Privacy

Privacy policy

What we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, and what you can do about it.

STE Financial STE Financial Pty Ltd ACN 668 290 560 as trustee for the STE Financial Trust ABN 53 163 134 117 | Registered BAS Agent 26221156 Version 072026 | Effective 1 July 2026

Your information matters to us. This policy explains what we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, and what you can do about it. It is written to be read, not filed away.

1. Who this policy covers

In this policy, "we", "us" and "our" mean STE Financial Pty Ltd ACN 668 290 560 as trustee for the STE Financial Trust, trading as STE Financial.

This policy applies across all of our services, including accounting, BAS, payroll, advisory and loan broking.

We provide credit assistance as Credit Representative 562710 of QED Credit Services Pty Ltd ACL 387856.

Tax compliance work is conducted and lodged under the supervision of Easy Tax Solutions, Tax Agent Registration Number 70473005. Where we prepare income tax returns for you, Easy Tax Solutions is the registered tax agent responsible for review and lodgement. We share the information needed for that work with them, and they handle it under their own privacy policy.

We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles.

2. What we collect

The information we collect depends on the services you use. It can include:

your name, date of birth, contact details and residential address
identification documents such as your driver licence, passport or Medicare card
tax file numbers for you, your entities and your employees, where required for payroll and reporting
financial information including income, expenses, assets, liabilities, bank statements and accounting records
business information including structure, ownership, directors, shareholders, trustees and beneficiaries
payroll information about your employees, including their pay, superannuation and contact details
employment details, credit history and existing loan information where you use our lending services
records of our dealings with you, including emails, file notes and meeting recordings where you have agreed to them

Where you give us information about other people, such as your employees, business partners or family members, you confirm you are entitled to do so and that you have told them how their information will be used.

3. Sensitive information

We do not usually collect sensitive information. If it becomes relevant, for example health information supporting a hardship application or a change in your circumstances, we will only collect it with your consent and only where it is reasonably necessary.

4. Tax file numbers and government identifiers

Where we collect tax file numbers, we do so because the law authorises it, and we handle them under the Privacy (Tax File Number) Rule 2015. We use them only for the purpose they were provided for, such as payroll, superannuation, activity statement reporting and income tax returns prepared under supervision. We do not use a TFN to identify you in our own systems and we do not disclose it except as required or authorised by law.

We do not adopt government identifiers such as Medicare numbers or licence numbers as our own way of identifying you.

5. How we collect it

We collect information:

directly from you, in meetings, phone calls, emails, forms and through our client portal
from your accounting software and connected systems, with your authorisation
from the ATO, ASIC and other government agencies where you have authorised us to act
from lenders, credit reporting bodies, valuers and insurers where you have applied for finance through us
from third parties you have asked us to deal with, such as your solicitor, financial adviser or previous accountant
when you subscribe to our emails, comment on our blog, or use our website

Where it is reasonable and practical, we will collect information from you directly.

You can deal with us anonymously or under a pseudonym for general enquiries. Once we start providing services, the law requires us to know who you are.

6. Why we collect it

We use your information to:

provide the accounting, BAS, payroll, advisory and lending services you have engaged us for
prepare income tax returns for review and lodgement under the supervision of Easy Tax Solutions
prepare and lodge documents with the ATO, ASIC and other authorities on your behalf
assess and submit finance applications to lenders
verify your identity and meet our obligations under anti money laundering law
manage our engagement with you, including billing and collections
respond to your questions and keep you updated
improve our services and our systems
meet our legal, regulatory and professional obligations

If you do not give us the information we ask for, we may not be able to provide the service, or we may not be able to start or continue acting for you at all.

7. Verifying your identity

From 1 July 2026, accounting practices are reporting entities under the Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act 2006. Our lending services have been subject to that law for some time.

This means we are legally required to collect and verify identification information about you, your entities and any beneficial owners, and in some cases to collect information about your source of funds or wealth. We must keep those records and re verify your details from time to time.

We may be required to report certain matters to AUSTRAC. Where that happens, the law prohibits us from telling you about it.

8. Credit information

If you use our lending services, we collect and handle credit related personal information so we can assess your needs and submit an application on your behalf.

With your consent, we may:

collect credit information and credit eligibility information about you
disclose your information to lenders, mortgage insurers, valuers and aggregator platforms
receive information back from those parties about your application

Lenders and credit reporting bodies handle your credit information under their own privacy policies and under Part IIIA of the Privacy Act and the Privacy (Credit Reporting) Code. We will tell you which lenders we are dealing with and provide their privacy details before we submit an application.

9. Who we disclose it to

We do not sell, rent or trade your personal information.

We disclose it only:

to the ATO, ASIC, AUSTRAC, the TPB and other authorities where required or authorised by law
to lenders, mortgage insurers, valuers and aggregators where you have applied for finance
to Easy Tax Solutions, where tax compliance work is prepared, reviewed and lodged under their supervision
to Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, where files relating to that work are selected for quality control review
to software and service providers who help us deliver our services, under confidentiality obligations
to third parties you have asked or authorised us to deal with, such as your bank, solicitor, financial adviser or insurance broker
to our professional advisers, insurers and auditors where reasonably necessary
to a purchaser or potential purchaser of our business, under confidentiality obligations
where you have given consent, or where disclosure is otherwise permitted under the Privacy Act

10. Overseas disclosure

Some of the software and artificial intelligence tools we use process or store data on servers located in the United States.

We take reasonable steps to ensure overseas recipients handle your information consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles, including through contractual commitments and by choosing providers with appropriate security and confidentiality standards.

You can ask us at any time for a current list of the systems we use and where your data is held.

11. How we use artificial intelligence

We use artificial intelligence tools to help with tasks such as coding transactions, extracting data from documents, summarising information, drafting correspondence and research.

Three things you should know:

a qualified member of our team reviews every AI assisted output before it is used, sent to you, or lodged with any authority
we only use business grade tools where your data is not used to train public AI models
we do not put your identifiable information into free or consumer AI tools

We may record and transcribe meetings so we can produce accurate file notes. We will always ask first and you can say no. You can also ask us not to use AI tools on your work, which may affect turnaround times.

12. Our website

Our website at stefinancial.com.au uses cookies and analytics tools to understand how visitors use the site so we can improve it. This information is generally aggregated and does not identify you personally.

You can set your browser to refuse cookies, though some parts of the site may not work as well.

Our website may link to other sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites.

13. Marketing and how to opt out

If you are a client or have subscribed, we may send you emails about our services, lodgement deadlines, legislative changes and events. Every email has an unsubscribe link and we act on it promptly.

You can also tell us to stop at any time by emailing admin@stefinancial.com.au or calling 02 6672 1501. Opting out of marketing does not stop us sending you information we need to send about your engagement.

14. How we keep it secure

We protect your information using:

access controls, so team members only see what they need to see
encryption in transit and at rest across our core systems
multi factor authentication on our business systems
confidentiality clauses in team and contractor agreements
physical security at our premises and secure disposal of paper records
regular review of the third party systems we rely on

Where possible, please use our client portal rather than email. If you send sensitive information by unsecured email or other unsecured means, we cannot be responsible for loss, theft or compromise of that data in transit.

15. Data breaches

If a data breach occurs that is likely to result in serious harm to you, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as required by the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme, and we will tell you what steps to take.

16. How long we keep it

We keep your information for as long as we need it for the purposes above, and for as long as the law requires. In practice that generally means at least five years for financial and lodgement records and at least seven years for identification and credit records, measured from the end of our engagement or the relevant transaction.

When we no longer need it and no legal obligation requires us to keep it, we destroy or de identify it securely.

17. Accessing and correcting your information

You can ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, and you can ask us to correct anything that is wrong, out of date or incomplete.

There is no charge to make a request. If a request takes significant work to fulfil, we may charge a reasonable fee for our time, and we will tell you what that is before we start.

In limited cases the law allows us to refuse access or correction. If that happens we will tell you why in writing and explain how to complain.

18. Complaints

If you think we have mishandled your personal information, contact Mark Moore on 02 6672 1501 or admin@stefinancial.com.au.

We will acknowledge your complaint within 7 business days and aim to resolve it within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact:

the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au or 1300 363 992
the Australian Financial Complaints Authority at afca.org.au or 1800 931 678, for matters relating to our credit services

19. Changes to this policy

We review this policy regularly and will update it as our services and obligations change. The current version is always available at stefinancial.com.au and the version number and effective date appear at the top of this page.

20. Contact us

STE Financial STE Financial Pty Ltd ACN 668 290 560 as trustee for the STE Financial Trust Phone: 02 6672 1501 Email: admin@stefinancial.com.au Post: 61 Riveroak Drive, Murwillumbah NSW 2484