Privacy Policy
Last updated: 4 August 2026
1. Who we are
Accounting services are provided by MIK Comm Pty Ltd (ABN 79 699 269 120).
Taxation and BAS agent services are provided through MIK Comm & Tax as a trainee tax agent under the supervision of The Accounting Academy Services Pty Limited (ABN 93 671 788 355, Registered Tax Agent number 26233096).
In this policy, "we", "us" and "our" refer to both, as the context requires.
We handle your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles. As a registered tax practice we are also bound by the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 and its Code of Professional Conduct.
2. What personal information we collect
Depending on the services you engage us for, we may collect:
- Identity and contact details — name, email address, phone number, residential or business address, and date of birth.
- Tax file numbers (TFNs) and Australian Business Numbers.
- Financial information — income, deductions, bank account and transaction details, payroll and superannuation data, invoices, receipts and statements.
- Government and agency correspondence — including ATO correspondence and account details where you provide them, and permission to link you to our tax agent portal in order to carry out the services.
- Identity verification documents. We are required by our professional and legal obligations to verify each client. We will ask for a copy of photo identification (driver licence or passport), or ask you to display it to us during a video call.
- Employee information, where you engage us for payroll or bookkeeping. In that case you are providing us with your employees' personal information, and you are responsible for having informed them.
- Website enquiry information — the name, email address, phone number and enquiry type you submit through our contact form.
We only collect what we reasonably need to deliver the services you have asked for and to meet our legal and professional obligations.
3. How we collect it
Usually directly from you — through our contact form, by email or phone, in meetings, or from documents you provide. We may also collect information from the Australian Taxation Office, your bank or financial institutions, your previous accountant or bookkeeper, or your employees, where you have authorised us to do so.
4. Tax file numbers
Tax file numbers carry specific protections under Australian law, in addition to general privacy obligations.
- We collect your TFN only where authorised by taxation law — to prepare and lodge returns and activity statements, and to deal with the ATO on your behalf.
- Providing your TFN is not compulsory. However, without it we may be unable to lodge on your behalf, and you may be taxed at a higher rate.
- We will not use or disclose your TFN except as authorised by taxation law, and we will not use it to identify you in our records for any other purpose.
- We take reasonable steps to protect TFNs from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, and to securely destroy or de-identify them once we are no longer required to retain them.
5. Why we use your information
To provide accounting, bookkeeping, payroll and taxation services; to prepare and lodge returns, activity statements and other documents; to correspond with the ATO and other agencies on your behalf; to issue invoices and manage our engagement; to respond to your enquiries; and to meet our legal, regulatory and professional obligations.
6. Newsletters and updates
We may use your email address to send you newsletters and updates — for example about tax deadlines, changes to compliance obligations, and our services.
You can opt out at any time. Every newsletter includes an unsubscribe link, and you can also opt out at any time by emailing us using the details in section 1. Opting out of newsletters will not affect the services we provide to you, and we will still send you communications that relate directly to your engagement.
We never sell or rent your personal information to anyone.
7. Who we disclose it to
We may disclose your personal information to:
Our supervising tax agent — full visibility. Because our taxation and BAS services are provided under the supervision of The Accounting Academy Services Pty Limited (ABN 93 671 788 355), they have full access to and visibility of the client information we hold in connection with those services. This is a requirement of the supervised arrangement under which those services are lawfully provided, and it covers supervision, review, quality assurance and compliance.
- The Australian Taxation Office and other government agencies, as required to deliver the services you have engaged us for.
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Third parties engaged in delivering your work — including contractors, consultants, supervisors and outsourcing providers. These include, but are not limited to:
- The Accounting Academy Services Pty Limited (ABN 93 671 788 355) and its associates
- The Accounting Academy Pty Ltd (ABN 26 669 927 959) and its associates
- Daniel van der Heyden (ABN 97 799 741 471) and his associates
- Cloud storage and accounting software providers we use to hold and process client data — such as Google Drive, Xero and QuickBooks.
- Chartered Accountants ANZ (CAANZ). As members, we are subject to periodic quality assurance reviews, which means your files may form part of such a review unless you tell us otherwise.
- Our website form provider. Enquiries submitted through our contact form are processed by Formspree, which may store and transmit that information on servers located outside Australia, including in the United States.
- Professional advisers, auditors or insurers, where reasonably required.
- Any other party you authorise, or where we are required or permitted to do so by law.
8. Storage outside Australia
Some of the information we hold is stored or processed outside Australia. Because this affects different information in different ways, we have set it out separately below.
Website enquiries.
When you submit our contact form, the name, email address, phone number and enquiry type you provide are processed by Formspree, which stores and transmits that information on servers located outside Australia, including in the United States.
Client engagement information.
If you engage us for accounting, bookkeeping, payroll or taxation services, we hold your information in cloud-based storage and accounting systems such as Google Drive, Xero and QuickBooks. This can include sensitive information — tax file numbers, financial records, and identity documents.
The physical location of those providers' servers is not within our control, and it is therefore not practicable for us to specify every country in which your information may be held. It may be stored on servers outside Australia.
What this means for you. Where we disclose your personal information to an overseas recipient, we take reasonable steps to ensure it is handled in a manner consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles. However, information held overseas may be subject to the laws of the country in which it is stored, and those laws may differ from Australian law. By engaging us, you acknowledge that your information may be stored and processed outside Australia in the ways described above.
9. How we protect it
We take reasonable steps to protect your information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. These include:
- a highly secure password system;
- malware and virus protection software on our devices and within our email system;
- secure transmission of data to and from our website;
- confidentiality obligations on anyone who works with us; and
- continuing education and ongoing improvement of our systems and data security.
No method of transmission or storage is completely secure. If a data breach occurs that is likely to result in serious harm, we will respond in accordance with our obligations under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.
10. Artificial intelligence
We maintain a cybersecurity policy governing the use of generative AI tools. Sensitive or confidential client data must not be entered into AI prompts. Access to such tools is restricted to authorised individuals using secure configurations and strong authentication, and their use is monitored and logged.
11. How long we keep it
In accordance with our professional and legal obligations, we are required to keep a copy of your documents for a minimum of five years — even if our engagement ends and you engage another accountant. These records are kept securely and accessed only where we are required to do so in line with relevant laws. Some records must be kept longer. When information is no longer required, we take reasonable steps to destroy it or permanently de-identify it.
The financial statements, tax returns and other documents we are specifically engaged to prepare, together with any original documents you give us, are your property. Other documents created by us, including general working papers and draft documents, remain our property.
12. Confidentiality
In addition to privacy obligations, we are bound by professional confidentiality requirements — including, for taxation services, the confidentiality obligations in the Code of Professional Conduct under the Tax Agent Services Act. We will not disclose your information to a third party without your permission unless we have a legal duty to do so.
13. Accessing and correcting your information
You may ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it if it is inaccurate, out of date or incomplete. Contact us using the details in section 1. We will respond within a reasonable period. There is no fee to make a request, though we may charge a reasonable fee for the cost of providing access. If we refuse a request, we will explain why in writing.
14. Cookies and our website
Our website does not set advertising or tracking cookies. Fonts are loaded from Google Fonts, which means Google may receive your IP address when a page loads. Our site is delivered through Cloudflare, which processes limited technical information (such as IP address) in order to serve and secure the site.
15. Complaints
We are committed to providing a high-quality, professional service. If you have any concerns about how we have handled your personal information, or are not satisfied with the service you have received, please contact us directly using the details in section 1 so we can seek to resolve the matter.
Because our taxation and BAS services are provided under supervision, you may also raise the matter with our supervising practice's complaints contact, Daniel van der Heyden, at complaints@theaccountingacademy.com.au.
Tax Practitioners Board. If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB), the national board that registers and regulates tax practitioners.
Lodge a complaint at tpb.gov.au/complaints. You can also check our registration details on the public TPB Register at tpb.gov.au/registrations — our registration number is 26233096.
16. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always available on this page, along with the date it was last updated.