TaxAssist Advisors (“we”, “us” or “our”) respects your privacy and we are committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you how we process your personal data and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.
Who We Are
The data controller is BOTTOM LINE TAX ADVISORS LLC of 2911 Chapel Hill Road, Suite 225, Douglasville, Georgia, GA 30135 a TaxAssist Advisors licensee. This privacy notice applies to this licensee only and not to the practices of other TaxAssist Advisors licensees. If you would like to review the privacy policy and practices of any licensee, please contact the relevant entity directly.
The Data We Collect About You
Personal information means any information about an individual from which that person can be reasonably identified. We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you as described below. This may include:
- Identifiers, such as contact information, including names, addresses, phone numbers emails, taxpayer identification numbers, and date of birth.
- Financial information, including assets, income/losses, revenue/expenses, deductions and payment information such as credit and bank account numbers.
- Professional and employment information, such as work history and prior employers.
- Characteristics of protected classifications under state or federal laws, such as sex and marital status;
- Commercial information, such as transaction information and purchase history;
- Internet or network activity such as interactions with our website.
- Inferences drawn from any of the Personal Information listed above.
Sources of Information About You
Information You Provide. We collect information you provide to us directly or direct to be provided to us about you and any family members are dependents.
Public Records. We may collect information about you from publicly available sources, including from the IRS or other government entities or credit reporting agencies.
Information from our affiliates or service providers. We may collect information from you from our affiliates, including our franchisor, or service providers.
Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect technical data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns through cookies and other similar technologies.
How We Use or Disclose Your Personal Information
Our use or disclosure of your personal information may be limited by Section 7216 of the Internal Revenue Code, other laws, and our internal policies. Section 7216 of the Internal Revenue Code requires that we obtain your consent to the disclosure and use of the tax return information that you provide to us. We will not disclose your tax return information for any purpose other than preparing, assisting in preparing, or obtaining or providing services in connection with the preparation of your tax returns, except where expressly authorized or required to do so by the law.
Most commonly, we will use or disclose your personal data in the following circumstances:
- Where we need to perform the contract, we are about to enter into or have entered into with you. This may include disclosures to the IRS.
- With your consent or where otherwise permitted by law, we may disclose your information to our franchisor or our service providers who perform business functions on our behalf. This includes service providers who provide auxiliary services in connection with preparation of your tax return in accordance with Section 7216 of the Internal Revenue Code. We only permit service providers to process your personal data for specified purposes and only in accordance with our instructions.
- As permitted by law, we may use or disclose your information to our franchisor or other TaxAssist entities to provide the services you request or to offer you additional services. Where your personal information was obtained for tax return preparation, we may be required to obtain your consent prior to disclosure.
- In the event of a sale, transfer, or merger of our business, parts of our business or our assets we may be required to disclose your personal data to third parties. 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 privacy notice.
- We may disclose information in response to subpoenas, warrants, or court orders, or in connection with any legal process, or to comply with relevant laws. We may also share your information to establish or exercise our rights, to defend against a legal claim, to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding possible illegal activities, suspected fraud, safety of person or property, or a violation of our policies, or to comply with your request for the provision of services by a third-party intermediary.
Some states require that organizations disclose whether certain categories of personal information are collected, disclosed to third parties for a “business purpose,” or “sold” or transferred for valuable consideration.” We do not sell or rent your personal information. We collect identifiers, government issued identification information, financial information, commercial information, professional and employment related information, and Additional categories of personal information described in the California Customer Records statute (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e)). We may share this information for a business purpose with TaxAssist group members including our franchisor, and tax and compliance software providers such as CCH and Ignition.
Data Security
No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is fully secure. While we use reasonable efforts to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information. In the event that we are required by law to inform you of a breach to your personal information we may notify you electronically, in writing, or by telephone, if permitted to do so by law.
Some of our websites permit you to create an account. When you do you will be prompted to create a password. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password, and you are responsible for any access to or use of your account by someone else that has obtained your password, whether or not such access or use has been authorized by you. You should notify us of any unauthorized use of your password or account.
Your legal rights
Under certain circumstances and in certain jurisdictions, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data:
Access to Your Personal Information. You may request access to your personal information by contacting us at the address described below. If required by law, upon request, we will grant you access to the personal information that we have about you. Note that California residents may be entitled to ask us for a notice describing what categories of personal information (if any) we share with third parties or affiliates for direct marketing.
Changes to Your Personal Information. We rely on you to update and correct your personal information. Please contact us in order to request that your information by modified. Note that we may keep historical information in our backup files as permitted by law.
Deletion of Your Personal Information. Typically, we retain your personal information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. You may, however, request information about how long we keep a specific type of information, or request that we delete your personal information by contacting us at the address described below. If required by law we will grant a request to delete information, but you should note that in many situations we must keep your personal information to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, or for another one of our business purposes.
Objection to Certain Processing. You may object to our use or disclosure of your personal information by contacting us at the address described below.
Online Tracking. We do not currently recognize automated browser signals regarding tracking mechanisms, which may include "Do Not Track" instructions.
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.
We do not discriminate against consumers who exercise any of their rights described in this policy. In certain circumstances we may not be able to honor your access or deletion request. If you disagree with how we handled a request, you may appeal our decision by contacting us with the subject line “Appeal.”
Note that, as required by law, we will require you to prove your identity. We may conduct an identity verification by phone call or email. Depending on your request, we will ask for information such as your name, the specific services we provided to you, or the date of your last transaction with us. We may also ask you to provide a signed declaration confirming your identity. Following a request, we will use reasonable efforts to supply, correct or delete personal information about you in our files.
For authorized agents submitting a request on behalf of an individual, we will require proof of authorization and verification of identity directly from the individual for whom the request relates. If the authorized agent is a company or organization, we may request proof from the individual that the request is valid.
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.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may change our privacy policy and practices over time. To the extent that our policy changes in a material way, the policy that was in place at the time that you submitted personal information to us will generally govern that information unless we receive your consent to the new privacy policy. Our privacy policy includes an “effective” and “last updated” date. The effective date refers to the date that the current version took effect. The last updated date refers to the date that the current version was last substantively modified.
Effective date: 07/14/2022
Last updated date: 11/04/2022