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Privacy Copyright and Disclaimer

Privacy Policy – The Tax Institute

1. Application of Policy

This Privacy Policy describes how The Tax Institute (ABN 45 008 392 372) and HEPCO Pty Ltd trading as The Tax Institute Higher Education (ACN 642 863 787) (together “TTI”, “we”, “us” or “our”) complies with the requirements of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act), including the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), and any other applicable privacy laws in Australia.

This Privacy Policy sets out how we handle personal information to comply with our obligations.

2. Collection of personal information

What kinds of personal information do we collect, use and hold?

The kinds of personal information that we collect, use and hold include names, contact details, date of birth, educational qualifications, employment details and history, sensitive information such as information about membership of professional or trade organisations, criminal record information, information relating to ethnic origin and language spoken and health information as well as other information that is relevant to our functions and activities.

How do we collect personal information?

We usually collect personal information directly from individuals.

In some instances, we may collect personal information about individuals from third parties such as the individual's sponsoring employer, the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) or publicly available resources. 

When you provide us with personal information about other individuals, you should make them aware of this Privacy Policy and obtain their consent to you providing their details to us.

We may collect your personal information when you engage with us, such as when you: 

  • make enquiries about us or our services or contact us for any other reason so that we can process, deal with and respond to your queries or other issues, including any complaints; or
  • submit an application to enrol in any of our educational programs or for membership of TTI; or
  • register for and/or attend a TTI seminar or conference or any of our social or networking activities and events. In addition to the foregoing, TTI may also record and publish such seminars, conferences, activities and events; or 
  • attend online lectures; or
  • make an application for a password on the TTI website, www.taxinstitute.com.au (Website); or
  • use our Website; or
  • subscribe to a newsletter, fill out a form or survey, enter or participate in any promotions; or
  • call our call centre. Calls may be recorded by us for quality review purposes.

What happens if you do not provide your personal information to us?

If you do not provide personal information that we request in connection with our activities, we may not be able to provide our products or services to you. For instance, if you do not provide all of the information requested in our enrolment forms, we will not be able to assess your enrolment into our education programs or membership application. 

Why do we collect, use, hold and disclose your personal information? 

For the purposes of this Privacy Policy:

·       a “candidate” is any individual either intending to enrol in, currently undertaking or who has completed a subject, program or other offering administered by HEPCO Pty Ltd, trading as The Tax Institute Higher Education (“HEPCO”).

·       A “learner” is any individual undertaking learning products offered by TTI.

We collect, use, hold and disclose your personal information as necessary for purposes directly related to our functions and activities, including to:

  • provide our products and services and information about our products and services to learners and candidates, members and non-members;
  • register delegates to seminars;
  • provide information to government bodies as requested by them or at the request of our members
  • register new members, candidates and learners, and update existing records of learners, candidates, members and non-members;
  • promote forthcoming TTI events, education programs and membership of TTI; 
  • promote products and services of TTI or its business partners;
  • form and support technical and non-technical committees, made up of member volunteers to advance the objectives of TTI;
  • provide recordings of lectures to candidates;
  • administer the Website, develop and improve the content available on the Website and customise the content and layout of the Website for members, learners, candidates and other users;
  • notify learners, candidates, members and other users of updates to the Website and administrative matters; and
  • send relevant information, advertisements, special offers and other marketing information to individuals on our mailing lists.

Do we use cookies or other web tracking systems?

We use cookies on the Website. A cookie is a small amount of information stored in a text file which is transferred to and stored on the hard drive of the user's computer. A cookie is a file that only stores information. It is not a program file that launches any action on the user's computer.

We use cookies because they:

  • help us to keep track of users' preferences;
  • save users from having to identify themselves each time they visit the Website;
  • facilitate the use of an electronic shopping basket so that the users are only required to enter their payment details when they have finished shopping;
  • allow us to monitor users' use of the Website; 
  • enable us to engage in digital marketing, such as via social media or internet search engines; and
  • assist us in enhancing the content of the Website.

When you click on some advertisements on the Website a cookie from the advertisement may be placed on the hard drive of your computer. It is not technically possible for TTI to control this. You should contact the advertiser if you have any concern about how this information may be used.

You may disable cookies through your browser, however, you may not be able to utilise all services on the Website if cookies are disabled.

3. Disclosure of your personal information

General disclosure 

We may disclose personal information to third parties such as to:

  • candidates’ and/or learners’ sponsoring employers (with respect to records and grades achieved); 
  • government bodies, such as Tertiary Education and Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA), Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE), Tax Practitioners Board (TPB), Australian Taxation Office (ATO), Inspector-General of Taxation and Taxation Ombudsman (IGTO);
  • members’ sponsoring employers where the member is employed by an organisation which takes out a corporate membership arrangement with us;
  • other members’ sponsoring employers where the member is not sponsored by their employer, for the purposes of business to business activities and initiatives;
  • TTI’s alliance and business partners and marketing services providers;
  • make recordings of lectures available to candidates to supplement their course materials;
  • third parties who provide services and assistance relating to seminars, conferences and education programs to TTI;
  • other members and attendees at TTI’s conferences and events for the purposes of discussions amongst attendees and for other networking purposes (during and post a conference or event);
  • TTI’s technical and non-technical committees comprised of member volunteers;
  • nominated third parties that provide administrative and other services to us, including our members and volunteers;
  • third party payment processors; and
  • professional services firms providing services to us such as legal, accountancy or marketing services as well as data hosting and technology firms.

We will only disclose your personal information:

  • with your consent; or 
  • for a purpose which you would reasonably expect; or 
  • as required or permitted by law; or 
  • in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

We will not disclose your personal information to our business partners where requested by you in writing.

Do we disclose personal information overseas? 

We may disclose personal information to overseas recipients for purposes such as offshore data storage.

4. Unsubscribing from marketing materials 

If at any time you do not wish to continue to receive particular information from us or one of our business partners, you may contact TTI at membership@taxinstitute.com.au to request that your name be removed from a mailing list for a publication or other marketing materials.

5. Dealing with us anonymously or using a pseudonym

You may deal with us on an anonymous basis or by using a pseudonym when making enquiries through our Website, or when you make general enquiries by telephone and do not require a further response from us. However, we may need certain contact details from you to respond to enquiries.

Generally, we will require your personal information in order to transact with you.

6. Security and integrity of personal information 

We will use all reasonable efforts to maintain the integrity of your personal information. We have established procedures to assist in keeping personal information of learners, candidates and members up to date. 

We use industry standard encryption technologies to safeguard the confidentiality of personal information that we hold. We keep these arrangements under review to ensure that we are doing all that is reasonably and technically feasible to protect the confidentiality and security of your personal information.

Once personal information is no longer required by us for the purposes for which it was collected or held or otherwise in accordance with the APPs, we will take all steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to ensure that it is either destroyed or de-identified.  

7. Access, correction and removal of your personal information 

You may seek to access or correct your personal information at any time by contacting the Privacy Officer by email to membership@taxinstitute.com.au or by mail to the 'Privacy Officer, The Tax Institute, Level 21, 60 Margaret Street, Sydney, NSW, 2000.

If we do not agree to provide you with access to your personal information or to amend or annotate the information we hold about you, you may seek a review of our decision. 

If we do not agree to make the requested changes to your personal information, you may make a statement about the requested changes and we will attach it to your record. 

8. Rights of individuals located in the European Union (EU)

In addition to the Privacy Act, individuals located in the European Union (EU) may also have rights under EU based rules known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The key obligations under the GDPR include Notice, Individual Rights, and Retention. Each user has a right of confirmation (to confirm whether or not Personal Information concerning the user is being processed), access (the right to request what Personal Information is stored about the user and obtain a copy of that said information), erasure (the right to request that any Personal Information concerning the user be erased without delay when no longer required, or when the user withdraws consent), rectification (the right to rectify any inaccurate information concerning the user), portability (the right to receive the Personal Information concerning the user, which was provided to us, in a readable format), object (the right to object the processing of the Personal Information concerning the user unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which overrides the interests, rights, and freedoms of the user/data subject, or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims), restriction of processing (the right to restrict processing where the accuracy of the Personal Information is contested by the user/data subject for a period enabling the controller to verify the accuracy of the Personal Information; or the processing is unlawful and the user/data subject opposes the erasure of the Personal Information and requests instead the restriction of their use instead; or we, the controller, no longer need the Personal Information for the purposes of the processing, but they are required by the user/data subject for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims), as set out in Articles of the GDPR.

9. Complaints 

You can send written complaints about a breach of the APPs in relation to your personal information by email to privacy@taxinstitute.com.au or by mail to the 'Privacy Officer, The Tax Institute, Level 21, 60 Margaret Street, Sydney, NSW, 2000.

Complaints will be reviewed by our Privacy Officer and a response will usually be provided within 30 days of receipt of the complaint.

If you believe that your complaint has not been satisfactorily addressed by us, after following the procedure set out above, you can make a complaint to the Office of the Information Commissioner (OAIC). The OAIC's contact details are here.

For more information about making a complaint, contact us at privacy@taxinstitute.com.au.

10. Third party websites

This Privacy Policy relates to all aspects of activities undertaken by TTI including its Website, but does not extend to websites of third parties which are linked to, or referred to on, TTI's Website or any of our online publications. 

You should be aware that, if you click on a website link or an advertisement which takes you to another website, you may enter a website that does not offer similar privacy protection. You should check the privacy policies of these other websites and should not provide any personal information unless you feel comfortable with the level of protection on that website.

11. Amendments

We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time. Amendments to this Privacy Policy will be posted on our Website and will be effective when posted. Please check our Privacy Policy regularly for updates and amendments.

*As amended 1 July 2022.

Copyright

The Tax Institute
(ABN 45 008 392 372 (PRV14016))
("TTI")

The Tax Institute is a Recognised Tax Agent Association (RTAA) under the Tax Agent Services Regulations 2009. 

Copyright Statement

All materials provided on this site are protected by copyright and are owned by or licensed to TTI.

Except as expressly permitted by TTI or the copyright owner, any person or company who uses this site must not use, reproduce, redistribute, retransmit, publish or otherwise transfer, or commercially exploit, the materials or any information, software or other content, in whole or in part, which is available through this site.

Disclaimer

The Tax Institute
ABN 45 008 392 372
("TTI")

The materials and publications available for purchase and/or downloading from this website are meant for general educational purposes only and do not purport to contain all relevant information. The views contained therein are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of TTI.

Recipients rely on the information in the materials and publications at their own risk. Recipients should not rely on the information as advice for any particular matter, but should make their own assessment and evaluation, undertake investigation and enquiries and seek advice to enable them to make any decision concerning their own interests.

TTI expressly disclaims all and any liability to any recipient whatsoever in respect of anything done by any such recipient in reliance on any of the materials and publications.

To the extent that the law permits, TTI will not be liable in any way (whether in negligence or otherwise) for any loss or damage which may be suffered by a recipient in connection with the contents of or any omission from content contained in the materials and publications.