At TaxSlayer, we are committed to safeguarding customer information collected through our products and services, including via our website (www.taxslayer.com), and mobile applications (collectively, the “Platform”). As a financial services and technology company, TaxSlayer LLC (“TaxSlayer”, “we”, and “us”) provides these guidelines to explain what information we may gather and how we may share it. This Privacy Policy explains TaxSlayer’s collection, use, retention, and security of information about you. It also describes your choices regarding use, access, and correction of your personal information.
Since your privacy is a priority to us, TaxSlayer will not share nonpublic information about you with third parties outside of the TaxSlayer corporate family without your consent, except as explained in our Privacy Policy.
As a U.S. based company offering products related to the preparation of U.S. federal and state tax returns, TaxSlayer does not market to nor target subjects of other countries including those in the European Economic Area. In addition, as a provider of tax preparation software, TaxSlayer may be considered an exempt financial institution under certain U.S. state privacy laws. While the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and various data privacy laws do not apply to TaxSlayer, we meet all rules and regulations relating to data protection and security promulgated by the Internal Revenue Service and its Security Summit (https://www.irs.gov/privacy-disclosure/security-summit for more information) and comply with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.
Our Privacy Policy does not apply where TaxSlayer processes your information in our role as a service provider or data processor on behalf of a customer or entity that acts as the data controller (for example, customers of our professional tax software products or companies that custom-label our Platform). When we act as a service provider or data processor, the privacy policy of the data controller will govern processing of your personal information.
As a service to our customers, our Platform may contain links to various tax agencies/services such as IRS.gov. The links provided are maintained by these separate entities and are not the property of, or affiliated with, TaxSlayer in any way. If you submit personal information to any of those sites, your information is governed by their privacy policies. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy policy of any website you visit.
Similarly, certain portions of our website (www.taxslayer.com) may include social media features such as like or share buttons or widgets. These social media features may collect your IP address and which page you are visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Your interactions with a feature or widget is governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it. For more information about cookies and to opt out, click here.
We collect information from you directly, the devices that you use to interact with us, and third-party analytics providers.
Information You Give to Us
You may provide the following information to us directly when you enter and use our Platform, contact us for support, or purchase products and services:
• Contact information, including name, email address, and phone number.
• Account information, such as username and password.
• Payment information, including credit card information (collected by us or our third-party payment processor) is used only to complete your transaction.
• Information contained in communications to us, including your requests for support or assistance and information necessary to contact you or otherwise fulfill your request. We may ask you to share your screen or chat with us via video conferencing, and we will always ask your permission before recording any of these sessions.
• Information you provide to us to prepare or file a tax return using our Platform, which information may include your Social Security Number, date of birth, income, employment status, marital status, claimed deductions, credits, and other information necessary to accurately complete your tax return (collectively, "Tax Return Information").
• Banking information, such as account and routing numbers, which we use to facilitate refunds.
• Demographic information.
• Information that you make available to us via a social media platform, including content that you post on our social media pages and community pages.
• Information you submit to inquire about or apply for a job with us.
• Information you provide when you provide customer testimonials or feedback; post comments on our blog or community forums; or participate in our surveys, promotions, marketing events, trade shows, webinars, conferences, training, or product research.
• Any other information you submit to us.
Information We Collect Automatically
We and partners working on our behalf may use cookies, web beacons, pixels, tags, or other digital tracking technologies to collect the following information from the device you use to interact with our Platform and services. We also create records when you make purchases or otherwise interact with the Platform or services.
• Internet service provider
• Device identification number, including mobile device ID and IP address
• Operating system and browser type
• Analytical information about how you interact with our Platform and services, including how often you use the Platform; access dates and times; your activities on our Platform, including page views, mouse clicks, movements, and scrolling activity, events that occur on the Platform; performance information; and referring and exit pages
For more information about cookies and a list of our partners that collect the information described above, click here.
You may be able to limit access of some of these technologies at the individual browser or device level; however, this limitation may disable or limit some of the features offered. For example, our mobile application may send you push notifications from time to time in order to update you about any events or promotions that we may be running. If you no longer wish to receive these types of communications, you may turn them off at the device level. To ensure you receive proper notifications, we will need to collect certain information about your device such as operating system and user identification information.
Children's information
Our products and services are not intended for or directed to children under the age of 13, nor do we knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of 13.
We may use the information we collect for the following purposes:
• Tax preparation and related services: Section 301-7216 of the Internal Revenue Code (“Section 7216”) specifically governs the use and disclosure of “Tax Return Information” as that term is used in Section 7216. Some states may also have additional laws and regulations related to use and disclosure of the same information. We use your Tax Return Information only in accordance with those applicable laws and regulations to prepare and assist in preparing your tax return, to provide services associated with preparing your tax return, and to provide you with other products and services you specifically request or consent to, unless otherwise allowed under applicable law.
• Service functionality: To complete purchases of products and services you request, including to process payments, fulfill orders, and service communications, as well as to conduct general business operations, such as accounting, recordkeeping, and audits.
• Service improvement: As permitted by law, to improve our services, analyze our customer base and purchasing trends and the effectiveness of our marketing.
• Customer support: As permitted by law, to address questions submitted to our customer or technical support systems and to send updates or security alerts.
• Marketing, advertising, and promotions: As permitted by law, to send marketing messages; to provide notification of new or related products and services, enhancements, and promotions; and to personalize advertisements that you see on our services and third-party online platforms and measure the effectiveness of our advertising.
• Personalization: To personalize your online experience, such as by recording your preferences and settings.
• Security and fraud prevention: To monitor and investigate fraud, identity theft, and other illegal activity; to protect your rights and safety or the rights and safety of others; and to protect and secure our services, Platform, assets, network, and business operations.
• Legal compliance: To comply with legal process, such as subpoenas, court orders, warrants, and other lawful regulatory or law enforcement requests and to comply with legal requirements.
Unless allowed by applicable law (including Section 7216) and we have your consent, we do not:
• Sell or rent your personal information for money;
• Use Tax Return Information to market products or services unrelated to tax preparation; or
• Share your personal information with third parties for use in their own commercial purposes.
The privacy and security of your information is important to us. As indicated below, we may share your information to support the products and services you request, or provide your information to third parties, upon your specific consent, for products and services that may benefit you.
We may share your information with the following types of entities:
• IRS and State Revenue Authorities: We disclose Tax Return Information only in accordance with your requests, such as when filing a tax return with the IRS or state revenue authority, or as allowed by applicable law (including certain permitted disclosures to other tax preparers or providers of auxiliary services).
• Public Authorities: TaxSlayer may be required to preserve and disclose personal information including Tax Return Information, and any part thereof, without your consent as provided by law, such as, to respond to lawful requests by authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements, a subpoena or court order, judicial process or bankruptcy proceedings, or regulatory authorities to protect against fraud and in compliance with the IRS Security Summit. We may also disclose your personal information when we believe disclosure is necessary to protect your rights and safety, or the rights and safety of others. We may disclose your information to federal, state, or local officials to assist in the investigation or prosecution of a crime. As permitted by law, we may disclose your information to the IRS and Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs) to prevent stolen identity refund fraud (SIRF) and as related to potential cyber security threats.
• Acquiring Businesses: Your information may be disclosed in connection with an actual sale, merger, acquisition, dissolution or transfer of all or a portion of our business or relevant operating unit. We reserve the right to transfer your information as part of the transaction. In such an event, you will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our website of any change in ownership, incompatible new uses of your personal information, and choices you may have regarding your personal information.
• Affiliates: We may share information about you and the products and services you have purchased from us to members of the TaxSlayer corporate family and our parent company of Rhodes Financial Services, LLC, all of whom follow our Privacy Policy.
• Service Providers: In some cases, your information may be disclosed to our service providers to complete a product purchase, to fulfill a service you request, or to market one of our products or services. Our service providers include companies that use Web analytics software or tools, deliver downloadable products, offer online software applications, or send emails on our behalf. Not all service providers may be applicable to you. Some service providers are only relevant if you use certain tax forms or otherwise prepare a tax return using our software. While these relationships may require us to share information, our service providers are prohibited from using your information other than to act on our behalf.
We provide a list of our service providers and other third parties with whom we share information through cookies, pixels, and similar tracking technologies on our Opt Out of Cookies and Similar Technologies page. For a complete list of our service providers, please contact us at support@taxslayer.com.
• Joint Marketing and Custom-Label Partners: We may provide information to individuals or companies with whom we have a joint marketing arrangement and/or that custom-label our Platform. We require all marketing and custom-label partners to have written contracts with us that require them to safeguard your information and prohibits them from selling, retaining, using, or disclosing your information for any purpose other than for performing the contract. We only share Tax Return Information with custom-label partners as permitted under Section 7216.
• Online Advertising Partners: We partner with companies that assist us in advertising our services, including partners that use cookies and online tracking technologies to collect information to personalize, retarget, and measure the effectiveness of advertising.
• Social Media Platforms: If you interact with us on social media platforms, the platform may be able to collect information about you and your interaction with us. If you interact with social medial objects on our Platform, both the social media platform and your connections on the platform may be able to view that activity. To control the sharing of information, please review the privacy policy of the relevant social media platform.
• Other Platform Visitors: We may post customer testimonials on our website. These testimonials may contain personal information such as a customer’s name. We will obtain your consent to use your name prior to posting your testimonial. If you wish to update or delete your testimonial, contact us at support@taxslayer.com. Our website also offers publicly accessible blogs and/or community forums. Any information you provide in these areas may be read, collected, and used by others who access them. To request removal of your personal information from our blog or community forum, contact us at support@taxslayer.com. In some cases, we may not be able to remove your personal information, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why. For example, if you used a third-party application to post such information, you may need to contact that third-party application directly.
TaxSlayer understands the importance of protecting customer information and we have a team dedicated to keeping your information secure. TaxSlayer meets all rules and regulations relating to data protection and security for the tax industry promulgated by the Internal Revenue Service and its Security Summit (https://www.irs.gov/privacy-disclosure/security-summit for more information).
TaxSlayer’s web-based and mobile applications secure information by utilizing a variety of security-related technologies to comply with regulatory standards and our internal information security policies.
We retain your information for up to three tax years to comply with our legal obligations, or as needed to provide you services. If you wish to cancel your account or request that we no longer use your information to provide you services, contact us at support@taxslayer.com.
You have control over your personal data and how it’s collected, used, and shared. You have the right to access any information held by TaxSlayer that you either input directly or information collected as described above, subject to our data retention policy above.
Request a copy of your information
Upon request, TaxSlayer will provide you with certain personal information you specifically request by contacting customer support at support@taxslayer.com or via a request sent to our address provided below. Your information will be provided in a machine-readable format. Any tax returns will be available in a non-fileable format.
Change or correct personal information
You may view, manage, and/or make changes to your personal information by visiting your account online at www.taxslayer.com and selecting “Edit Account Information” in the My Account dashboard; by emailing our customer support; or via mail as set forth in the Contact Us section below.
Opt out of technologies
You may choose to opt out of certain technologies used on TaxSlayer’s website, including those used for online advertising purposes. However, the choice to opt out of certain technologies may affect, alter, or eliminate the functionality of certain features of or the products and services offered by TaxSlayer. To review and access opt-out procedures for our third-party technologies, see our Opt Out page.
If you exercise these options, please be aware that you may still see advertising, but it will not be personalized. Nor will exercising these options prevent other companies from displaying personalized ads to you.
If you delete your cookies, you may also delete your opt-out preferences.
Opt out of email communications
To unsubscribe from receiving general marketing messages from us, please go to our unsubscribe page.
CONTACT US
If you have questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, you may contact customer support at support@taxslayer.com.
You can also write us at:
TaxSlayer.com Privacy
945 Broad Street
Augusta, GA 30901
Any claim, controversy, or dispute arising out of or in connection with this Privacy Policy shall be subject to the informal resolution and arbitration provisions in our Terms of Service. If you have an unresolved privacy or data use concern that you feel has not been addressed satisfactorily, you may also contact our U.S.-based third party dispute resolution provider (free of charge) at https://feedback-form.truste.com/watchdog/request.
YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS
California law provides California residents with additional rights regarding our collection and use of your personal information. To learn more about your California privacy rights, visit the Privacy Notice for California Residents.
PRIVACY POLICY CHANGES
We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time.
Any material changes to our policy will be immediately posted and made available to consumers on our website. Notification of changes may be made by email or by means of a notice on the Website.
