At TaxSlayer, we are committed to safeguarding customer information collected through our products and services, including via our website (taxslayer.com) (“Site”) and mobile application (collectively, the “Platform”). This Privacy Policy is provided for website visitors and users of our products and services (“you”). As a financial services and technology company, TaxSlayer LLC (“TaxSlayer”, “we”, and “us”) provides these guidelines to explain what information we may gather about you 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 required by law or otherwise explained in this Privacy Policy.
Please read this Privacy Policy carefully before using our Platform. By accessing or otherwise using any portion of the Platform, you represent that you have all the applicable rights and authority to grant TaxSlayer the rights granted herein, and you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy. You expressly represent and warrant that you are agreeing to this Privacy Policy individually, and for and on behalf of the benefit of your spouse and dependents, and that your spouse and dependents intend to be bound to this Privacy Policy. If you are not willing to be bound by the terms of this Privacy Policy, you may not access or otherwise use any portion of the Platform.
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 (or some of the data that TaxSlayer collects may be exempt) 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 strive to 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 the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act ("GLBA"). Please see our GLBA Notice for additional information.
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 features that are powered by third parties, including video tutorials and social media features such as like or share buttons or widgets. These features may collect your IP address, other identifiers, which page you are visiting on our site, and other information, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Your interactions with such features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it. For more information about cookies and to opt out, see our section on Your Rights and User Controls below.
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, such as 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.
• 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. This may also include contact information that you provide to participate in contests, promotions, and marketing events that are sponsored by us and administered by another entity.
• 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 technologies on our Site, or portions thereof, that collect 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. The information collected from your device may include:
• Internet service provider
• Device identification number, including mobile device ID and IP address
• Operating system and browser type
• Geolocation information
• 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 pages viewed and features accessed, mouse clicks, movements, and scrolling activity, events that occur on the Platform; performance information; and referring and exit pages
For more information and to opt out of cookies, see our section on Your Rights and User Controls below.
If you use your mobile device in connection with our Platform, you authorize your wireless carrier to use or disclose information about your account and device, if available, to TaxSlayer or its service provider for the purpose of identifying you or your device and to prevent fraud.
We employ heatmap and screen recording technology on portions of our Site to help provide and improve your experience with our services. For example, we may use such technologies to respond to support requests, facilitate technical assistance, and create improved methods for preparing your tax return. Such technologies may record a sampling of sessions for these purposes. We do not collect personally identifiable information through these technologies. All information specific to your tax return is redacted. The information is blocked at the client level and redaction cannot be reversed, which means the information is anonymized. For more information about how we use such technologies, please contact us at support@taxslayer.com.
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. Tax Return Information may also be considered “Nonpublic Customer Information” protected under the GLBA. 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, to operate our tax preparation business as necessary (e.g., for internal administrative purposes), and to provide you with other products and services you specifically request or consent to, unless otherwise allowed under applicable law.
• Service functionality: To provide products and services you request, including to process payments, fulfill orders, import data for tax return preparation, verify your identity, recover your account if you forget your password, process forms, and facilitate service communications, as well as to conduct general business operations, such as accounting, recordkeeping, and audits. For example, we use your phone number for SMS verification when you create a new account.
• 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, to send updates or security alerts, and to analyze and improve our customer support services. Our support team may communicate with you via email, phone, or chat.
• Marketing, advertising, and promotions: As permitted by law, to send marketing messages about our tax preparation services and products; 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. You can click on the "Your Privacy Choices" link in the website footer to opt-out of all third-party cookies and similar technologies that are not required for website functionality. If you opt out of cookies entirely, no information will be shared with any of listed partners that use cookies. Note that we obtain your consent before we use any Tax Return Information to determine which offers for non-tax products and services to present to you and to show you those offers (usually presented at the checkout portion of your TaxSlayer experience). These products and services may include identity protection and restoration solutions, ways to receive your refund (e.g., debit card), and options to pay with your refund (e.g., File & Go).
• Product surveys and user research: As permitted by law, to solicit feedback about our products and services, including offers to participate in paid user research or focus groups. Product surveys, feedback sessions, or focus groups may be performed by a third-party service provider. In some cases, we may use your information to determine your suitability for a particular research session or product survey. We may also provide additional disclosures and consents in order to participate in product surveys or user research. For example, we may send you an e-mail offer to participate in a paid research study about your TaxSlayer experience; if you indicate your interest in participating, we may ask for your consent to allow us to disclose certain information (such as your basic contact details) to our third-party user research service provider to help schedule and personalize your research session. Or, if you visit certain parts of our Site, you may be presented with an opportunity to participate in an online survey that requires a screen recording tool.
• 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 Tax Return Information or other sensitive personal information with nonaffiliated third parties for their own use or commercial purposes. You can opt out of certain online technologies as described further below.
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 with 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, to provide analytics about our product, to conduct or facilitate product surveys or user research, to improve our product or services, to market one of our products or services, or to provide other services related to the support, maintenance, and management of our tax return preparation products and services. Our service providers include companies that, for example, use web analytics software or tools, deliver downloadable products, process forms, verify your identity, assist with data import, offer online software applications, facilitate chat support functionality, process credit card payments, or send emails on our behalf. For example, we may share your first name and a pseudonymous identifier with our chat support service provider, so that our support agents can help better serve you when you initiate a chat support session through our Site. We may share your name, contact information, and other personal information that you provide to our identity verification service provider. In some cases, you may be presented with additional disclosures and consents before we share certain information with our service providers. For example, we may ask for your consent before sharing your basic contact information with a service provider that we engage to help facilitate paid research studies about our products and services. 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.
• 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 Analytics and Advertising Partners: We partner with companies that assist us in advertising our services, including partners that use cookies and similar technologies to collect information to help us monitor our website usage trends and performance; optimize our delivery of tax return preparation services through the Site; and personalize, retarget, deliver, and measure the effectiveness of TaxSlayer advertising online. In some cases, with your consent, we may share certain limited information such as your e-mail address or phone number in an anonymized (hashed) format with our online metrics and advertising partners. Without consent, you may still see general advertisements or offers for our products and services promoted online, but they will not be personalized based on any activity on our website. Note also that we may still receive, use, or disclose certain information that is not sensitive or financial in nature (and therefore not covered by consent) to measure digital events and interactions, and serve ads to you. For example, we may collect and use your IP address and/or other device identifiers (i.e., randomly-generated identifiers that cannot be used by any third party to identify you), and the specific webpages on our site that you may visit, in order to track the date/time of website activity, general region of website users, usage of various site features and functionality, and information about product selection. Such information may be disclosed to our online metrics and marketing partners. Our marketing partners can vary from time to time but typically include Commission Junction LLC, Google LLC (including YouTube), Iterable, Inc., LiveRamp Holdings, Inc., Microsoft Corporation (Bing), Taboola.com Ltd, and TV Squared Limited. Our online metrics partners typically include Carry Technologies, Inc. (Hightouch), Content Square, Inc. (Heap, Inc.), Google LLC, Medallia Inc., and Episerver, Inc. (Optimizely). While we may share your hashed phone number to online analytics and advertising partners with your consent, we do not share any phone numbers or other personal information collected solely through our TaxSlayer Updates SMS Program (see section below) with third parties, including as part of the text messaging originator opt-in data and consent. For more information on how to opt out of sharing cookies and similar technologies, see the Your Rights and User Controls section below.
• 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 media 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.
• Video Content Platforms: Our Site features video tutorials powered by YouTube. If you watch a video tutorial featured on our Site, Google and YouTube may be able to collect information about you and your interaction with us. Your viewing activity is governed by the Google/YouTube terms of service and privacy. To control the sharing of information, please review the Google/YouTube privacy policy.
•Other Platform Visitors: We may post customer testimonials on our website, advertisements, emails, social media accounts, or other platforms. These testimonials may contain personal information such as a customer’s name. If we obtain your testimonial from a third-party review site, we may post your review, subject to the review site’s policies, along with your public user profile information. We will obtain your consent to use your full name prior to posting your testimonial that you submit directly to us. 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 SMS Program
You may provide information if you opt in to receive marketing messages on your mobile device via the TaxSlayer SMS Program (“SMS Program”). We do not share personal information collected through the SMS Program, including as part of the text messaging originator opt-in data and consent, to third parties. No personal information collected via our SMS Program will be sold, rented, or disclosed to unaffiliated third parties for their own marketing purposes.
Please note that where this Privacy Policy provides for disclosure of personal information to third parties engaged for online analytics and advertising purposes, such personal information would exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent.
TaxSlayer understands the importance of protecting customer information and we have implemented reasonable administrative, technical, and physical security measures designed to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. This includes a designated information security team, written information security policies and procedures, incident detection and response measures, network firewalls, encryption, password protections, and restrictions on which personnel can access any customer personal information. For example, TaxSlayer employees are only allowed to access customer information necessary to perform their job functions and only for the purposes for which it was collected.
With respect to your Tax Return Information, 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.
TaxSlayer is committed to safeguarding the confidentiality and security of the information we obtain from you. We collect and use information obtained from credit card transactions only for business purposes such as processing payments or refunds.
TaxSlayer uses a third-party payment processor, CardConnect by Fiserv, to provide secure credit card transactions. CardConnect is compliant with requirements for payment gateways set forth in the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). CardConnect utilizes PCI-validated point-to-point encryption (P2PE) to cryptographically protect your credit card account information through the entire life cycle of a credit card transaction. By using P2PE, your account data (cardholder data and sensitive authentication data) is unreadable until it reaches the secure decryption environment. CardConnect’s P2PE solution is validated by the PCI Security Standards Council.
CardConnect utilizes tokenization to protect your sensitive credit card account data. Tokenization is the process of replacing your credit card number with an algorithmically generated, irreversible number that cannot be traced back to the original information. If you opt to store your credit card information for your convenience in making future purchases, the CardConnect payment system allows TaxSlayer to utilize the token associated with the card, not the card number itself.
We retain your Tax Return Information for at least three tax years to comply with our legal obligations, or as needed to provide you services. Other information may be retained for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. 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.
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 Cookies
We (or our vendors) may use cookies, pixels, web beacons, and similar technologies (collectively “Cookies”), to collect or receive information when you interact with our Platform, in order to deliver and improve our products and services to you, and to support and manage our tax return preparation software business. A Cookie may be sent to a browser by a website you visit to help that website remember, often through a unique identifier, information about your visit.
You can click on the “Your Privacy Choices” link in the website footer to opt out of third-party cookies and similar technologies that are not required for website functionality. You should clear your cookies in your browser after you opt out. Note that if you opt out of cookies, no information will be shared with those vendors.
Additionally, we provide the following information about the vendors that use Cookies on our Platform. Our vendors may help us with a variety of functions including marketing, advertising, analytics, customer engagement, and tag management. In some jurisdictions such as California, the term “Service Provider” may have a distinct meaning. The list provided below includes all vendors (including those that California may consider “Service Providers” and “Third Parties”).
We endeavor to keep this list current, but since business structures and relationships may change, the information below may not always be comprehensive or up to date. For an updated list of our vendors, please contact us at support@taxslayer.com.
Please refer to the vendor’s privacy policy for more information about their Cookies and your choices about each vendor’s Cookies.
Required Cookies: These Cookies are required to allow the technical operation of our Services. We use these cookies to authenticate you, run your session securely while you’re logged in, help detect and prevent fraud, and provide you with our Services. This category also includes Cookies that are used to help remember your site preferences and choices so that we can deliver Services, monitor our Services, and offer you enhanced functionality when using our Services.
Analytics Cookies: Analytics Cookies are generally placed on our website by our service providers and are used to help us understand how you access our Platform so we can make improvements to your tax return preparation experience.
Advertising Cookies: Advertising Cookies (also referred to as “Targeting Cookies”) are used to provide ad measurement services, target and deliver relevant ads, and track ad campaign performance and efficiency. For example, we and our ad partners may use information collected to serve you interest-based ads on our website or on other websites. Please note that even if you opt out of Advertising Cookies, you may still see advertisements, but they may not be tailored to your interests.
We may share some information about your website experience that is not sensitive or financial in nature with third parties that operate cookies on our site. We do not share sensitive personal information (including financial information you provide to prepare your tax return) with any business except service providers that provide a service related to our tax preparation software business. These service providers are contractually obligated to use that information only for the purpose of providing services to TaxSlayer and to protect such information from disclosure to other parties. Under the GLBA, you may not opt out of sharing with our service providers.
Again, you may choose to opt out of certain technologies used on TaxSlayer’s website, including Advertising Cookies (also known as “Targeting Cookies”). 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.
You can click on the “Your Privacy Choices” link in the website footer to opt-out of third-party cookies and similar technologies that are not required for website functionality. You are not able to opt out of Required Cookies. After you opt out, remember to clear your cookies in your browser.
Finally, you can also set your Internet browser (e.g., Chrome, Safari, Edge, Internet Explorer, etc.) to warn you each time a cookie is being sent or to turn off all cookies (except Flash cookies). Check your browser’s Help menu to find out how. You may also use third-party tools to identify and make additional choices about many technologies, including cookies. Note that if you use a different browser, or use a new or different device, you may need to renew your cookie preferences.
Additionally, most mobile devices allow you to manage how other technologies, such as unique identifiers are set and used. For example, the Advertising ID on Android devices or Apple’s Advertising Identifier can be managed in your device’s settings. Please reference your mobile operating system support documentation to learn more.
The following websites provide more information about your choices to opt-out of tracking through certain third-party advertising and analytics Cookies:
Opt out of email and SMS communications
To unsubscribe from receiving general marketing messages from us, please go to our unsubscribe page.
The unsubscribe page includes an option to opt out of TaxSlayer’s text messaging system. Note that this phone opt-out removes your phone number for multi-factor authentication purposes and is not related to the TaxSlayer SMS Program.
To opt out of text messages from the SMS Program, just text "STOP" to 69204. After you send the message "STOP" to us, we will send you a reply message to confirm that you have been unsubscribed. After this, you will no longer receive messages from us. If you want to join again, just sign up as you did the first time and we will start sending messages to you again. If at any time you forget what keywords are supported, just text "HELP" to 69204. After you send the message "HELP" to us, we will respond with instructions on how to use our service as well as how to unsubscribe, or you can reach us for support at support@taxslayer.com.
Do Not Track signals
TaxSlayer takes privacy and security seriously and we strive to provide various options regarding how your information is collected, used, and shared, as further described above. With regard to “Do Not Track” (“DNT”) signals, we currently do not respond to DNT signals in browsers.
If you have questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, and to submit any request concerning your information, 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.
TaxSlayer is committed to complying with all applicable state privacy laws. As a provider of tax preparation software, TaxSlayer may be considered an exempt financial institution (or some of the data that TaxSlayer collects may be exempt) under certain U.S. state privacy laws. In addition, TaxSlayer may not necessarily meet all threshold requirements under state privacy laws. We will update this section as needed.
For example, 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 and Other States.
If you make a privacy request under state privacy laws, we will respond as required by applicable law or otherwise in our discretion.
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.