Privacy Policy | Paul Johnson, CPA

Who we are

“We”, “us”, and “our”, as used in this policy, refer to the public accounting firm of Paul Johnson, CPA, (https://pjcpa.ca) and any employees or subcontractors of Paul Johnson, CPA.

Personal Information and Our Obligations

The Province of British Columbia’s Personal Information Protection Act (“PIPA”) sets out rules for how organizations collect, use, and disclose personal information. Except as authorized by PIPA, we cannot collect, use, or disclose your personal information without your consent (or deemed consent under Section 8 of PIPA).

As defined in PIPA, “personal information” means information about an identifiable individual and includes employee personal information but does not include (a) [business] contact information, or (b) work product information.

Collection of Personal Information

From our website and the links on our website, the only personal information we collect is the information you give when sending a message to us or when booking an appointment with us. Information collected by this means may include your name, address, e-mail address, phone number, and information included in your message.

If you engage us to provide accounting, tax, or other business services, we will also collect financial and other information needed to provide those services.

Embedded Content from Other Websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Use of Personal Information

We will only use the personal information that you give to us to respond to your message, to prepare for the requested appointment, or to provide the accounting, tax, or other business services for which you engage us.

If we retain another organization to do work for us that involves personal information, we will ensure an agreement is in place such that the other organization understands and follows the same PIPA obligations.

Sharing or Disclosure of Personal Information

We will not share or sell your personal information to any other parties, except as an integral part of the accounting, tax, or business services for which you engage us. For example, we provide your personal information to Canada Revenue Agency if you engage us to prepare your income tax return.

We will not disclose your personal information without your consent, except as required or authorized by law in accordance with Section 18 of PIPA (including, for example, in the event of a court order, subpoena, or search warrant).

Retention

We are required to keep an individual’s personal information that we use to make a decision that directly affects that individual for at least one year after using it.

If you no longer engage us to provide accounting, tax, or other business services, we will keep your personal information for six years after the end of the related taxation year, as specified by Canada Revenue Agency.

After our retention period has expired, we will securely destroy personal information that is no longer needed to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected.

Safeguards

We have appropriate security controls in place to protect personal information, including requiring passwords and multi-factor authentication to access data, encryption of hard drives containing data, and requiring the use of secure methods for transferring documents containing data.

Links

Our website contains links to other sites. When you follow a link to a web page from another organization, we recommend that you review the privacy policy of that organization before providing any of your personal information. The other organization is not covered by our privacy policy.

How To Contact Us

If you have questions or complaint about this privacy policy, contact Privacy Officer at (250) 218-2830 or via e-mail at privacy@pjcpa.ca. You can also write to:

Privacy Officer

Paul Johnson, CPA

1280 Thorpe Avenue

Courtenay, BC V9N 7K7

If you wish to request access to your own personal information that is under our control, please make the request in writing to the above address. Upon receiving your request, we will give you notice of our fees for processing your request. Fees are payable in advance of our releasing the requested information.

If we are authorized or required by PIPA to refuse access to your information, we will give a written statement of the reasons for refusal and of further steps available to you.

Any Concerns

If you are not satisfied with how we have performed our duties under PIPA, you can contact the B.C. Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (https://www.oipc.bc.ca) to request a review.