This Privacy Statement has been drawn up to inform the people whose personal data we process, of the data protection policy of Lauwers Tax Lawyers.
I. Who are we?
Lauwers Tax Lawyers is a fully independent law firm, with offices in the three regions of Belgium.
We are “controller” if we process your personal data in the situations listed below (see point II.).
II. Lauwers Tax Lawyers respects your privacy
In the course of our activities, personal data is collected, stored, disclosed and, in short, ‘processed’ in the broadest sense of the word, in accordance with applicable privacy legislation (the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 and the relevant national implementing legislation).
This Privacy Statement is structured in function of the different situations in which a person may be in relation to the office. This allows you to only read what is relevant to you.
| You are a client | See point 1. |
| You visit our office | See point 2. |
| You receive our Mailings | See point 3. |
| You have provided us with your contact details (via your business card, social media, etc.) | See point 4. |
| You contact us (by e-mail, by telephone,…) | See point 5. |
| You visit our website | See point 6. |
| You are applying or have applied to us | See point 7. |
1. If you are a client of Lauwers Tax Lawyers
All legal service providers, to which we belong, must, in accordance with the applicable legislation, have certain information and/or documents regarding the identity of their clients. If a client is a legal person, then it is the representatives of that legal person who are involved.
In this context, we may process the following personal data:
| Personal data (provided by you) | Processing purposes |
| name, date of birth, address, copies of passport / identity card, function, qualification as a politically exposed person, extracts from registers (public or otherwise) | to identify you, to verify whether you are authorized to represent our client, to comply with our legal obligations |
| name, company name, contact details, copies of passport / identity card, signatures, financial information, bank details, extracts from (public or otherwise) registers | to contact you, open a file, resolve conflicts, provide our services to you, send you our invoices, for e-billing purposes, to be able to compare payments and receivables, to manage receivables, to collect receivables or have them collected, to send you New Year’s wishes, to settle any complaints and disputes that may arise, in order to ensure business continuity, and to establish, defend and exercise our legal position |
These personal data are therefore only processed for professional purposes. In addition, they are only shared with third parties to the extent required for the purposes mentioned above. The retention of these personal data is limited to 7 years after the end of the client relationship.
2. If you are a visitor of Lauwers Tax Lawyers
If you visit the offices of Lauwers Tax Lawyers, it is possible that you will appear on our camera images.
We use cameras to ensure that only authorized persons enter our offices, to protect our business (interests), property and employees, and to investigate and handle irregularities. Where relevant, we also use the camera images to establish, exercise or defend our legal position in the event of legal proceedings. The use of cameras is based on our legitimate interest in protecting our offices from unauthorised access, in particular with regard to the confidential information held in our offices.
As a general rule, we store the camera images for 24 hours. If the camera images show irregularities, we will keep the camera images for longer so that we can investigate and deal with these irregularities. After these periods, the camera images are destroyed.
In exceptional cases, for example in the case of offences shown by the camera images, we share relevant camera images with the intelligence and investigation authorities or bodies. Furthermore, if we are (legally) obliged to do so, we will make the camera images available at the request of the competent authorities and we can use the camera images as evidence in legal proceedings and thereby make the camera images available to the competent court and counterparties.
3. If you receive Mailings from Lauwers Tax Lawyers
As a fully independent law firm, we guarantee high-level advice and are committed to meeting the needs of our clients at the highest quality level in the most efficient way. We owe our success to our culture, reputation and the trust our clients place in us. This is also reflected in our customised updates, newsletters and events.
In order to send you these customised updates and newsletters and to invite you to events relating to matters of your interest (the Mailings), we process your personal data in our CRM systems. In the context of our Mailings, we collect your personal data because you are our client or another valued contact person.
We may collect information about you:
- directly from you, such as the information you provided us with when you signed up for our Mailings;
- from generally known lists of associations of which both you and the office are members;
- from other sources, such as your colleagues or business associates.
As a legal basis for the processing of your personal data for our Mailings, there is on the one hand your consent, or on the other hand our legitimate interests if you are our client. Our legitimate interest translates into our objective of communicating relevant tax developments and inviting our valued clients and contacts to events. We also strive to send only relevant Mailings, personalize our Mailings and keep our database up to date.
Below you will find a list of which personal data we collect about you and for which purposes:
| name (initials)(*) | to correctly address our Mailings |
| address (business and private) | to contact you |
| function or profession | to address you correctly and adapt our Mailings |
| title(s) | to approach you correctly |
| email address(*) | to contact you and send you the Mailings |
| telephone number, mobile phone number or fax number | to contact you |
| gender | in order to approach you correctly |
| company or organisation | to put your company or organisation on your name badge |
| name of your partner
|
to invite your partner to our events (if applicable) |
| link to your LinkedIn page
|
to keep your personal data up to date |
| opt-in/opt-out of marketing materials | for the proper registration and follow-up of any opt-in or opt-out you have communicated to us, to ensure that our Mailings are tailored to your express wishes and to ensure that you no longer receive unsolicited Mailings |
We are obliged to process the personal data marked with an asterisk (*) in order to be able to send you the Mailings. Of course, you can refuse to give us some of these personal details. Please note that this may mean that we may not be able to send you the Mailings or that we may not be able to address you correctly in these Mailings.
Your personal data will not be shared with third parties, the office will only use it internally for the aforementioned purposes.
We will store your personal information as stated above until such time as you have notified us that you no longer wish to receive our Mailings, we stop sending the relevant Mailings, or it appears that your e-mail address is no longer in use.
4. If you give us your business card or otherwise provide your contact details to Lauwers Tax Lawyers
If you have given your business card to (an employee, collaborator or partner of) Lauwers Tax Lawyers or have otherwise provided us with your contact details, we will process these personal details (such as your name, contact details, company, position): to contact you and ask you, for example, whether you wish to subscribe to our Mailings; or whether you have provided us with your contact details for a particular purpose, such as to send you information about our office or a specific case, in order to send you this information.
The legal basis for this processing of your personal data is, on the one hand, your consent (by actively providing us with your contact details for a specific purpose) and, on the other hand, the legitimate interest of the firm. Our legitimate interests translate into our objective of communicating relevant tax developments and inviting our valued contacts to events.
5. If you send an e-mail or otherwise contact Lauwers Tax Lawyers
If you contact Lauwers Tax Lawyers by e-mail or otherwise (e.g. by regular mail), we will process certain personal data relating to you. This includes your name, e-mail address, and the content of your e-mail, post, or other communications.
We will use this information to handle your e-mail, mail or other communications. Furthermore, where relevant, your e-mail, post or other communication will be used to defend our client’s legal position, and will be included in our files and, where appropriate, used in legal proceedings.
All e-mails sent to and by our employees/collaborators are stored in our 20-year backup files for administrative purposes and to establish, exercise and defend our legal position in the event of claims or disputes.
6. If you visit our website
When you visit our website, certain personal data relating to you are collected and processed. To find out more about which personal data is collected and for which purposes, we refer to our Cookie Policy on our website, which you can find here.
7. If you wish to apply or have applied for employment with Lauwers Tax Lawyers
In the context of your application for Lauwers Tax Lawyers, we process certain personal data relating to you.
Most of these personal details, such as your personal contact details and your curriculum vitae, are provided by you to us. We may also collect personal information about you from other parties, such as employment agencies, headhunters or selection companies. We also obtain your personal information from other sources, such as social media platforms such as LinkedIn. The personal data we collect about you from others and the purposes for which we will use this information, are listed below:
| name (initials)*, address (business and private), e-mail address*, telephone number, mobile telephone number or fax number
|
to identify and correctly address, defend and exercise you and to comply with the agreements we have with temporary employment agencies, headhunters and selection companies |
| language, nationality, marital status, family situation, gender | in order to approach you correctly
|
| (Profile) photo | to identify you |
| training, competences, professional experience | to determine whether you are suitable for and meet all relevant requirements for the performance of the position for which you are applying and which fits in with the corporate culture of Lauwers Tax Lawyers, in order to comply with the agreements we have with temporary employment agencies, headhunters and selection companies |
| current salary
|
to have an indication in the remuneration package that we can offer you, to deal with any complaints and to establish, defend and exercise the (legal) position of Lauwers Tax Lawyers and to comply with the agreements that we have with temporary employment agencies, headhunters and selection companies |
We process these personal details in order to go through the application and selection process before entering into any agreements. Moreover, given the nature of our services, we have a legitimate interest in processing these personal data in order to ensure that we employ competent and honest staff / start the cooperation with employees.
During our application and selection process, your personal data will be stored for 4 weeks after the completion of the application process.
III. Data protection and security
As a fully independent law firm, Lauwers Tax Lawyers guarantees top-quality advice. We strive to meet the needs of the client at the highest quality level in the most efficient way. We have three different locations and operate in a dynamic business environment where we are heavily dependent on information systems and computer networks. It is essential that the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our client information is safeguarded at all times by managing the risks to which they are exposed in accordance with applicable legal/regulatory requirements and internal standards.
IV. Your rights and how to exercise them
You can ask us for information about, and access to, your personal data, as well as object to our processing of your personal data. Under certain circumstances, you also have the right to request us to correct or delete your personal data, to limit our processing of your personal data, to receive your personal data in a structured, generally used and machine-readable format and to pass on your personal data to another organisation or have it passed on to another organisation.
If you have any questions, comments or complaints regarding this Privacy Statement or our processing of your personal data, please do not hesitate to contact your permanent contact person at our office or our privacy officer at privacy@lauwers-seutin.be
Finally, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Belgian Data Protection Authority, you can find their contact details:
https://www.dataprotectionauthority.be/
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Other (occasional) websites, apps and other digital platforms of Lauwers Tax Lawyers fall under the same privacy statement and the same cookie policy.
Lauwers Tax Lawyers reserves the right to change the Privacy Statement when necessary.
This Privacy Statement was last amended and revised on 04.07.2018.
The most recent version of the Privacy Statement can always be found on this page.
