Privacy Certification
CitizenTax is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to build user’s trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices. This privacy statement covers the site(s) citizentax.com, citizentaxfree.com and republictax.com or any other website, which may be created after the posting of this privacy policy. Because this Web site wants to demonstrate its commitment to your privacy, it has agreed to disclose its information practices and have its privacy practices review for compliance by TRUSTe.
If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first contact us at privacy@citizentax.com, or PO Box 10528, Conway, AR 72034. If you do not receive acknowledgement of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should contact TRUSTe at http://www.truste.org/consumers/watchdog_complaint.php. TRUSTe will then serve as a liaison with us to resolve your concerns.
At CitizenTax, we place the highest importance on respecting and protecting your privacy. We value our relationship with you. We want you to feel comfortable and confident when using our Web site(s). Therefore, we would like to share with you the following principles that govern our information practices and other privacy aspects of our Web site. This Privacy Policy applies to CitizenTax. Throughout this policy, we refer to information that personally identifies you as “personal information.”
Protecting your information
We work to protect your personal information from loss, misuse with security safeguards. Your personal information will be held on servers located in a highly secure environment and utilizing encryption to protect your sensitive information.
How we use your information
During registration, we ask you for your contact information such as, your name and e-mail address and require you to select a password. We may use your contact information to tell you about products or services we think might interest you or to invite you to participate in a product or service-related survey. Because of the financial nature of our business, our Web sites are not designed to appeal to children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly request or receive any information from children.
We do not make your individual tax return information available to anyone, including employees of CitizenTax, for any marketing purpose. We do not sell or rent your personal information to anyone. We do assist you in transmitting your return(s) to the IRS, State government as applicable, and if you select an Electronic Refund Deposit (ERD) bank product, to our bank for processing. We do provide your personal information to a Certified Public Accountant or Tax Professional if you select the Audit Assistance Program (AAP) and are audited by the IRS. We do provide selected data, such as your name, zip code and email address to a third party that assists us in contacting you with tax content and information. This third party is contractually obligated to not share or sell your information with any other sources. We do collect your and those you enter into our tax program personal information such as your name, social security number, PIN’s and other similar information for transmission to the IRS, States as applicable. We do transmit your personal information to our bank if you select a banking product, such as an electronic refund deposit or electronic refund check. We do collect the information you provided on our registration page and may notify you of products and services offered by us.
Third party relationships
We may have relationships with third parties to assist us in servicing you. If any of these service providers are used, they will be contractually required to maintain the confidentiality of the information provided them. Additionally, we may have business partners that provide services, some of which may be co-branded. We clearly identify partner services and sites. When you request any of these products or services, you are permitting us to provide your personal information to the partner to fulfill your request. We may disclose your information if we are required to by a law enforcement action such as a court order, subpoena or search warrant including requests by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the U.S. Treasury Department.
If any third party relationships are selected by you a “Consent to Disclosure of Tax Return Information” form will be provided as a separate form. We are required by the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department to provide this disclosure so you are aware your tax information or portions thereof that will be shared with the third party you selected in order to provide the service.
We tell you how we use Web technology
Like many Web sites, we use technology, such as cookies, that allow us to make your visit to our Web site easier by recognizing you when you return and help to provide you with a customized experience.
We give you choice and control
We may use your contact information to tell you about other products we think might interest you. However, if you don’t want us to contact you for promotional purposes or if you do not want to receive promotional or advertising information you can unsubscribe to future promotions or advertising. An unsubscribe link will be provided on the promotional information or advertisement. Your contact preferences only apply to marketing contact as it may be necessary to contact you concerning your tax return or the information contained therein.
Some communications you will not be able unsubscribe
We may need to communicate with you regarding the usability of your product or critical messages relating to your service or software (such as service messages, IRS and State tax information, critical notices, or legally mandated notices). This information may include HelpDesk correspondence, direct email, phone calls, fax’s or mailings.
We may provide you the opportunity to opt-out of having your personally identifiable information used for certain purposes, when we ask for this information or when you receive a promotional or advertising email or other types of correspondence.
If you no longer wish to receive promotional communication, such as a newsletter, you may opt-out of receiving them by “unsubscribing” on the promotional information or advertising or following the instructions included in each newsletter or communication by emailing us th
rough our the link provided on the communication or through our Customer Support HelpDesk.
You can contact us.
If you have privacy-related questions that are not addressed here, please email at: privacy@citizentax.com or write at: CitizenTax, c/o Smokey Software, Inc., Privacy, PO Box 10528 or 1700 Royal Dr, Suite A, Conway, AR 72034. Only correspondence related to “privacy” will be answered.
Changes to our policy.
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy, we will place a notice on our homepage for at least 30 days prior to implementation of any material change.
More about how we protect your information.
We protect the confidentiality and security of your personal information by using industry-recognized security safeguards such as Premium Extended Validation Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Encryption and firewalls, coupled with carefully developed security procedures to protect your information from loss, misuse or unauthorized alteration.
For added security, we have retained the services of McAfee Secure (formerly HackerSafe). McAfee Secure is provided by a 3rd party and is the recognized leader in online “hacker” security. Daily penetration scans are performed daily to detect a violation or potential violation of security. Our employees and agents are required to safeguard your information and, using physical, electronic and procedural safeguards, we restrict access to personal information to those employees and agents, including our banks, for business purposes only. Additionally, we maintain our servers in a highly secure location.
Safeguarding your personal information is a high priority. Identity theft and fraud scams are prevalent. CitizenTax does not solicit sensitive customer information via e-mail. If you do receive an e-mail message that appears to come from CitizenTax that requests such information, please forward it immediately to identityalert@citizentax.com so we can respond quickly.
More about Web technologies.
We use a variety of technologies on our Web site. Among these are cookies, which are pieces of information that our Web sites provide to your browser. Cookies allow us to track overall site usage and determine areas users prefer. Cookies also allow us to customize your visit to our Web site by recognizing you, for example, when you return to the site. You can choose to decline cookies while at our Web site, however, this may limit your ability to access certain areas of the Web site. Most browsers accept and maintain cookies by default. Check the “Help” menu of your browser to learn how to change your cookie preference.
When we track activity on the CitizenTax web site, we collect information such as your IP address, browser type and version, and pages you view. The IRS and States may require us to provide your IP address in some instances. We also keep track of how you get to our sites and any links you click on to leave our sites. We do not track URLs that you type into your browser, nor do we track you across the Internet once you leave our sites. We use your Web site activity to assist you retrieving data and to help us resolve technical support issues. We may also use this information to offer you a personalized Web experience, and to tailor our offerings to you. Remember, you control whether you receive CitizenTax promotional materials. Our cookies are used with your session and are not tied to personally identifiable information. Some of our business partners (e.g., advertisers) may use cookies on our site. We have no access to, or control over these cookies.
More about our relationships with third parties.
At times, we may enter into contracts or agreements with third parties who assist us in servicing you such as filling customer orders, providing customer service or soliciting you with their promotions or advertising. Typically, these relationships will be used to notify you of services and products offered by CitizenTax. The contracts and agreements outline the appropriate use and handling of your information and prohibit third parties from using any of your personal information for purposes unrelated to the product or service for which they’ve been contracted. Vendors are required to maintain the confidentiality of the information we provide to them. We may disclose or report personal information in limited circumstances where we believe in good faith that disclosure is required under the law. For example, we may be required to disclose personal information to cooperate with regulators or law enforcement authorities, to comply with a legal process such as a court order, subpoena, search warrant, a request by law enforcement, the Internal Revenue Service or the US Department of Treasury. We may have business partners that provide services, some of which may be co-branded. When you request any of these products or services, you are permitting us to provide your personal information to the partner to fulfill your request. This Web site may provide links to third-party sites, such online product provider or service. We have contracted with a third party to assist us in communicating with you and selected data such as your name, zip code and email address has been provided to them for this purpose. This third party is contractually obligated not to share, sell or use your information for any other purpose than as directed by CitizenTax. Because CitizenTax does not control the information policies or practices of these third parties, you should review their privacy policies to learn more about how they collect and use personal information. If you select one of these products or services a separate disclosure will appear prior to authorizing your information.
We may use sources outside of CitizenTax to supplement the information you give us. For example, we may validate your address using other sources. We use this data to help us maintain accuracy and provide you with better service.
CitizenTax, owned by Smokey Software, Inc. and any of its subsidiaries or related companies may exchange information about your transactions to fulfill your requests. We may also provide you information about products or services we believe you may be interested. You may receive information about products and services from CitizenTax, the parent of CitizenTax (Smokey Software, Inc.), or any of their subsidiaries or affilates, including CitizenTaxFree and RepublicTax and any other subsidiaries or affiliates which may be created at a future date.
Online Preparation and Electronic Filing of Tax Returns
“Tax return information” is information that you provide to prepare a tax return using our web based software. CitizenTax discloses or uses your tax return information only in accordance with applicable laws. Information obtained may be provided to third parties, in connection with your tax return; or to provide you with the products and services you specifically request or consent to. As a method for detecting fraud in tax return information transmitted via the Internet, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) requires CitizenTax to provide to the IRS, in connection with the electronic filing of tax returns, the Internet Protocol (“IP”) address of the computer from which the return originated. We are also required to request the e-mail address of the person electronically filing the return. Upon request we may, at our option, provide to the IRS, U. S. Treasury Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or any other federal, state or local enforcement agencies information we have concerning you and your return. Providing your phone number to the IRS is optional. As an approved transmitter of electronically filed federal and state income tax returns, we follow stringent security guidelines to protect the security and privacy of your information. Electronically filed tax returns are encrypted during transmission. To provide customer technical support when troubleshooting e-filing related problems, such as acknowledgements or rejected returns, we may ask you to resubmit your tax return to us, or once submitted may transmit your return and the information it contains to the IRS, selected States and other entities such as your local government, if applicable.
Product Registration
During the registration and Basic Information portion of the tax software program, we request certain contact information, including your name, address, phone numbers and e-mail address. We may use your contact information to tell you about other products we think might interest you.
Password Recovery
We require you to use your email address as your username. If you incorrectly enter your email address at registration, correspondence concerning your return and intended for you, may be sent to the registered email address. Information we send by email may include your password. Therefore, your password may be viewed by a person(s) using the incorrectly entered email address/username. If you incorrectly registered, you have the option of deleting your return prior to submission or continuing with your return as is, and submitting to both the federal and state authority. However, once submitted and accepted, your return cannot be deleted. Further, as a security precaution, your registration and / or password cannot be changed. If you incorrectly entered your email / password at registration you may need to reregister and begin your return again.
Changes to your Information
Because of the nature of e-filing, once you transmit your return to the IRS, a State, our bank or our credit card processor, you will be unable to change or update your information. However, if your return is rejected, in most cases, you will be able to make changes / corrections and resubmit. If your return is accepted by the IRS or State authority and changes to your return are needed, an amended return will be required. In most cases, a paper filing is required to amend a return.
Payment of Federal Balance Due via Credit Card or Direct Debit
If you select the credit card or direct debit payment option, including credit card payment through electronic filing, you are giving your consent for Smokey Software, Inc., CitizenTax, CitizenTaxFree, RepublicTax or any other related entity to gather this information from your tax return and transmit it to our credit and debit card payment processor.
Electronic Archiving of Tax Returns
Smokey Software, Inc., CitizenTax, CitizenTaxFree and RepublicTax will store your tax returns electronically and will be available through the current year e-file tax season. Smokey Software, CitizenTax, CitizenTaxFree, RepublicTax and other related entities use tax return information only in accordance with applicable laws in order to provide the tax transmission, electronic filing or other services you have requested. “Tax return information” is information that you use to prepare a tax return. Once your return is Accepted by the IRS and we have received payment for our services, if applicable, a copy of your return will be provided. Additionally copies may be accessed and printed at a later time as available on our website(s). We reserve the right to charge you a fee to access your printed copy after the free copy was offered.
Tax Calculators
Information entered into the Tax Calculators (e.g., Tax Estimator, W-4 Calculator) is used solely to provide you with estimates of various tax situations. The Tax Calculators do not link the information entered with personally identifiable information. Unless otherwise noted in the calculator description or instructions, once you close the tool, none of the information used in these calculations is saved.
Effective Date
This privacy policy is effective December 10, 2008 upon completion of our privacy policy review by TRUSTe.
