Privacy Policy

About this policy

ATO Fight Back is a specialist service of Accountants Plus Pty Ltd (ABN 60 006 271 843, Tax Agent 5596 1005), part of the Accountants Plus Group of Companies. In this policy, “we”, “us” and “our” refer to Accountants Plus Pty Ltd.

This policy explains how we collect, use, disclose and protect personal information through the ATO Fight Back website and our emails. We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.

Information we collect

We collect personal information that is reasonably necessary for our services. This includes the following.

• Enquiries. When you use our contact form, we collect your name, email address, telephone number, the type of ATO matter, any ATO response deadline and the message you send.
• ATO assessment questionnaire. When you complete the questionnaire, we collect your name, contact details and preferred contact method, details of your ATO matter and its urgency, and any supporting documents you upload. Your answers and documents are sent to our team by email for review.
• ATO Letter Decoder. When this tool is available and you choose to use it, we collect the ATO letter you upload, your email address for verification, and your consent to AI-assisted analysis. The original file is stored securely on this website.
• Accountant referral program. When an accountant or tax agent registers interest, we collect their name, firm, role, email address, telephone number, state, area of interest, message and consent.
• Business contact details. We collect the business email addresses of Australian accounting practices and tax agents from publicly available sources where the firm has published that address for business contact. See Emails to accountants and tax agents.
• Technical information. Our website and service providers record information needed to operate and protect the site, such as browser type, campaign tracking details from links in our emails, and a one-way hashed version of your IP address used to prevent spam and abuse.
• Correspondence. Information you give us by telephone, email or in a consultation.

Please do not send tax file numbers, identity documents, passwords or bank details through our website forms or ordinary email. Secure transfer instructions are provided once we agree to act for you. Where we receive tax file numbers as part of an engagement, we handle them in accordance with the Privacy (Tax File Number) Rule 2015.

How we use information

We use personal information to:

• respond to enquiries and assess ATO matters;
• arrange consultations and provide the tax services you engage us for;
• communicate with you about your matter;
• manage referrals from accountants and keep referring firms informed where agreed;
• send information about our services to accountants and tax agents, subject to their right to unsubscribe;
• protect our website from spam, fraud and abuse; and
• meet our professional, legal and regulatory obligations as a registered tax agent.

AI-assisted analysis

The ATO Letter Decoder provides a preliminary, AI-assisted explanation of an ATO letter. Text in PDF letters is extracted and personal identifiers are masked on our server before analysis. Scanned PDFs and photos are sent to OpenAI for processing and may contain personal information. We only send a letter for analysis after you give consent. The explanation is preliminary and is not tax advice.

Emails to accountants and tax agents

We email Australian accountants and tax agents about our ATO Fight Back accountant referral program and related ATO dispute information. These emails are sent to business email addresses that firms have made publicly available for business contact. We only use an address where the email relates to the recipient’s professional role and the address was not published with a statement that the firm does not want to receive unsolicited commercial messages.

We send these emails in accordance with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). Every email identifies Accountants Plus Pty Ltd as the sender, includes our contact details and contains a functional unsubscribe link. You can unsubscribe at any time using that link or by contacting us. Unsubscribe requests are actioned promptly and always within five business days, and we will not add your address back to our lists.

Our email lists are managed through Mailchimp, which records whether emails are opened and which links are clicked. We use this information to understand which content is useful and to maintain our lists.

When we disclose information

Where reasonably necessary, we may disclose personal information to the following people and organisations.

• our staff and contractors, and other Accountants Plus Group businesses that help deliver our services;
• service providers that support our website and services, including web hosting, email delivery, Mailchimp, OpenAI, Cloudflare Turnstile (bot protection), and booking and payment providers;
• the Australian Taxation Office or another authority where you authorise us or the law requires it;
• a referring accountant, where you have been referred to us and agree to them being kept informed; and
• our legal, insurance and professional advisers.

Service providers receive only the information relevant to their function. We do not sell personal information.

Overseas handling

Some of our service providers process or store information outside Australia. In particular, OpenAI, Mailchimp and Cloudflare may process information in the United States and other countries. Where we disclose personal information overseas, we take reasonable steps to ensure it is handled consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles.

Security and retention

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure, using administrative, technical and physical safeguards suited to the information involved. No internet transmission or storage system is completely secure, so please use the secure routes we provide for sensitive records.

We keep personal information only for as long as it is needed for the purpose it was collected, for professional record-keeping as a tax agent, or as required by law. When it is no longer needed, we take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify it.

Access and correction

You can ask for access to the personal information we hold about you, or ask us to correct it if it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. We may need to verify your identity first. We aim to respond within 30 days. In limited cases the law allows us to refuse access; if so, we will explain why.

Complaints

If you have a concern about how we have handled your personal information, please contact us with the details so we can review it. We aim to respond within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.

Contact us

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always published on this page, with the date it was last updated.