01Who we are
Arnold Green & Associates CC is the responsible party (data controller) for the personal information described in this notice.
- Entity
- Arnold Green & Associates CC
- Information Officer
- Arnold Green, Public Practitioner
- Address
- 10 North Avenue, Kenilworth, Kimberley, 8301, South Africa
- Arnold@agreen.co.za
- Cell
- 062 198 5137
- VOIP
- 087 822 1469
Any question, request or complaint about personal information should be directed to the Information Officer using the details above.
02Information we collect
The information we hold depends on the service you engage us for. It typically includes:
Client and contact information
- Names, identity or passport numbers and dates of birth
- Contact details — postal and physical addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers
- Marital status and details of spouses or dependants where these affect a tax position
- Entity details — registration numbers, MOI and founding documents, details of directors, members, shareholders, trustees and beneficial owners
Financial and tax information
- Bank statements, invoices, receipts, contracts and supporting source documents
- Accounting records, trial balances, ledgers and financial statements
- Income tax, VAT, PAYE and other tax reference numbers, returns, assessments and SARS correspondence
- eFiling and SARS profile information necessary to act on your behalf
Payroll information (where we process payroll)
- Employee names, identity numbers, addresses and contact details
- Salary, wage, benefit, deduction and leave information
- Banking details for salary payment purposes
- Tax numbers, UIF numbers and IRP5 information
Website enquiry information
- The name, business name, email address, telephone number and message you submit through the enquiry form on this website
Special personal information and children's information. Some of the information we handle — such as health-related deductions, or information about minor dependants for tax purposes — is treated as special personal information or children's information under POPIA. We process it only where the Act permits, and only to the extent needed to complete the work you have engaged us for.
Most of this information is provided directly by you. We may also receive information about you from SARS, the CIPC, your bank, your previous accountant, your employees (where we run your payroll), or from public registers.
03Why we process it
We use personal information for the following purposes:
- To provide the accounting, taxation, company secretarial, payroll and advisory services you have engaged us for
- To prepare and submit returns, statements, declarations and filings to SARS, the CIPC, the Department of Employment and Labour, the Compensation Fund and other authorities
- To communicate with you and with regulators about your affairs
- To respond to an enquiry you have submitted through this website
- To verify identity and carry out client acceptance and due diligence checks
- To issue invoices, collect fees and maintain our own accounting records
- To comply with our legal, regulatory and professional obligations, including those of SAICA, CIBA and SAIT
- To establish, exercise or defend a legal claim
We do not sell personal information, and we do not use it for unrelated direct marketing without your consent.
04Our lawful basis
Under section 11 of POPIA we process personal information because, depending on the situation:
- it is necessary to carry out the engagement or contract we have with you;
- it is required by law — for example tax, company, labour or anti-money-laundering legislation;
- it is necessary for our legitimate interests, or those of a third party, in running the practice properly; or
- you have given your consent — for example when you submit the enquiry form on this website.
Where we rely on your consent, you may withdraw it at any time. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing already carried out, and may mean we can no longer provide a particular service.
06Cross-border transfers
Some of the software we use to run the practice — such as email, cloud storage and accounting or payroll platforms — may store information on servers outside South Africa.
Where personal information is transferred out of the country, we do so only in accordance with section 72 of POPIA: that is, where the recipient is subject to laws or binding agreements that provide an adequate level of protection substantially similar to POPIA, where the transfer is necessary to perform our engagement with you, or where you have consented to it.
07How long we keep it
We keep personal information only for as long as it is needed for the purpose it was collected for, or for as long as the law requires us to keep it — whichever is longer.
In practice this means:
- Accounting and tax records — generally at least five years from the date of the relevant submission, in line with the Tax Administration Act and the Companies Act, and longer where an audit, objection, dispute or investigation is under way
- Payroll records — for the periods required by the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, the Income Tax Act and related legislation
- Website enquiries — for as long as needed to deal with the enquiry and, if you become a client, for the duration of the engagement
Once information is no longer required, we destroy, delete or de-identify it in a way that prevents it from being reconstructed.
08How we protect it
We take appropriate, reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against loss, damage, unauthorised access and unlawful processing, as required by section 19 of POPIA. These include access controls and passwords, restricting access to those who need it, secured devices and storage, reputable software providers, and confidentiality obligations on anyone acting for the practice.
No system can be guaranteed completely secure. If a security compromise affecting your personal information does occur, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as soon as reasonably possible, as section 22 of POPIA requires.
A note on email. Ordinary email is not a secure medium. Where you send us sensitive documents by email you do so at your own risk, and we are happy to arrange a more secure method of transfer on request.
09Your rights
As a data subject, POPIA gives you the right to:
- be notified that we are collecting your personal information, and when it has been accessed without authorisation
- request access to the personal information we hold about you, and to be told who has had access to it
- request that we correct or delete information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete, misleading or obtained unlawfully
- request that we destroy or delete information we are no longer authorised to keep
- object, on reasonable grounds, to our processing of your information
- object to your information being used for direct marketing by unsolicited electronic communication
- not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing that has a legal effect on you
- complain to the Information Regulator
- institute civil proceedings in respect of an alleged breach of the Act
Some of these rights are limited where the law requires us to keep records — we cannot, for example, delete records that tax or company legislation obliges us to retain.
10Exercising your rights
To exercise any of these rights, contact the Information Officer at Arnold@agreen.co.za. Requests for access to information are dealt with under the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (PAIA), using the prescribed form; a prescribed fee may apply.
We may ask you to verify your identity before acting on a request, and we will respond within a reasonable time. There is no charge for asking us to correct information.
11This website
This website is deliberately simple. It does not use cookies, analytics or tracking scripts, and it does not build a profile of visitors.
The enquiry form does not store anything on this website or send it to a third-party service. When you click Send Enquiry, the details you typed are placed into a new message in your own email program, which you then send to us yourself. Nothing is transmitted until you send that email.
Our hosting provider may keep standard server logs, which can include IP addresses, for security and diagnostic purposes.
12Children's information
This website is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect information about children through it. We do process information about minors where it forms part of a client's tax or payroll affairs — for example dependants listed on a tax return — with the consent of a competent person, and only as the law permits.
13Complaints
Please raise any concern with us first — we would prefer the chance to put it right. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Information Regulator:
- Body
- Information Regulator (South Africa)
- Address
- Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191
- POPIA complaints
- POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za
- PAIA complaints
- PAIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za
- General enquiries
- enquiries@inforegulator.org.za
- Telephone
- 010 023 5200 · Toll free 0800 017 160
- Website
- inforegulator.org.za
A complaint to the Regulator must be in writing on the prescribed Form 5, and is lodged either by email to the address above or through the Regulator's eServices portal.
You may also raise a complaint about our professional conduct with SAICA, CIBA or SAIT.
14Changes to this notice
We may update this notice from time to time to reflect changes in the law or in how we work. The current version is always the one published on this page, and the date at the top shows when it was last revised. Where a change materially affects how we handle your information, we will bring it to your attention.