PRIVACY POLICY
Altus Partners Pty Ltd
Altus Partners Pty Ltd ACN 679 710 322 (“Altus Partners”, “we”, “us”, “our”) is committed to protecting the privacy of the personal information we hold. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information, and how you can access or correct your information or make a privacy complaint.
We are bound by the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). As a registered tax agent that holds client tax file numbers, we are subject to the APPs regardless of our annual turnover.
1. What Personal Information We Collect
Depending on the services you engage us for, we may collect:
- Identity information (name, date of birth, contact details, identification documents)
- Tax file numbers and other information required to provide tax agent services
- Financial information (income, assets, liabilities, bank account details, transaction records)
- Business and corporate information (for company formation, registered office and corporate compliance services)
- Information collected for client identification purposes where we provide a designated service under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act), such as company formation or acting as a registered office
2. How We Collect Personal Information
We generally collect personal information directly from you, or from someone authorised to act on your behalf. We may also collect information from:
- The Australian Taxation Office and other government agencies, where necessary to provide our services
- Your other professional advisers, with your consent
- Third-party identity verification services, where required for client due diligence under the AML/CTF Act
3. Why We Collect, Hold, Use and Disclose Personal Information
We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information to:
- Provide accounting, taxation, business advisory and (where engaged) company formation and registered office services
- Meet our obligations as a registered tax agent under the Tax Agent Services Act 2009
- Meet our obligations as an AUSTRAC reporting entity under the AML/CTF Act, for clients receiving a designated service
- Comply with other legal and regulatory obligations
- Communicate with you about your engagement with us
Tax file numbers: we collect your tax file number, and those of the entities we act for, because we are authorised to do so as a registered tax agent under the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Cth) and the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth), for the purpose of preparing and lodging returns and dealing with the Australian Taxation Office on your behalf. Tax file numbers are handled in accordance with the Privacy (Tax File Number) Rule 2015, are stored only in our practice management and lodgement systems, and are never entered into any artificial intelligence tool.
4. Who We Disclose Personal Information To
We do not sell or trade your personal information. We may disclose personal information to:
- The Australian Taxation Office, the Tax Practitioners Board, AUSTRAC and other government or regulatory bodies, where required or authorised by law
- Our cloud-based practice management and accounting systems (Xero, XPM, FYI, BGL), which store client data on our behalf
- JCIT, our outsourced IT service provider, in the course of maintaining and supporting our systems
- EasyAML, for client identity verification and, where we provide a designated service under the AML/CTF Act, customer due diligence
- Seamlss, our client onboarding platform, which collects and holds client personal and identity details on our behalf
- DocuSign, for electronic signing of engagement documents, which may store or process data outside Australia
- Our professional advisers (for example, our lawyers or insurer), where necessary
- Any other third party you have authorised us to disclose your information to
Some of the providers we use, including Xero and XPM, store or process personal information outside Australia, principally in the United States. Before disclosing personal information to an overseas recipient we take reasonable steps to ensure it is handled in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles, including through the provider’s contractual and security commitments.
5. Data Security
We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. This includes multi-factor authentication for system access, monthly IT system reviews by JCIT, and the controls set out in our Data Breach Response Plan. In the event of an eligible data breach, we will respond in accordance with our Data Breach Response Plan and our obligations under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.
6. Retention
We retain personal information for as long as necessary to provide our services and to meet our legal, regulatory and professional record-keeping obligations – generally 7 years from the end of the engagement, consistent with our document retention policy.
7. Access and Correction
You may request access to, or correction of, the personal information we hold about you by contacting us using the details below. We will respond to your request within a reasonable time. There is no charge for requesting access to or correction of your personal information.
8. Privacy Complaints
If you have a concern about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us in the first instance using the details below. We will investigate your complaint and respond within a reasonable time.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).
You can contact the OAIC at www.oaic.gov.au, or by phone on 1300 363 992.
9. Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, or wish to access, correct, or make a complaint about your personal information, please contact your Director or our Office Manager.
Altus Partners Pty Ltd – Unit 12, 1645 Ipswich Road, Rocklea, Qld, 4106 – Phone: (07) 3379 2040
10. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The current version is available on our website and from our office on request.
Last reviewed: 22 September 2026. Next review due: 1 January 2027, and yearly thereafter as part of our RMF/SOQM review cycle.