Privacy Policy and Data Retention
Effective Date: 07/23/2024
Last Updated: 09/04/2026
The Tax Guy, Inc. is committed to protecting your personal information and complying with all applicable data privacy laws, including the Internal Revenue Code (IRC), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and other federal or state regulations. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, retain, and protect your data.
1. Information We Collect
We collect personal and financial information necessary for tax preparation, payroll, and related services. This may include:
- Identifiable information (e.g., name, address, phone number, Social Security Number, taxpayer identification number, date of birth)
- Business information for legal-entity clients (e.g., legal name, EIN, CA EDD employer account number, ownership, workers’ compensation facts, Form 8655 / EDD POA signatures)
- Financial information (e.g., income, deductions, expenses, investments, payroll amounts)
- Documents related to tax preparation and payroll (e.g., W-2s, 1099s, receipts, and other financial records)
- Payment and funding information (e.g., card details for invoices; tokenized Financial Account credentials such as routing and account identifiers, available balance, and account-holder name/address used to sequester payroll tax)
- Books-import data when you connect a chart-of-accounts Financial Account through Plaid (transaction descriptions and amounts for bookkeeping)
2. How We Use Your Information
Your data will only be used for the following purposes:
- Preparation and filing of your tax returns
- Payroll calculation, tax-reserve sequester, and statutory remittance to IRS and CA EDD for enrolled employers
- Communication related to tax preparation, payroll, and advisory services
- Compliance with federal and state laws and regulations
- Internal business purposes, such as recordkeeping, audits, and fraud / NSF controls (for example, confirming available balance before an ACH debit)
We will never sell or share your information with third parties for marketing purposes. No mobile information will be shared with third parties/affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes. All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.
If you opt-in to receive SMS notifications from us, please note that message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. You can reply STOP to opt-out of text messages at any time, or HELP for help.
3. Data Retention Policy
We retain your data only as long as necessary to fulfill our legal and business obligations, including IRS and EDD record-retention rules for tax and payroll.
4. Data Deletion Policy
We will securely delete your data when the retention period ends, or if you submit a valid deletion request, except where law requires us to keep it (for example, filed returns and payroll tax records).
5. Your Privacy Rights
Under applicable laws, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or receive a portable copy of your data. Contact support@taxguyinc.com to exercise these rights.
6. Data Security Measures
We use industry-standard security measures including encryption, secure storage, access controls, and regular security audits. We do not store full operating-account numbers after Financial Connections tokenizes them; Stripe holds the payment method. We do not take title to Treasury balances. Each employer’s Tax Reserve sits in that employer’s Financial Account for the benefit of the employer with our bank partner, Fifth Third Bank, N.A., Member FDIC.
7. Service providers (processors)
We share information with service providers only as needed to run the service. They are not permitted to use it for their own marketing. Those providers include:
- Stripe, Inc. — invoice payments; Stripe Connect and Treasury Financial Accounts; Financial Connections to tokenize the origin Financial Account and read available balance and account-ownership details before payroll sequester; ACH debit into the client Financial Account and remittance to tax agencies after settlement.
- Plaid Inc. — optional books import (chart-of-accounts transactions). Plaid is not the payroll money rail.
- Google Cloud / Firebase — application hosting and encrypted storage in the United States.
- Tax agencies and authorized processors (IRS, CA EDD, SSA) when we file or remit on your behalf as reporting agent.
- Other operators we already disclose (for example Google Gmail for transactional email, DocuSeal for signing, ClickSend for IRS eFax).
We do not sell Financial Connections data and we do not share tokenized account credentials, balances, or ownership details with unaffiliated third parties for their independent use.
8. Data location
We store and process this data in the United States. We do not store Financial Connections or Treasury data outside the US. Stripe and our other US processors may handle the same data in the US to provide their services.
9. Updates to This Policy
This policy will be reviewed and updated annually or as required by changes in the law or in the products we offer (including payroll and Treasury).
For any questions, contact: support@taxguyinc.com, 484-382-9489 - (4TH) ETA-XGUY, 4 Charlton Ct, San Francisco, CA 94123
10. Google OAuth and Gmail API
We use Google OAuth 2.0 to authenticate users and access Gmail API for the following purposes:
- Gmail Send Scope: We use the Gmail API to send you important communications including:
- Tax preparation invoices and payment reminders
- Draft tax return reviews for your approval
- Document signing requests via DocuSeal
- Account verification codes for two-factor authentication
- Service updates and notifications related to your tax preparation
- User Info Email Scope: We use your email address from Google to:
- Identify and authenticate your account
- Associate your tax documents with your account
- Ensure secure access to your tax information
- Data Security: We do not store your Google password or OAuth tokens. We only store encrypted refresh tokens necessary to send you emails through the Gmail API. You can revoke access at any time through your Google Account settings at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
- Third-Party Services: Our use of Google OAuth and Gmail API is subject to Google's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. We only access the minimum necessary scopes to provide our tax preparation services.
11. Contact Information
For questions regarding this Privacy Policy or to exercise your privacy rights, please contact us:
Email: support@taxguyinc.com
Phone: 484-382-9489 - (4TH) ETA-XGUY
Address: 4 Charlton Ct, San Francisco, CA 94123