McCoy & Co Privacy Policy

Introduction

This Privacy Policy has been adopted by McCoy and Co Ltd.  It describes how we deal with personal information we collect from you, our clients, and demonstrates our commitment to the protection of your privacy.

Our employees, contractors, consultants, partners and any other third party entities that at our direction have access to your personal information are bound by and must adhere to this Privacy Policy.

By providing personal information to us you are consenting to our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.  If you have objections to our Privacy Policy, you should notify us immediately and not submit personal information to us.  Further information on privacy principles, rights and responsibilities is also available from the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner (NZPC) at www.privacy.org.nz.

We reserve the right to make amendments to this Privacy Policy at any time and will make available to you details of the changes we make.  By continuing to deal with us and use our services, products and sites, you accept these changes and this Privacy Policy as it applies from time to time.

Collection

We may collect personal information that you have supplied to us.  The type of information we may collect depends on your dealings with us and may include:

  • your contact details such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses;
  • personal details such as date of birth, place & country of birth, gender, spouse or partner details, IRD number etc;
  • all information and documentation required to be collected and held by us under anti-money laundering legislation and international tax reporting agreements;
  • financial and tax information collected during the process of delivering our services to you;
  • your interactions with our website, social media sites or other internet based products;
  • records of your communications and other interactions with us, including information provided to us via client surveys.

We may collect personal information from you or from third parties through:

  • Personal contact or correspondence with you via telephone, email or text;
  • Use of our website or social media sites;
  • Conferring with third parties such as lawyers, investment advisors, financiers or Inland Revenueon your behalf;
  • Requesting information from publicly available sources.

Use and Disclosure

We use the personal information we collect from you to be able to:

  • provide the accounting, tax, business advisory and other services for which you have engaged us;
  • facilitate our compliance with statutory obligations and obligations arising from our membership of professional bodies;
  • periodically provide you with information we believe may be of interest to you – for instance newsletters;
  • send you marketing materials about our products and services or those of our third-party partners.

We may assign a unique identifier to you for use in our operations to enable us to carry out our functions and to efficiently provide the services requested by you. 

The provision of your personal information is voluntary. But if you don’t provide us with the personal information we reasonably require, and/or you fail to notify us of changes in your personal information in a timely manner, we may not be able to efficiently provide the services you have engaged us to perform, or to contact you when required. 

We do not use your personal information or disclose it to other agencies unless: 

  • it is reasonably necessary for one of the purposes described above;
  • having regard to the nature of the information or the circumstances of collection we believe you would expect us to use the information or make the disclosure;
  • we are required or authorised by law (including any of the Revenue Acts) or court or tribunal; or
  • you have provided your consent.

We will never sell your personal information. But we may disclose your personal information and a broad business profile to:- 

  • Government agencies, statutory authorities and industry regulators;
  • our auditors, insurers, consultants, lawyers or other financial or professional advisers;
  • our staff or subcontractors;
  • our associated companies or subsidiaries including those established in the future;
  • trusted third party service providers that facilitate our ability to provide our products and services to you, such as tax pooling intermediaries, cloud based software providers, backup and archiving providers, email platforms and batch mail providers;
  • debt collection agencies for the purpose of recovering outstanding fees from you;
  • other third parties where necessary to the operation of our business.

Third party providers are carefully selected, and in utilising their services, your personal information is given solely to enable them to provide their products and services to us, and thereby to enable us to provide our products and services to you. Your personal information is not to be used by any of these providers for any other purpose. 

Security

We take our security obligations seriously and your personal information is regarded as confidential. We will take all reasonable steps to safeguard your information so that it is not misused, lost, modified, accessed by unauthorised persons or disclosed without authorisation.

We only retain your personal information for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which that personal information was collected, and to the extent permitted or required by law. 

When records are no longer required to be retained by law they are erased from our digital and computer systems and/or destroyed using a secure document destruction service unless you ask us to send the information to you. 

As responsible data custodians we are familiar with the requirements of the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme and are committed to responding to data breaches in accordance with our obligations under the Privacy Act. We will notify the Office of the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner and you if there is unauthorised access to, unauthorised disclosure of, or loss of, personal information held by us and the access, disclosure or loss is likely to result in serious harm to any of the individuals to whom the information relates in accordance with the Privacy Act.

Accessing, Updating and Correcting Personal and Sensitive Information

You may request access to your personal information and request the correction of any personal information which is inaccurate. Please make any such requests in writing, giving as much information as possible about the information you want to access or correct.  We may require your identity to be verified when you send in your request and prior to sending any substantive response.

There are certain circumstances where we might not be able to fulfil your request. For example, where providing access may have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of other individuals, or where providing access would be unlawful, or be likely to prejudice enforcement related activities conducted by us or an enforcement body.  

In very rare circumstances, we may be prevented by law from providing you with access to personal information we hold – e.g. under anti-money laundering legislation.  

Complaints and Enquiries

If you have a complaint regarding the way we have handled your information, or questions about this Privacy Policy and the personal information we hold, please contact our Privacy Officer Hilary Humphrey on 03 366 1058 or by email to info@mccoyandco.co.nz

We will endeavour to respond to your complaint or enquiry within a reasonable period from when it is received. 

If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint or enquiry you can contact the Office of the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner (NZPC) at www.privacy.org.nz.