All private and confidential as a standard.
The term “private and confidential” is of the upmost importance when it comes to financial matters and especially personal finance or money, With any financial information, being personal or company, people are generally skeptical about handing their information over. This is especially true now with all the scams that are out there, where people use personal information for their gain illegally.
There is much concern by people with their personal tax returns, because it contains information about their salary.
At BC Accounting Services, when it comes to personal information, everything is private and confidential and will not be shared, discussed or spoken about EVER! This information is yours and we don’t break that trust ever.
When can it be released?
There is only one instance where we as accountants and tax practitioners are instructed to divulge information. That is when illegal activity is taking or taken place. If this is the case, we would inform the client and then report it to the relevant authorities. Because of the nature of the activity, we don’t need permission from the client. The client will be informed. We are instructed by both South African Law and by our regulatory bodies to disclose this event.
There is only one reason for this. It is because there are ethical standards and regulations in place to uphold fair and proper practice. If we do not uphold these standards, we are liable to lose out license to practice. We may also could also be implicated in that activity.
When we look at the information provided by clients, the only thing that we are really interested in are the numbers. The name on top of the page is mostly irrelevant unless, as mentioned above, something is needing to be reported. Of course the name and the company is important. This is more important when it comes to reporting and discussions with the client. This increases the privacy and confidentiality of the information.
POPI Act
With the enforcement of the Protection of Personal Information Act on 1 July 2021, all companies are required to protect this information. This has not really changed how we work because we just don’t give that information away. There are some changes but they are just making sure we do it the way they want us to. Perhaps just tightening up the process.
WE take your business and our business seriously. Your information and the protection of this is critical. a standard of non disclosure has been in place from the start.
One of the regulatory bodies is the South African Institute of Business Accountants, to which we belong, more information is available here.