This Privacy Policy describes how TaxHound ("we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, stores, and protects your information when you use TaxHound. We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your data responsibly.
1. Information We Collect
(a) Account Information
When you create an account, we collect your name and email address through Google OAuth authentication. We do not store your Google password — authentication is handled securely by Google.
(b) Employee and Payroll Data
To calculate your R&D tax credits, you may upload or enter:
- Employee information (names, employee IDs, email addresses, job titles, departments, hire dates, work locations)
- Payroll data (W-2 Box 1 wages)
- Time allocation survey responses from employees
(c) Vendor and Expense Data
You may upload or enter vendor information including:
- Vendor names and Employer Identification Numbers (EINs)
- Invoice details (amounts, dates, descriptions)
- Contractor information for Form 6765 reporting
(d) Tax and Financial Data
To compute your R&D credit, you may provide:
- Gross receipts from prior tax years
- Prior year R&D spending from previous Form 6765 filings
- Company tax information (name, EIN) for form generation
(e) R&D Project Information
You provide descriptions of your research activities, including project names, technical objectives, and four-part test qualifications.
2. How We Use Your Information
We use your information solely to:
- Calculate your qualifying research expenses and R&D tax credits
- Generate pre-filled IRS Form 6765 and supporting documentation
- Send time allocation surveys to your employees on your behalf
- Send invoice classification surveys to your team members
- Maintain your account and provide customer support
- Improve TaxHound's functionality and your experience
We do not sell, rent, or share your data with third parties for marketing purposes.
3. Data Security and Encryption
We implement robust security measures to protect your sensitive information:
- Encryption at Rest: Personal Identifiable Information (PII) and financial data — including names, email addresses, employee IDs, wage amounts, vendor names, and EINs — are encrypted using AES-256 encryption before being stored in our database.
- Encryption in Transit: All data transmitted between your browser and our servers is encrypted using TLS (HTTPS).
- No Password Storage: We use Google OAuth exclusively for authentication — we do not store any passwords.
- Secure Infrastructure: Our application is hosted on Google Cloud Platform with SSL-secured PostgreSQL database connections using certificate-based authentication.
- Access Controls: Your data is isolated by user account and tax year — you can only access your own data.
4. Third-Party Services
We use the following third-party services to operate TaxHound:
- Google OAuth: For secure authentication when you sign in. Google receives your authentication request but TaxHound does not receive your Google password.
- Google Cloud Platform: Our infrastructure provider for hosting, database services, and application deployment.
- Google Workspace (Gmail API): To send survey invitation emails on your behalf. We use a service account and do not access your personal Gmail inbox.
- Google Fonts: To display fonts in TaxHound. Google may collect anonymous usage data per their privacy policy.
We do not use third-party analytics, advertising networks, or tracking cookies.
5. Cookies and Local Storage
TaxHound uses only essential cookies required for functionality:
- Session Cookie: Maintains your login session while using TaxHound. This cookie expires when you log out or close your browser.
- CSRF Token: Protects against cross-site request forgery attacks.
We do not use tracking cookies, advertising cookies, or third-party analytics cookies.
6. Data Retention
We retain your data for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you with TaxHound's services. Tax-related data is retained to support your ongoing R&D credit calculations across multiple tax years.
If you wish to delete your account and associated data, please contact us at legal@taxhound.io. Upon account deletion request, we will delete your personal data within 30 days, except where retention is required by law.
7. Your Rights
Depending on your location, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:
- Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Correction: Request that we correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
- Deletion: Request that we delete your personal data.
- Data Portability: Request your data in a machine-readable format (e.g., CSV export).
- Withdraw Consent: Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at legal@taxhound.io.
8. California Privacy Rights
If you are a California resident, you have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA):
- The right to know what personal information we collect, use, and disclose.
- The right to request deletion of your personal information.
- The right to opt-out of the sale of personal information. Note: We do not sell your personal information.
- The right to non-discrimination for exercising your privacy rights.
9. Employee Data
When you upload employee data or send surveys to employees, you are the data controller for that employee information. You are responsible for:
- Ensuring you have appropriate authorization to provide employee data to TaxHound.
- Informing employees that their information is being processed for R&D tax credit purposes.
- Complying with applicable employment and privacy laws regarding employee data.
Employee survey responses are stored with the same encryption and security measures as all other sensitive data in TaxHound.
10. Children's Privacy
TaxHound is designed for business use and is not directed at children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have inadvertently collected such information, please contact us immediately.
11. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make significant changes, we'll let you know by posting the updated policy and changing the "Last Updated" date above. Your continued use of TaxHound after changes are posted means you accept the revised policy.
12. Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:
Email: legal@taxhound.io
Entity: TaxHound (California General Partnership)
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By using TaxHound, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.