welcome feedback and take all complaints about data handling seriously.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your data protection rights, please contact us:

• Accountant Bookkeeping Ltd
• Director: Donatas Mendelis FMAAT AATQB
• Registered Address: 167-169 Great Portland Street, Fifth Floor, London, W1W 5PF
• Email: info@accountantbookkeeping.co.uk
• Telephone: (+44) 07734 216580
• Website: https://www.accountantbookkeeping.co.uk/

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or the services we offer. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, notify you directly.

We encourage you to review this page periodically to stay informed about how we protect your data. Continued use of our website or services after a change constitutes acceptance of the updated policy, where applicable.