Privacy policy

This policy explains how Sidekick Accounting Ltd (trading as Contractor Tax Accountants), referred to here as "we", "us" and "our", collects, uses and protects your personal information when you use the Contractor Tax Accountants website (the "Site"). We are committed to protecting your privacy and complying with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who we are (data controller)

The data controller responsible for your personal data is Sidekick Accounting Ltd, which trades as Contractor Tax Accountants:

• Registered company name: Sidekick Accounting Ltd
• Trading name: Contractor Tax Accountants
• Company number: 12250170 (registered in England and Wales)
• Registered office: 5th Floor, 167-169 Great Portland Street, London, W1W 5PF

If you have any questions about this policy or wish to exercise your rights, please contact us through our contact page.

2. What information we collect

We collect the following personal information through the Site:

• Enquiry forms: when you submit an enquiry (including through the form that may appear if you are about to leave a page), we collect your name, email address, phone number, the type of contractor you are, your message, and the page you submitted from.
• Email sign-ups: if you subscribe to our updates or download a guide, we collect your email address (and, where relevant, the resource you requested).
• Consent records: when you give consent, we keep a record of the exact wording you agreed to and the date and time you agreed, so we can show that consent was given.
• Analytics and technical data: information about how you use the Site (such as pages viewed, device and browser type, and an approximate location and timezone derived from your IP address, which we do not store). Our hosting provider may also log technical request data for security and performance. See our cookie policy for detail.

Providing this information is voluntary. You are not under a statutory or contractual obligation to provide it, but if you do not, we will not be able to respond to your enquiry or send you the updates or resources you have asked for.

3. Why we use your information

• To respond to your enquiry: to deal with your enquiry and provide the advice you have requested.
• To send you updates you asked for: if you signed up to our email updates, to send you general contractor tax and accounting information until you unsubscribe.
• To improve and protect the Site: to understand how the Site is used and to keep it secure and working properly.

4. Our lawful basis

When you submit an enquiry, we rely on our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the UK GDPR) to handle it, so that we can respond and provide the help you have asked for. You have the right to object to this processing at any time, under Article 21 (see your rights in section 7).

For our email sign-ups, we rely on your consent. You can withdraw your consent at any time (see your rights in section 7); withdrawing consent does not affect any processing that took place before you withdrew it.

For website analytics, site improvement and security, we rely on our legitimate interests, specifically measuring and improving the Site and keeping it secure and protected against misuse.

5. Who we share your information with

We do not share your enquiry with any other firm. Your enquiry is handled by our own accountants.

We also use the following service providers, who process data on our instructions only (as our processors):

• Supabase: secure database hosting for form submissions (EU-hosted).
• Vercel: website hosting and content delivery.
• Resend: sending the emails we use to confirm your details and to respond to you.
• Twilio: sending the text messages we use to confirm your details.
• Google: storing a record of your enquiry in Google Workspace so that we can manage and follow it up.

Some of these providers process data outside the United Kingdom. Where they do, we rely on a valid transfer mechanism under the UK GDPR.

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use it for third-party advertising.

6. How long we keep your information

We keep enquiry data for 24 months from the date of your enquiry, after which it is deleted. If you subscribe to our email updates, we keep your email address until you unsubscribe. Consent records are kept for up to six years, under access controls, so that we can demonstrate that consent was given.

7. Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Rectify inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Erase your data in certain circumstances.
• Restrict how we use your data in certain situations.
• Data portability: receive a copy of your data in a machine-readable format.
• Object to certain processing.
• Withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on your consent.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us through our contact page. We will respond within one month.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint. We would, however, welcome the chance to address your concerns first.

8. Cookies and analytics

We run our own first-party analytics so we can understand how the Site is used and improve it. It stores two random identifiers in your browser rather than using cookies, and we do not use third-party analytics. For full details of what we use and how to manage or opt out, please see our cookie policy.

9. How we protect your data and international transfers

Form submissions are stored securely and access is restricted to authorised staff only. Some of our service providers (for example, Vercel) are based outside the UK and EEA. Where data is transferred internationally, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as the UK extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or Standard Contractual Clauses.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page shows when it was last revised. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

11. Contact us

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or how we handle your data, please contact us through our contact page.