Laity Tax | Privacy Policy

PRIVACY POLICY

1. OBJECTIVE & SCOPE OF PRIVACY POLICY

Laity Tax & Bookkeeping Services Inc. ("Laity Tax") is committed to providing reliable, timely, and accurate income tax returns and related services to its clients across Canada. Consistent with the Canada Standards Act Privacy code, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act ("PIPEDA"), and other applicable law, Laity Tax is dedicated to maintaining high standards of confidentiality with respect to the personal information it collects from its clients.

This Privacy Policy governs personal information collected from our clients for the purposes of completing and filing income tax returns and for providing other services requested by clients. It does not cover aggregated data from which the identity of an individual cannot be determined, or information that is available from a public source or any information that is specifically excluded by applicable privacy legislation. If a question arises regarding access to your personal information held by Laity Tax, or there is a concern about the way Laity Tax collects, uses, retains, and discloses your personal information as one of Laity Tax's clients, please contact:

Director of Operations

Laity Tax Service

385 Mountain Ave, Unit #7

Winkler, MB R6W 0M5

Email: info@laitytax.com

Phone 431-775-7742

2. DEFINITIONS

“CRA” means the Canada Revenue Agency.

“Consent” means voluntary agreement with the collection, use, retention, and disclosure of information for the purposes for which Laity Tax’s services have been retained. When appropriate, express consent is obtained explicitly, in writing, from the Client.

“Collection” means all information obtained from the client for the purpose of providing the income tax return preparation and filing services of Laity Tax and any other information collected for the purpose of providing services requested by a client. Collection also means all information obtained about the Client from other third-party sources such as Canada Revenue Agency for the purpose of providing income tax return preparation and filing services.

“Client” means any individual that has retained Laity Tax’s services.

“Disclosure” means making available Personal Information and business information about the Client to third party government agencies or organizations outside of Laity Tax.

“Organization” means a business, association, partnership, person, or trade union.

“Personal Information” means any information about the Client, recorded in any form, that is identifiable to that individual either directly or by inference from the information, but does not include the name, title or address, or other information relating to the Client’s business or place of employment.

“Transfer” means filing or otherwise transferring Personal Information and business information to or from a Laity Tax location, Laity Tax head office, Canada Revenue Agency or other third parties for the purposes consented to by the Client.

3. COLLECTION, USE & TRANSFER OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

Purpose: The purpose for the collection, use and transfer of a Client’s Personal Information by Laity Tax, its employees, franchisees, and suppliers, and affiliates, is to obtain all pertinent and necessary information for the preparation and filing of the Client’s Return as required by CRA pursuant to the Income Tax Act, for billing and payment for such services, for the provision of other services requested by a client and for legal and regulatory requirements. Laity Tax may also collect and use a Client’s Personal Information to attempt to understand Client preferences so that it can offer targeted products or services.

Collection: Personal Information will be collected, to the extent possible, directly from the Client. Where Personal Information is not available from the Client, but may be obtained from a financial institution, government agency, or other third-party source, Personal Information will be collected from those sources.

Use & Transfer: Personal Information that is collected in the preparation of a Client’s Return may be transferred to Laity Tax’s head office for final review and will be transferred to CRA. Laity Tax may disclose Personal Information to its franchisees, suppliers, affiliates and third parties to provide the services requested by the Client. Laity Tax may disclose Personal Information to regulatory authorities as required by law. Laity Tax does not disclose personal information to third parties, except as necessary to perform the services that are requested by the client, to comply with regulatory requirements and to manage business functions. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Laity Tax will disclose Personal Information to a third-party collection agency if a client owes a debt to Laity Tax.

Personal Information is not otherwise used or disclosed to any third-party organizations for any reason outside the purpose stipulated above except to the extent authorized by the Client. Any data that is aggregated for statistical or business monitoring purposes, will be rendered anonymous so as not to be identifiable to the Client.

4. CONSENT

Laity Tax will request written consent as appropriate and legally necessary. For example, when a client signs the Information Return for Electronic Filing of an Individual’s Income Tax and Benefit Return, and signs the Client Authorization form, the Client consents and agrees to the following:

1. Laity Tax may collect, use, retain, disclose and/or transfer all Personal Information about the Client for the purpose and in the manner set out herein.

2. The Client has a right to access or correct data collected by Laity Tax.

3. The Client accepts the risks that may be associated with electronic transmission of their Return.

4. Laity Tax has the right to disclose Personal Information about the Client to government or legal enforcement agencies if Laity Tax determines that the Client has provided false, misleading, or otherwise incorrect information for fraudulent or illegal purposes; and

5. Laity Tax may disclose Personal Information about the Client if requested by an organization during any criminal investigation.

You may refuse or withdraw consent to the collection, use or disclosure of information, though doing so may mean that Laity Tax is unable to provide you with products or services that you requested.

5. ACCURACY

Laity Tax endeavours to ensure that any Personal Information provided by its clients, and in its possession, is accurate, current, and complete as is necessary for the purposes for which the Personal Information is used and transferred. Upon notification by a Client that the Personal Information collected and used by Laity Tax requires correction or updating, Laity Tax will endeavour to make the necessary corrections promptly.

6. RETENTION

Laity Tax retains Personal Information if Laity Tax believes it is required to retain such information for the purpose of filing completed Returns and having such Returns available if such information is required by a client to respond to a request by CRA. After a Client’s Return has been filed with CRA, the said Return and all Personal Information contained therein is stored at the Laity Tax site where the Return was prepared.

7. SECURITY

Laity Tax endeavours to maintain physical, procedural, and technological security at its offices, head office, and information storage facilities to prevent any loss, misuse, unauthorized access, inadvertent disclosure, or modification of Personal Information. Laity Tax further protects Personal Information by restricting access to Personal Information to those employees and third parties that have authorized access for Laity Tax to provide its services to its clients. Laity Tax has a policy under which employee misuse of Personal Information is treated as a serious offence for which disciplinary action may be taken.

Regarding electronic transmission of Personal Information in the form of the Client’s completed Return, there is no method of transmitting or storing data that is completely secure. Although Laity Tax uses all available technological security in the transmission of Client’s Returns, all Internet transmissions are susceptible to possible loss, misrouting, interception, and misuse.

8. ACCESS TO PERSONAL INFORMATION

Laity Tax permits a Client to access and review the Personal Information it holds about the Client upon receipt of a written request to the Director of Operations. Laity Tax reserves the right to refuse access to Personal Information about a Client where the information requested:

1. Concerns another individual or Client of Laity Tax and no consent has been granted by that Client for such access.

2. May harm or interfere with law enforcement activities and other investigative functions of a body authorized by statute to perform such functions.

3. Is subject to solicitor-client or litigation privilege; or

4. Does not exist, is not held, or cannot be found by Laity Tax.

Where Personal Information will not or cannot be disclosed, the Client making the request will be provided with reasons for the non-disclosure.

Laity Tax reserves the right to decline to respond to repetitious or vexatious requests for access. In determining whether a request is repetitious or vexatious, it will consider such factors as the purpose for which the Personal Information was collected and used, the nature of the information being requested by the Client, and the frequency with which the Client repeats the same or similar access request.

To protect against fraudulent requests for access, Laity Tax will require sufficient information or proof of identification from the Client before granting access or making corrections to the Client’s Personal Information.

Where a request for access to a Client’s Personal Information is granted, Laity Tax will endeavour to provide the information in question within a reasonable time and no later than 60 days following receipt of the written request and confirmation of the Client’s identity. Laity Tax may charge a nominal cost to the Client making the access request to cover photocopying or mailing costs, if necessary.

Where a client requests deletion of Personal Information held by Laity Tax, Laity Tax reserves the right to refuse such a request to the extent that its retention of Personal Information is subject to CRA regulations and the Income Tax Act or other regulations.

9. MARKETING PREFERENCES

Clients may choose how Laity Tax contacts them. Changes should be sent to info@laitytax.com. If a client chooses to use Laity Tax websites, Laity Tax and its partners and vendors may collect information using cookies or similar technologies. These technologies are used in analyzing trends, administering the site, tracking users’ movements around the site and to gather demographic information about the Laity Tax user base. Laity Tax may receive reports based on the use of these technologies by these companies on an individual as well as aggregated basis. Laity Tax uses cookies for online customer support, and analytics service providers. Users can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level. If a client rejects cookies, the Client may still use the Laity Tax site, but the ability to use some features or areas of the site may be limited.

Laity Tax may partner with a third-party ad network to either display advertising on its website or to manage advertising on other sites. Ad network partners may use cookies and web beacons to collect non-personal information about Client’s activities on Laity Tax related websites to provide targeted advertising based upon Client interests. If a client does not wish to have this information used for the purpose of serving targeted ads, the Client may opt-out. Please note this is an opt out for generic ads but does not opt a client out of being served advertising. Deleting browser cookies and web beacons can assist with removing a client’s opt-out preferences.

As is true of most websites, Laity Tax gathers certain information automatically and stores it in log files. This information may include Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and/or clickstream data. We do not link this automatically collected data to other information we collect about a client.

10. AMENDMENT TO LAITY TAX PRIVACY POLICY AND PROCEDURE

This Privacy Policy may be amended at any time. Laity Tax recognizes that legal interpretation of PIPEDA and other regulations may impact its privacy policies and procedures.

11. COMPLAINT PROCESS

Any concern or complaint by a Client about Laity Tax’s management of the Client’s Personal Information should be directed to the Director of Operations, in writing. All complaints received will be investigated promptly and the Client will be advised of the results of the investigation. Where corrective or disciplinary action is indicated, Laity Tax will undertake to take such corrective and/or disciplinary action promptly.

If you have any questions about the Laity Tax Privacy Policy, please contact