Privacy policy

Lodestar Tax and Advisory (Pty) Ltd, registration number 2026/639217/07 ("we", "us"), is an accounting practice based in Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa, AGA(SA) and registered with SAICA. For the purposes of POPIA we are the responsible party for the personal information described in this policy.

Information Officer: The Director
Email: info@lodestartax.co.za
Phone: 078 726 4025

The practice works remotely and meets clients by arrangement, so it does not operate a public office. Any correspondence about this policy, including a request or a complaint, should be sent to the email address or phone number above.

Depending on how you interact with us, we may process:

• Enquiry details — the name, email address, phone number, selected service and message you submit through the contact form, or send by email or WhatsApp.
• Client identification data — identity number, residential address and supporting identity documents, where an engagement requires them.
• Financial records — bank statements, invoices, payroll data, exchange and wallet transaction histories, and any other records needed to perform the engagement.
• Correspondence — records of our communications with you and, where authorised, with CIPC and other bodies on your behalf.

Whether you have to give it to us. Sending an enquiry is voluntary — you can phone or use WhatsApp instead, and you decide how much to tell us. If you leave out the detail we need to understand the situation, the most we can do is ask for it before we can answer usefully. Once you engage us, some information stops being optional: we cannot prepare financial statements, run a payroll or make a filing without the underlying records, and where we are legally required to identify a client we cannot act without those documents. Not providing them means we cannot take the engagement further.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children, and we do not process special personal information except where it is necessary for a specific engagement and permitted by law.

• To respond to your enquiry — on the basis of your consent, given when you submit the form.
• To perform the engagement — because processing is necessary to conclude or perform a contract with you.
• To meet legal obligations — including submissions to CIPC and obligations under the Companies Act.
• For legitimate business interests — maintaining records, managing our practice and protecting our legal position.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for marketing purposes. We may share it with:

• CIPC and other regulators, where required to fulfil your engagement or comply with the law.
• Service providers that support our practice — including cloud accounting and document storage providers — who process information on our instruction and under confidentiality obligations.
• Professional bodies or regulators, where we are required to do so.
• Law enforcement or other authorities, where compelled by law or valid legal process.

Some of our service providers store data outside South Africa. Where information is transferred cross-border, we take reasonable steps to ensure the recipient is subject to laws or binding agreements providing an adequate level of protection.

Accounting records are generally retained for at least seven years, in line with the Companies Act and our professional obligations, and longer where another law or a dispute requires it. Enquiries that do not become engagements are deleted within a reasonable period.

We apply reasonable technical and organisational safeguards, including access controls, encrypted transmission of documents, reputable cloud providers, and a practice structure in which very few people have access to client data at all. No system is completely secure, but we take the confidentiality of financial information seriously and treat it accordingly.

If we have reasonable grounds to believe that personal information in our care has been accessed or acquired by anyone not authorised to have it, POPIA requires us to notify the Information Regulator and the people affected. We will do so as soon as reasonably possible after establishing what has happened, and the notification will set out what we know, what the likely consequences are, and what we are doing in response.

We do not send unsolicited marketing, and we do not pass your details to anyone else for marketing. If we ever introduce something like a newsletter it will be opt-in, every message will say who it is from and how to stop receiving it, and declining will make no difference to any work we do for you.

You have the right to:

• Request confirmation of whether we hold personal information about you, and request access to it
• Request correction or deletion of information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date or obtained unlawfully
• Object to processing on reasonable grounds
• Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent, subject to any legal obligation requiring us to continue
• Lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator

To exercise any of these, contact the Information Officer above. Note that our statutory record-retention obligations may prevent us from deleting records relating to a completed engagement.

Information Regulator (South Africa)
Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191
Telephone: 010 023 5200
General enquiries: enquiries@inforegulator.org.za
POPIA complaints: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za
Website: inforegulator.org.za

This website does not set advertising or tracking cookies, and does not load third-party scripts for profiling. If analytics are introduced in future, this policy will be updated and consent obtained where required.

This site links to external resources, including WhatsApp and government websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those services, and we recommend reviewing their own policies.

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always available at this address, with the date of last revision shown above.

Questions about this policy, or about how we handle your information, can be sent to info@lodestartax.co.za.