Tax Preparers Must Have a WISP for Client’s Sake
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Your Data Security is Our Priority That’s Why We Have a Written Information Security Plan (WISP)
Tax professionals play a critical role in our nation’s tax system and maintain a huge amount of taxpayer financial data. All professional tax preparers will be required to create and implement a Written Information Security Plan (WISP). Our need to protect our clients’ data prompted us to create a security plan this year. While many tax professionals will struggle to know where to start when developing a security plan, we already have an active one in place.
AJM&A created our plan to document details of our security controls, processes as well as policies. It is a roadmap for our organization’s IT security. A security plan should be appropriate to the company’s size, scope of activities, complexity, and the sensitivity of the customer data it handles.
Data Security for Taxpayers is Crucial
Data security laws are in place to ensure that businesses that own, license, or maintain personal information about residents implement and maintain reasonable security procedures along with practices. This is why we have a system in place to show our customers that we value their data and take the responsibility of securing it seriously.
One of the key elements of a WISP that every business is expected to undertake is a cyber security assessment. This is yet another new arena for tax preparers to venture into. A cyber security assessment evaluates and identifies your risks. This allows your team to mitigate them in order of magnitude and likelihood of the threat. We are committed to do these assessments regularly to that ensure our clients’ information remains safe.
A WISP is a beneficial and necessary part of doing business as a tax preparer in today’s cyberworld. While it falls outside the normal duties of tax professionals, creating a WISP is integral to cybersecurity. Organizations that prepare taxes should have their own WISP for the good of their clients and the country.