Last updated 8th May 2024

This notice describes our collection, use, disclosure, retention and protection of any personal or business information that is collected by the Open Answers My Tax Digital application.

Who we are

This Privacy Notice applies to the Open Answers My Tax Digital application offered by Open Answers Limited, a company incorporated in England with company registration number 02865597 and whose registered office address is 1-3 Tyburn Lane, Harrow, HA1 3AG.

How we collect information

Information you provide to us directly

When you create an account, we collect information such as your name, email address and password in order that we can set up your account.

We receive business information from you when you use our service, such as business name, address, contact information, income & expenses, invoices, receipts and bank feeds.

If you don’t want to provide us with personal data, you don’t have to, but it might mean you can’t use some parts of the service.

We do not collect or process any special categories of personal data, as defined under GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

We do not knowingly collect or solicit any personal data from anyone under the age of 16 or knowingly allow such persons to create an account.

Financial data you provide

As well as your personal data, we may also hold financial data that you enter in order to make use of the service. Financial data might include invoices, expenses, receipts and bank transactions.

You will always have complete control of all the financial data you enter and upload.

It is your responsibility to keep your login details safe and control any third party account access to your financial data. It is your responsibility to make suitable disclosures and to have obtained the consent necessary for you to upload the data belonging to others.

Information we collect automatically

Some information is automatically collected when you use our service, like your IP address, browser and device type. When you navigate through the web application, we collect information including what pages you visit and what links you clicked on. This information is useful because it helps us improve the service we provide.

Some of this information is collected using cookies and similar tracking technologies. To find out more about the types of cookies we use, take a look at our cookie notice.

Information we get from third parties

We use Google Analytics software to collect information about how you use My Tax Digital. This includes IP addresses. The data is anonymised before being used for analytics processing. Google Analytics processes anonymised information about the pages you visit My Tax Digital, how long you spend on each page, how you got to the site, what you click on while you’re visiting the site. We do not store your personal information through Google Analytics.

Third-Party Advertising and Retargeting

We may use advertising networks and other third-parties to display advertising on our service or to manage our advertising on other sites. Third-party partners may place cookies on our service and unaffiliated websites in order to serve advertisements relevant to you based on your browsing activities and interests, and to determine the effectiveness of these advertisements.

From time to time, we may engage in remarketing efforts with our third-party partners in order to market our service. These third-parties use cookies to serve ads based on your past visits to our service.

How the application uses your information

The information you provide is used to operate and provide you with the service you’ve requested and to manage our relationship with you.

We will use the contact information provided for operational communications, like changes to our service, security updates, or assistance with using our services. This may include assisting you with the resolution of technical issues relating to our service, whether by email, in-app support, telephone or otherwise.

Information is used so that we can detect and prevent any fraudulent or malicious activity, and make sure that everyone is using our service fairly and in accordance with our terms of use.

Business information is used for internal analysis in order to improve and enhance the service we provide.

Data Retention

My Tax Digital is committed to adhering to regulatory requirements and industry best practices regarding record retention. To ensure compliance with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) guidelines for UK companies and align with the retention policies of UK banks and accountancy firms:

• All records, including financial documents, tax records, and client information, will be retained for a minimum period of seven (7) years unless explicitly deleted by the user.

• This retention period exceeds the minimum six-year requirement mandated by HMRC for UK companies and aligns with the seven-year retention policies commonly observed in the banking and accountancy sectors.

Sharing your information

Elective third party access

Should you elect to share your personal data via the Share Access feature with third parties (e.g. your employees, accountant etc), then your personal data will be shared in that way. This data may include personal, financial and transactional data, invoices, bills and expenses. These third parties will use that data in accordance with any permissions and consents you have given to them.

Should you elect to submit VAT return data via the MTD VAT feature, then your VAT figures for the chosen VAT period will be electronically sent to HMRC Government VAT MTD API service for processing. The information sent is limited to those present on the VAT return form plus any anti-fraud information mandated by HMRC.

Supplier and third party arrangements

There are limited circumstances in which we would need to share your personal data with third parties. We will only disclose your personal data in the following circumstances:

• When we have your permission to do so.
• To cooperate with regulators, law enforcement bodies, government agencies, courts or other third parties where we think it’s necessary to comply with applicable laws or regulations, or to exercise, establish or defend our legal rights. Where possible and appropriate, we will notify you of this type of disclosure.
• Sharing with third parties in the event that we, our business, or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party (in which case, personal information about customers will be one of the transferred assets).

Changes to this privacy policy

Any changes made to this privacy policy will be updated and posted to our web site www.mytaxdigital.co.uk

Contact Us

If you require further clarification or have any questions or suggestions about our privacy policy then please contact us at info@openanswers.co.uk.