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Website Privacy Notice

Last updated: 9th March 2026


World Tax Services UK Limited values your privacy and respects the rights you have in relation to your personal data. This privacy notice (notice) lets you know how we use your personal data and provides details of your rights under data protection law. 


It is important that you read this notice together with any other privacy notices we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your personal data. This notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.


We will update this privacy notice from time to time. The date of the latest update is shown at the top of this page.

Contents:

  1. What is the purpose of this notice and whose data do we collect?
  2. Who is the controller of your personal data?
  3. What happens if this notice is updated or your personal data changes?
  4. How and why do we process your personal data if you have not provided it to us directly?
  5. How do we use your personal data?
  6. Where do we get your personal data from?
  7. What happens if you fail to provide personal data to us?
  8. How do we share your personal data?
  9. International transfers of personal data
  10. How do we safeguard your personal data?
  11. For how long do we keep your personal data?
  12. Your rights
  13. Complaints

 1. What is the purpose of this notice and whose data do we collect?

This notice applies to the processing of personal data by World Tax Services UK Limited in connection with:

  1. Website visitors: the operation of our website www.wts.co.uk;
  2. Client services: the provision of tax advisory services to actual and prospective clients, whether those clients are businesses or individuals;
  3. Third parties involved in client matters: individuals whose personal data we process in connection with providing services to our clients, including directors, beneficial owners, shareholders, trustees, and other connected persons in respect of whom we carry out due diligence, anti-money laundering or other regulatory checks;
  4. Supplier services: the provision of goods and services to WTS UK by suppliers and service providers; and
  5. Recruitment: the processing of personal data of candidates for positions at WTS UK, whether provided directly by the candidate or via a third party such as a recruitment agency.

Our services and website are not intended for children, and we do not knowingly process personal data relating to children.

 

2. Who is the controller of your personal data?

World Tax Services UK Limited (WTS UK, we, us, our) (registered number 16789955) is the controller of your personal data collected through this website and in connection with the services we provide.

If you have any questions about this notice or wish to exercise any of your rights, please contact us at ukenquiries@wts.com 
 

3. What happens if this notice is updated or your personal data changes?

We will publish any changes to this notice on our website. Where changes are material, we will take reasonable steps to notify you. It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

4. How and why do we process your personal data if you have not provided it to us directly?

In some circumstances we may process your personal data where you have not provided it to us directly. This is most likely to arise in the following situations:

  1. Where we are acting for a client and, in order to provide tax advisory services to them, we need to process personal data about connected individuals - for example, directors, shareholders, beneficial owners or trustees of a client entity. In such cases, the client will typically provide us with your personal data as part of the engagement.
  2. Where we receive your CV or other personal data relating to your employment or educational history from a third party, such as a recruitment agency or head-hunter, for the purposes of considering you for a position at WTS UK.
  3. Where we obtain personal data from publicly available sources, such as Companies House, the Electoral Register, or sanctions screening databases, for the purposes of carrying out anti-money laundering, financial sanctions or conflict checks.
     

5. How do we use your personal data? 

We use personal data for the purposes listed below, subject to applicable law. The way in which we use your personal data will depend on who you are and why you are interacting with us.

  1. When you visit our website:

    We collect information about how you interact with our website so that we can deliver services to you, understand how our website is being used, keep our systems and information safe and improve our website. This includes personal data that you submit through our website (such as CVs uploaded via our website when you apply for a position), information about the areas of our website that you visit and how you interact with it and technical details about the equipment that you use to access our website and the country from which you are accessing it.
    We use this personal data because we have a legitimate interest in providing services and information through our website. We also have legitimate interests in developing and improving our technology platforms and keeping our systems safe.

    Some of this information is obtained using cookies and other similar tracking technologies. Please see our cookie management tool for more information about the cookies that we use and how you can manage them.
     

  2. Where you are a business client:

    We use personal data to carry out conflict checks, anti-money laundering, financial sanctions and identity checks before and during our engagement with you. The personal data used for these purposes includes names, contact details, identity data (such as passport number), corporate ownership and control information, and financial and source of funds information. We process this data to comply with our legal obligations and in pursuance of our legitimate interests in preventing fraud and ensuring we can properly act for you.

    We use personal data to deliver tax advisory services to our clients, manage matters and administer billing and payments. This may include names, contact details, professional information, financial and transaction information, and information about the matters on which we are advising. We process this data in pursuance of our legitimate interests in managing and delivering services to our clients and recovering fees owed to us.

    We process personal data to manage our relationship with our clients, including notifying clients of changes to our terms or this notice and sending you relevant client communications. We do this in pursuance of our legitimate interests in providing a good service and maintaining our client relationships.
     

  3. Where you are an individual client:

    We use personal data to carry out conflict checks, anti-money laundering, financial sanctions and identity checks. The personal data used for these purposes includes names, contact details, identity data, and financial and source of funds information. We process this data to comply with our legal obligations and in pursuance of our legitimate interests in preventing fraud.

    We use personal data to deliver personal tax advisory services to you, manage your matter and administer billing and payments. Where we provide advice to individuals, the information we process may include sensitive personal financial information. We process this data for the performance of our contract with you and in pursuance of our legitimate interests in recovering fees owed to us.

    We process personal data to manage our relationship with you, including notifying you of changes to our terms or this notice. We do this for the performance of our contract with you.
     

  4. Where you are a third party involved in a client matter (e.g. a director, shareholder or beneficial owner):

    We use personal data to carry out anti-money laundering, financial sanctions, due diligence and identity checks in connection with our client's matter. The personal data used includes names, contact details, identity data, corporate ownership and control information, and financial information. We process this data to comply with our legal obligations and in pursuance of our legitimate interests in preventing fraud and ensuring we can act for our client.

    We may also process your personal data as necessary to provide tax advice or services to our client. We do this to comply with our legal obligations and in pursuance of our legitimate interests in providing services to our client. Where our checks uncover information about actual or suspected criminal activity, we will also process that data to comply with our legal obligations.
     

  5. Where you are a supplier:

    We use names, business contact details, bank details and information about services provided to manage our supplier relationships, including carrying out due diligence checks, managing services and making payments. If you are an individual, we use this information for the purposes of our contract with you. For corporate supplier contacts, we have a legitimate interest to use personal data to manage our supplier relationships.

     

  6. Where you are a prospective client or we use your personal data for marketing and advertising purposes:

    We use personal data to respond to your enquiry and provide you with information about our services. We process this data in pursuance of our legitimate interests in growing our business and responding to requests for information.

    If you have signed up to receive information about our services, industry updates and/or events, we process names, contact information (including email and phone numbers), access and dietary requirements and information about your marketing preferences to send out information and briefings, invite you to events and webinars, manage events and obtain feedback about our events. If you are a speaker at one of our events, we will use your contact details and professional information to help us administer the event. We will use your data for these purposes on one of the following bases:

    • Where we have your consent for marketing purposes;
    • If we do not have your consent, where we have a business relationship with you and we have a legitimate interest to use your information for marketing purposes;
    • For our legitimate interests to manage events.

    We may also use personal data to identify and reach prospective clients and recruitment candidates through LinkedIn including by sharing the names of individuals with LinkedIn who are similar to the audiences that we would like to reach via targeted advertising. Where we do this, we rely on our legitimate interests in growing our business and recruiting suitable candidates. 


    You have the right to opt out of receiving marketing communications at any time, and you can do so by clicking on unsubscribe links contained in emails, or contacting us at ukenquiries@wts.com.

     

  7. Where you have applied for a role with us:

    If you contact us to enquire about vacancies or submit an application, we will process your contact details and CV or similar information to consider and progress your application. We may also search for candidates on LinkedIn and other professional networks and contact individuals about roles at WTS UK. We process this data in pursuance of our legitimate interests in recruiting suitable candidates. A separate employee privacy notice will be provided to you if you are offered and accept a position.

    If your application is unsuccessful, we will retain your personal data for a period of two years after we have communicated our decision to you. We retain your data for this period to consider you for other suitable roles, to defend against legal claims, and to demonstrate compliance with our equal opportunities obligations

     

6. Where do we get your personal data from?

We collect personal data through the following means:

  1. Directly from you: when you visit our website, enquire about or engage our services, correspond with us by email, phone or post, complete forms on our website, or provide us with your CV or business card.
  2. From our clients: when a client provides us with personal data about connected individuals such as directors, shareholders or beneficial owners in order for us to carry out anti-money laundering checks, due diligence or to deliver the services requested.
  3. From third parties: including recruitment agencies, head-hunters, publicly available sources such as Companies House and the Electoral Register, and sanctions screening or fraud prevention databases.

If you provide us with personal data about other individuals in connection with our engagement, you are responsible for ensuring you have satisfied all applicable legal requirements before doing so, including where necessary providing those individuals with a copy of this notice.

7. What happens if you fail to provide personal data to us?

Where we need to collect personal data by law (for instance, in relation to anti-money laundering or other “know your customer” checks) or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide the personal data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with services). In this case, we may have to decline to provide or receive the relevant services, but we will notify you if this is the case at the time the personal data is collected.

8. How do we share your personal data?

We may share your personal data with the following categories of recipients where necessary and in accordance with applicable law:

  1. Professional advisers and consultants, such as our auditors, lawyers, insurers and accountants, where necessary in connection with the operation of our business.
  2. Fraud prevention agencies and credit reference agencies based in the UK for the purposes of undertaking anti-money laundering, anti-terrorism, financial sanctions and other financial checks to ensure we are complying with our legal and regulatory obligations.
  3. HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities based in the UK who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances, for example to ensure we are complying with legal and regulatory obligations.
  4. Recruitment agencies and head-hunters assisting with our recruitment activities.
  5. Service providers who provide IT and system administration services and access to platforms
    we use for operational purposes to run our business. This includes the following key suppliers:
    • Microsoft Azure (cloud hosting)
    • Xero (accounting and finance system)
    • HiBob (recruitment and HR system)
    • WeWork (for building access)
    • Outsourced IT helpdesk and support providers.
  6. Enterprise AI tools that we use in the course of providing our services or running our business. We ensure appropriate data protection safeguards are in place, including data processing agreements with any AI providers, and will update this notice as our use of such tools develops. We will not use AI tools that process personal data in ways that are inconsistent with this notice or applicable data protection law.
  7. Our parent company (WTS RET GmbH) and other group companies (referred to in this notice as WTS Group Companies) for reporting, management and operational purposes.
  8. WTS Group Companies and WTS global alliance firms to enable us to provide cross-border advisory services.
  9. Where you have consented to receiving international news and marketing, we may also share your contact details with relevant WTS Group Companies or WTS global alliance firms for that purpose. You can opt in to international marketing communications at the point of onboarding or at any time by contacting us at ukenquiries@wts.com, and you can withdraw your consent at any time.
  10. Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this notice.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law and the terms of the contract we have in place with them where they are
our third-party service providers. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
 

9. International transfers of personal data

WTS UK may transfer your personal data outside the UK in the following circumstances:

  1. Some of our suppliers are based outside the UK so their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of personal data outside the UK.
  2. We transfer personal data to our parent company, WTS RET GmbH, and to other WTS Group Companies, including WTS Tax AG, based in Germany.
  3. As the WTS Group grows, personal data may also be transferred to other WTS Group Companies based outside the UK. 

  4. WTS UK is part of the WTS global international alliance network. Where we engage a WTS global alliance firm outside the UK and EU to assist on a client matter,  relevant personal data will be transferred to the country where the global alliance firm is based.

    Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is in place:

    1. We may transfer your personal data to countries that have been granted an adequacy regulation by the UK Secretary of State confirming that the country in question provides an adequate level of protection for personal data. This is the case for transfers to WTS Group Companies and global alliance firms based in the European Union; or
    2. we may use specific contracts approved by the UK’s Information Commission which ensure that personal data is adequately protected. When we rely on this measure we will ensure that the third-party can comply with the provisions of such contracts and we have confirmed that the country to which the personal data is transferred provides enforceable data subject rights and effective legal remedies for data subjects are available there; or
    3. a specific exception applies under applicable data protection law.

Please contact us at ukenquiries@wts.com  if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the UK.

10. How do we safeguard your personal data?

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. 

11. For how long do we keep your personal data?

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes, in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you. We may also use aggregated client data to develop and publish market insights, trends and analysis, or to provide data-driven advice. Where we do this, we will ensure that individuals cannot be identified from any published material. If we wish to use your personal data for these purposes in a way that goes beyond anonymised or aggregated analysis, we will seek your consent or ensure there is another lawful basis in place before doing so.

If you would like to know more about the retention periods we apply to your personal data, please contact us at ukenquiries@wts.com .

12. Your rights

You have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. It is our policy to respect your rights, and WTS UK will act promptly and in accordance with any applicable law, rule or regulation relating to the processing of your personal data.

Details of your rights are set out below:

  1. right to be informed about how personal data is used:  you have a right to be informed about how we use and share your personal data;
  2. right to access personal data: you have a right to obtain confirmation of whether we are processing your personal data, access to your personal data and information regarding how your personal data is being used by us.
  3. right to have inaccurate personal data rectified – if you are aware that personal data that we hold about you is inaccurate, you can contact us and ask us to update it;
  4. right to have personal data erased in certain circumstances – this is not a blanket right to require all personal data to be deleted. We will consider each request carefully in accordance with the requirements of any laws relating to the processing of your personal data. For example, this right may not apply if the data needs to be processed to comply with a legal obligation or if it is necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims;
  5. right to restrict processing of personal data in certain circumstances: this right arises if you are disputing the accuracy of personal data, if you have raised an objection to processing, if processing of personal data is unlawful and you oppose erasure and request restriction instead or if the personal data is no longer required by us but you require the personal data to be retained to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim;
  6. right to data portability: in certain circumstances you can request to receive a copy of your personal data in a commonly used electronic format. This right only applies to personal data that you have provided to us (for example by completing a form or providing information through a website). The right to data portability applies if the processing is based on your consent or if the personal data must be processed for the performance of a contract and the processing is carried out by automated means (i.e. electronically);
  7. right to object to processing of personal data: you have a right to object to processing being carried out by us if:
    1. we are processing personal data based on legitimate interests or for the performance of a task in the public interest (including profiling),
    2. if we are using personal data for direct marketing purposes, or
    3. if information is being processed for scientific or historical research or statistical purposes; and
  8. right not to be subject to automated decisions where the decision produces a legal effect or a similarly significant effect: you have a right not to be subject to a decision which is based on automated decision making where the decision will produce a legal effect or a similarly significant effect on you.

You may exercise any of your rights at any time by contacting ukenquiries@wts.com. You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one calendar month. Occasionally it may take us longer than one calendar month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

13. Complaints

If you would like to make a complaint about our processing of your personal data, please contact us at ukenquiries@wts.com. You may also raise your concerns with the UK’s Information Commission (www.ico.org.uk) directly. However, we would encourage you to contact us in the first instance as we aim to promptly, efficiently and satisfactorily resolve any concerns or complaints you may have in relation to WTS UK’s processing of your personal data.

Amendments to this Privacy Notice: 

Version | Date | Summary of changes made

  • 1 | 9 March 2026 | Creation