Privacy

Privacy policy

Tax Lawyers Pty Ltd (ACN 699 070 963, ABN 47 699 070 963) respects your privacy. We are an APP entity under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and do not rely on the small business exemption. The Australian Privacy Principles apply to how we handle personal information.

Information we collect

We may collect your name, contact details, appointment preferences and the information you choose to provide in an enquiry. Please do not send tax file numbers, passwords, banking details, identity documents or confidential records through the general enquiry tools.

Why we collect it

We use information to respond to enquiries, arrange consultations, deliver legal services where the firm later accepts an engagement, operate the website, maintain security and meet legal and professional obligations. An enquiry or booking does not create a lawyer-client relationship.

Storage, disclosure and retention

We keep personal information only for as long as we need it. Retention periods are:

  1. a general website enquiry, including a transcript of a conversation with Sophie, is kept for 30 days;
  2. a booking or callback request that is never confirmed is kept for 30 days;
  3. a confirmed booking or callback record is kept for 12 months;
  4. records connected with a matter the firm accepts, including the records we keep under our anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing obligations, are kept for 7 years after the matter closes;
  5. trust account records are kept for 7 years.

Technical security logs are ordinarily retained separately, for up to 30 days.

We use contracted technology providers to run the website and deliver services, and may disclose information where the law requires it. Some providers process information outside Australia. The providers we use include:

  1. ClickSend, which sends SMS confirmations to the mobile number you provide;
  2. Meta’s WhatsApp Business Platform and WhatsApp Business app, which carry WhatsApp booking messages and Client Portal notices, as described below;
  3. Neon, which hosts our booking and enquiry database;
  4. Upstash, which stores Sophie call records;
  5. Google Workspace, including Google Calendar, Gmail, Google Chat and Google’s OAuth service, which we use to create bookings, email your confirmation, give our staff internal notices about bookings and manage consultations;
  6. LiveKit, one of Sophie’s voice modes;
  7. Zoom, which we use for video meetings, including Zoom’s Meeting SDK being introduced so that some urgent meetings can run inside the website itself;
  8. OpenAI and Retell, described below under Conversations with Sophie;
  9. Twilio, which carries calls to our 1800 number, as described below;
  10. Vercel, which hosts the website.

The WhatsApp link on this site opens your own WhatsApp app so you can message us.

If you choose WhatsApp for a meeting, we may send booking confirmations and reminders to the WhatsApp number you give us. They come from our WhatsApp Business number, +61 474 893 329. Our staff send them by hand from our WhatsApp Business app.

In future, we may send these messages automatically through Meta’s WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API). We may also use it to tell you when your Client Portal has been updated.

WhatsApp messages are processed by Meta and may be processed outside Australia. You can tell us at any time to stop WhatsApp messages, using the contact details below.

Analytics and cookies

This website does not currently use analytics, and it sets no analytics cookie. It loads no Google Analytics 4 or Google Ads tag. If we advertise on Google Search, we will measure the results on our own server with a campaign label that identifies no one, and our website sends Google nothing about you. We will update this policy if that changes. We do not use advertising pixels or tags.

Our office pages can show a map of the office from Google Maps. The map is not loaded, and nothing is requested from Google for it, until you choose Show map. When you do, Google receives your device’s IP address and the address of this website, may set its own cookies, and may process that information outside Australia, including in the United States. Google’s privacy policy applies to the map.

We use Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to monitor how the website appears in search results. Neither of those sets a cookie in your browser.

You can also control cookies through your browser settings.

Your selected office

We remember your selected office or national page in your browser tab’s session storage so Home and booking links return there while you browse. This preference contains only that selection, not your precise location or enquiry details, and is not an advertising identifier.

Conversations with Sophie

Sophie is the firm’s AI assistant, helping with general enquiries and finding the right contact or consultation. She is not a lawyer and does not provide legal advice. Using Sophie does not create a lawyer-client relationship. You can use the telephone, email, booking or callback options without using Sophie.

When text Sophie is enabled, messages are processed by OpenAI. Voice Sophie uses Retell and its speech and language-model providers. Audio is sent for processing after you choose Start voice and grant microphone permission. You can mute your microphone or end the conversation at any time. The service is not a closed, offline or firm-only system.

The visible chat is held temporarily in your browser’s memory and clears when you close Sophie or change modes. Live captions clear when the voice session ends. A voice conversation with Sophie is transcribed. We do not retain the audio recording. The transcript is stored on a Google Drive account controlled by the firm, and may be reviewed by a person at the firm. We keep the transcript for 30 days, for safety, and then delete it. If it becomes part of the file for a matter the firm accepts, it is kept with that file. Confirmed booking and callback records are kept separately, under the retention periods set out above. This does not mean that all provider records are deleted when the display clears: provider retention, security and legal requirements may apply separately. See OpenAI’s business data privacy information and Retell’s privacy policy.

Keep your enquiry general. Do not provide tax file numbers, passwords, banking details, identity documents or confidential documents through Sophie. Arrange an appropriate private discussion with a lawyer for sensitive material. We do not guarantee absolute security or confidentiality for an online conversation.

Calls to our 1800 number

On weekdays from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm Perth time, except Western Australian public holidays, a call to our 1800 number rings our reception. After hours, when reception is busy, or after about 15 seconds without an answer, the call goes to our answering service. Twilio carries the call and may process it outside Australia, including in the United States.

When a call goes to our answering service, it is passed to OpenAI, an overseas provider, so that Sophie, the firm’s AI assistant, can answer it. Sophie is not a lawyer and does not give legal advice. OpenAI receives your phone number and the details of the call and, if Sophie answers, your voice and what you say to her. This may happen outside Australia, including in the United States. See OpenAI’s business data privacy information.

If Sophie answers, she takes your name and contact details, the kind of matter and how urgent it is, so that the firm can call you back or arrange a consultation. If you are already a client, she is told no more than your first name and that you are a client, and she does not discuss your matter. If Sophie does not answer, you can use the keypad to ask us to call you back on the number you are calling from. That part of the call is not recorded and is not sent to an AI provider.

Hire Us Now

If you use the Hire Us Now form, your description of the work you want us to do is not sent to an outside AI provider. The scope of work wording for your costs agreement is prepared on the firm’s own systems or by a lawyer at the firm.

Automated decision making

From 10 December 2026, new transparency obligations for automated decision making commence under the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024 (Cth). We describe our own processes here ahead of that date.

Some of our systems use personal information to make, or help make, decisions without a person at the firm deciding first. The personal information they use is your name and contact details, your address, your ABN or ACN, the names, ABNs or ACNs of the other people involved in your matter, the kind of matter, any court, registry, matter number and case name, your description of what you need, what the Australian Business Register says about a company you name, whether your email address is already registered with us, the result of an identity check, any date you tell us, and what you say to Sophie, the firm’s AI assistant.

When these features are in use, our systems alone make these decisions:

  1. if you engage us online, our system checks the names and ABNs or ACNs you give us against our conflict register and compares the name on your verified identity document with the name you gave. If those checks and our other file checks are clear, and the firm has confirmed the fee estimate for your kind of matter, it sends you our costs agreement to sign without a lawyer reviewing your file first. These checks can only hold a file for a lawyer to review and never refuse you. Once you sign, our system asks you for any deposit into our trust account, without a lawyer reviewing your file first;
  2. in a voice conversation with Sophie on our website, Sophie can book a free consultation or a call back once you agree to it. Our system confirms the booking without a person at the firm reviewing it first.

Our systems also take these steps towards a decision:

  1. in a voice conversation with Sophie on our website, Sophie may mark a call back as urgent from what you tell her, which asks for it as soon as possible in business hours. A person at the firm still decides how to deal with your matter and makes the call back;
  2. on our website, an urgency tier is set from the date you tell us you were served or became aware of the matter, as described below. A person at the firm still decides how to deal with your matter.

When the urgency feature is in use, our website records the date you tell us you were served or otherwise became aware of the matter. From that date, the website calculates a deadline by which a formal response or appearance is ordinarily required, and sets an urgency tier for your enquiry based on how close to, or how far past, that deadline you are. The tier affects how quickly the firm contacts you and how your enquiry is triaged internally.

The personal information used in this process is the enquiry and contact details you provide, including any date you tell us.

None of these decides the merits of your matter or replaces a lawyer’s judgement. If you ask us, using the contact details below, a person at the firm will review any of these decisions or steps. You can also find out more about how we handle your information, or raise a concern, in the same way.

Access, correction and complaints

You can request access to or correction of personal information, or make a privacy complaint, by emailing contact@taxlawyers.com.au or calling 1300 764 050. We will respond within a reasonable period.

If you remain dissatisfied with our response to a privacy complaint, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner on 1300 363 992 or at oaic.gov.au.

If your complaint concerns the professional conduct of one of our lawyers, you may contact the Legal Practice Board of Western Australia on (08) 6211 3600 or at lpbwa.org.au, Level 6, 111 St Georges Terrace, Perth WA 6000. The Legal Services and Complaints Committee handles complaints about legal practitioners; complaints are made through the Legal Practice Board’s published complaints page.

Deleting your information

You can ask us to delete personal information we hold about you, including information we receive through WhatsApp or our website, by emailing contact@taxlawyers.com.au or calling 1300 764 050. We will delete or de-identify it unless the law or our professional obligations require us to keep it, for example client file and trust records that we must keep for 7 years after the matter closes. If we cannot delete something, we will tell you why.

You can also ask us at any time to stop sending you WhatsApp or SMS messages.

Last updated: 18 October 2026.