In short
- We collect what your bookkeeping, payroll and tax work needs, including Social Insurance Numbers (SINs), which tax returns and slips must carry.
- Forms on this website reach us by email through Microsoft 365, and the website and client sign-in run on Bluehost. Both are US companies, so your information may be stored or processed in the United States.
- We give your information to the CRA and other tax authorities when we file for you, and to anyone else only when you ask us to or the law requires it. We do not sell it.
- This website has no advertising or analytics tracking.
- We keep your information for 10 years, then delete or destroy it.
- You can ask to see or correct what we hold about you, or make a complaint, by writing to our Privacy Officer.
Who is responsible
Prime Accounts Inc. is responsible for the personal information it holds. Our Privacy Officer is accountable for how we handle it and answers questions, requests and complaints. For clients in Quebec, the Privacy Officer is also our person in charge of the protection of personal information.
- Email. in@primestandard.ca, with “Privacy” in the subject
- Phone. 647-625-4229
- Mail. Privacy Officer, Prime Accounts Inc., Unit 1504, 55 Wynford Heights Crescent, Toronto, Ontario M3C 1L5
What we collect
What we ask for depends on the work you ask us to do. It can include:
- About you. Your name, address, phone number and email; date of birth; SIN; gender; marital status; citizenship and province of residence; and your answers about your tax situation.
- Your finances. Income, deposits, expenses and receipts; rent, medical, child-care and RRSP amounts; business, rental and vehicle figures; bank balances and amounts owed to and by your business; business and GST/HST numbers; payroll hours and amounts; IFTA trip and fuel figures; and the invoices you create.
- About other people. Your spouse or partner, dependants, employees, shareholders and signing officers, child-care providers, and the people and businesses you pay or invoice. This can include their SINs and dates of birth. Please let them know you are giving it to us.
- Your sign-in account. Your email, name, business, address, phone number, GST/HST number and client reference; your password, which we store only in a form that cannot be turned back into the password; and when you sign in. If you email or download an invoice while signed in, we also keep a copy of it, with your customer’s details, so you can download it again, and the payments you record against it.
- Technical details. Our web host’s servers record your IP address and the pages you visit. To stop automated abuse, we also record the IP address of every sign-in and password reset attempt, and the IP address and browser of any form submission our checks refuse.
How we collect it
Through the forms and client sign-in on this website, by email and phone, and in the documents you give us. Information about other people, such as your employees or dependants, also comes from you.
Why we use it
To do the work you ask us to do, and for nothing else without asking you first:
- Prepare and file your income tax, GST/HST and payroll returns and slips, financial statements and IFTA reports
- Keep your books and answer your questions
- Run your client sign-in account, fill in your business details on invoices you create, and show you what your customers still owe on them
- Send the invoices you create to the customer you choose, and keep a copy for your file
- Keep this website secure
- Keep the records the law requires
Your Social Insurance Number
The Income Tax Act requires a SIN on tax returns and on slips such as the T4. That is why we ask for yours, and for your spouse’s, dependants’, employees’ or others’ when they go on a return or slip we prepare.
Your SIN forms part of your client reference. That reference appears in our records, in the messages this website sends to our office, and in the personal form links we email you. Please do not forward those links.
Who we share it with
- The CRA and other tax authorities, when we file for you, or when they ask for information the law requires us to give.
- People you ask us to send it to, such as a bank or a lawyer.
- Your customers, when you send an invoice through our invoice generator. It goes from our email system to the address you enter, with your email as the reply address.
- Microsoft, through Microsoft 365. It delivers the forms you send on this website to our mailbox, and holds our email.
- Bluehost. It hosts this website and the database behind client sign-in.
- Google, through Google Fonts. Your browser downloads this website’s fonts from Google, which receives your IP address.
- Anyone the law requires us to give it to, such as under a court order.
We keep our books and do our tax work in QuickBooks Desktop and our own software, on our own computers.
Outside Canada and outside Quebec
Microsoft, Bluehost and Google are US companies. Information they handle for us may be stored or processed outside Canada, including in the United States, where courts, law enforcement and national security authorities may be able to obtain it under the laws there.
If you live in Quebec, what you send us is communicated outside Quebec: to our offices in Ontario and to the providers above.
How we protect it
- This website uses an encrypted connection (HTTPS), and our server sends your forms on to Microsoft over an encrypted connection.
- Only Prime staff who work on your file, or who manage client sign-in accounts, can see it.
- Our forms check every submission for signs of automated abuse.
No system is completely secure, and that includes email. If a breach of our safeguards creates a real risk of significant harm to you, we will tell you and report it to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
How long we keep it
We keep the information you give us, including tax files and the T183 forms you sign so we can file electronically, for 10 years. Then we securely delete or destroy it. If a return is under objection or appeal, we keep its records until that is resolved, if that is later.
Cookies and your browser
This website uses no advertising or analytics cookies. It keeps the following in your browser so forms and sign-in work:
| What | What it does and how long it stays |
|---|---|
| Session cookie | Keeps forms secure and keeps you signed in. Deleted when you close your browser. |
| Signed-in cookie | Tells our pages you are signed in. Deleted when you sign out or close your browser. |
| Theme setting | Remembers light or dark mode until you clear your browser’s data. |
| Form answers, in the tab | If a form is sent back to you, puts your answers back. Gone when you close the tab. |
| Invoice draft, in the tab | Keeps the invoice you are building if the page reloads. Gone when you close the tab. |
| Financial statement draft, on this device | Keeps your answers between visits. Deleted when you send the form or press Clear saved answers and start fresh, and not used after 48 hours. On a shared computer, clear it when you finish. |
If you block cookies, forms and sign-in will not work.
Your rights
- See what we hold. Ask our Privacy Officer and we will answer within 30 days, at no cost. We may ask you to confirm who you are.
- Correct it. If something we hold is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will fix it. Signed-in clients can update their own details in their account.
- Withdraw your consent. You can ask us to stop using your information, subject to legal and contractual limits. We may then be unable to do some of your work, and we still have to keep the records the law requires.
- Complain. Write to our Privacy Officer first. If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at priv.gc.ca or 1-800-282-1376. If you live in Quebec, you can also contact the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec at cai.gouv.qc.ca or 1-888-528-7741.
Children
This website is not meant for children. We receive information about children only from their parents or guardians, for the parents’ returns.
Changes to this statement
When we change this statement, we update the date at the top. If we start using your information for a new purpose, we will tell you before we do.