Privacy Policy

VL Tax & Accounting is committed to protecting your privacy in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

Information We Collect

We collect personal information you provide when contacting us, engaging our services or visiting our website. This includes your name, email, phone number and financial information necessary to provide tax and accounting services. If you use our website chat assistant, we also process the text of the messages you send; see "Website Chat Assistant" below.

How We Use Your Information

Your information is used to provide accounting and tax services, communicate with you, comply with legal obligations, and improve our services. We do not sell your personal information to third parties.

Disclosure

We may disclose information to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and other government bodies as required by law, and to trusted service providers who assist us in delivering services under strict confidentiality. We also disclose chat messages to our overseas AI service provider, as described under "Website Chat Assistant" below.

Website Chat Assistant

Our website offers an AI chat assistant that answers general questions about our services and about Australian tax and accounting concepts. It is powered by Anthropic's Claude API.

When you send a message in the chat, the text of your message and the earlier messages in that conversation are transmitted to Anthropic, which operates outside Australia, so that a reply can be generated. Anthropic processes this text as our service provider under its commercial terms.

We ask you not to enter personal, financial or identifying information — such as your name, contact details, TFN, ABN, income or account numbers — into the chat. It is not a secure channel for that information, and the assistant is instructed not to ask for it.

We do not store chat conversations on our servers. Your conversation is held in your browser for the current session only and is cleared when you close the tab. We do not use chat conversations to identify you.

Because Anthropic is located overseas, this is a disclosure of information to an overseas recipient. In line with Australian Privacy Principle 8, we take reasonable steps before disclosing information to an overseas recipient, and we minimise what is sent by asking you not to include personal information.

Answers from the chat assistant are general information only. They are not personal tax, accounting, financial or legal advice, and should not be relied on as a substitute for advice about your own circumstances.

Security

We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access.

Access & Correction

You may request access to or correction of your personal information by contacting us at info@vltax.com.au.

Contact

For privacy enquiries: info@vltax.com.au | (02) 9874 8996