US Tax & Financial Services Privacy Policy

US Tax and Financial Services Group and its subsidiaries (the “Company ”) are strongly committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

The Company provides tax advice, planning and compliance services (tax return preparation for individuals, partnerships, corporations, trusts and estates) for anyone subjected to the US tax system, wherever they may be in the world. By engaging with the Company as a client, meeting us through introductions, seminars, events or other touchpoints such as our owned online properties and submitting any personal data (‘Individual Person’), you agree to the use by the Company of such data in accordance with this privacy statement. If you have questions about privacy issues, please email us at privacy@ustaxfs.com.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) is a new regulation which replaces the Data Protection Regulation (Directive 95/46/EC). The Regulation aims to harmonise data protection legislation across EU member states, enhancing privacy rights for individuals and providing a strict framework within which commercial organisations can legally operate. Even though the UK has expressed its intention to leave the EU in March 2019, the GDPR will be applicable in the UK from 25th May 2018. The Government intends for the GDPR to continue in UK law post-Brexit and has also introduced a Data Protection Bill to replace the current Data Protection Act in due course.

You have substantial rights over your personal information and we are committed to respecting those rights when processing your data. The next sections provide you with information on how we collect and use your personal data, not just personal data obtained through this site, but also personal data processed across other areas of our business. We also outline the ways you can amend or erase your personal data with us, as well as change your communication preferences.

Data Collection
We only collect identifiable personal data or information that is specifically and voluntarily provided by an Individual Person through becoming a client or engaging with us through our various business activities. For example, an Individual Person to one of our sites may choose to provide information such as name, postal address, email address, telephone number or a personal message with information about their particular circumstances. Additionally, an Individual Person may give us their business card at an event or meeting with contact details.

The Company uses secure cloud-based databases for storing personal data, which can only be accessed by authorized employees, consultants or contractors under contract with the Company and in accordance with our confidentiality policy. See Disclosure to Third Parties below for further information or email privacy@ustaxfs.com.

By giving us your email address through one of our Company websites, as a client or on your business card from a meeting, we do automatically include you on our Company email newsletter list, which is sent approximately 4 times a year. See Unsubscribe below if you do not wish to receive them.  We also occasionally host events and seminars.  If you do not wish to be invited for any reason, please email privacy@ustaxfs.com.

Use of Data
When an Individual Person provides personal data to us, we use it solely for the purposes for which it was provided to us as stated at the point of collection (or as is obvious from the context of collection). Examples of the types of use are given in the Data Collection section above.

Our websites do not collect or compile personally identifiable information for dissemination or sale to outside parties or for consumer marketing purposes.

We will use the following reasons to process your information:

• You have given us consent to do so;
• We are processing your information so that we can fulfil our promise or agreement in providing services to you;
• We need to comply with a legal obligation;
• We have a legitimate interest to do so.

We only use your information for the purposes detailed in this policy. If there are any changes to the way we process your data we will contact you and ensure that any new processing is done in accordance with the GDPR.

Disclosure to Third Parties
Our policy is not to share personally identifiable information with any third parties, unless required by law, or unless explicitly requested by an Individual Person or otherwise as set out in this section. We recognise that your information is valuable and we take all reasonable measures to protect your information while it is in our care.

Personal data that has been submitted to the Company as described above may be disclosed to any of the employees, consultants or contractors under contract with the Company where this is necessary to meet the purpose for which the Individual Person has submitted the information. By submitting personal data to us, the Individual Person is providing explicit consent to the transfer of such data for the fulfilment of their voluntary requests or for us to fulfil our contractual obligations.

This data is not shared with any third party unless otherwise disclosed at the point of collection. If there is an instance where such information may be shared, the Individual Person will be asked for permission beforehand.

We may transfer the personal data we collect about you outside of the EEA in order to perform our contract with you. We have taken steps to ensure all personal data is provided with adequate protection and that all transfers of personal data outside the EU are done lawfully. Where we transfer personal data outside of the EU to a country not determined by the European Commission as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data, the transfers will be under an agreement which covers the EU requirements for the transfer of personal data outside the EU, such as the European Commission approved standard contractual clauses.

Security
We have implemented reasonable standards of operational security in order to protect personally identifiable data and information from loss, misuse, alteration or destruction. In particular, we ensure that all appropriate confidentiality obligations are in place to prevent any unauthorised or unlawful disclosure or processing of such information and data and the accidental loss or destruction of or damage to such information and data. Only authorised Company personnel, consultants and contractors are provided access to personally identifiable information and these employees or contractors have agreed to ensure confidentiality of this information.

Access to Information

The GDPR provides you with the following rights. To:

• Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
• Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing.
• Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground.
• Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
• Request the transfer of your personal information to another party in certain formats, if practicable.
• Make a complaint to a supervisory body which in the United Kingdom is the Information Commissioner’s Office. The ICO can be contacted through this link: https://ico.org.uk/concerns/

If you would like to access, update or erase any personal data you have submitted to us, please email us at privacy@ustaxfs.com.

When personally identifiable information is retained, we do not assume responsibility for verifying the ongoing accuracy of the content of personal information. If the Company is informed that any personal data collected is no longer accurate, we will make appropriate corrections based on the updated information provided by the authenticated Individual Person.

Unsubscribe
Should an Individual Person subsequently choose to unsubscribe from mailing lists or any specific method of communication, we will provide instructions on the communication itself or you may contact us by email at privacy@ustaxfs.com.

Data Retention
The personal data you submit to us will only be retained for as long as is required for the purposes for which it was collected or as required by law.

Mailing list information, discussion posts and email addresses are kept for only the period of time considered reasonable to facilitate the Individual Person’s requests or for continuation of communications.

Cookies
We use small text files called ‘cookies’ which are placed on your hard drives to assist in providing a more customised website experience. The use of cookies is now standard operating procedure for most websites. However, if you are uncomfortable with the use of cookies, most browsers now permit users to opt-out of receiving them. In that case, you will be unable to use this registration process and may find other functionality on the website impaired. After termination of the visit to our site, you can always delete the cookie from your system if you wish.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy
We may modify or amend this privacy statement from time to time at our discretion. We encourage you to periodically review this privacy statement to be informed about how we are protecting your information.