Privacy Policy
At Foothill Tax Services (FTS), we highly value your trust and confidence in us and want to assure you that your personal information is kept completely confidential by us. FTS adheres to the highest level of professional ethical responsibility and obligations to protect the confidentiality of your information. FTS restricts access to nonpublic personal information to what is necessary to prepare tax returns, provide tax advisory and/or general business consulting services. FTS maintains electronic, physical and procedural safeguards to guard clients’ nonpublic personal information.
TYPES OF INFORMATION WE COLLECT
We collect nonpublic personal information about you that is provided by you to prepare your tax returns, provide tax advisory and/or general business consulting services. Examples of sources from which we collect information:
Electronic Documentation, Physical Copies and Client Interviews
To prepare your tax returns, provide tax advisory and/or general business consulting services, we receive information from you. This information is collected from you electronically through our client portal, physical copies of written documentation, by mail, by telephone and in personal or virtual interviews and consultations conducted by FTS.
Transaction Information
The information about your transactions with us includes information necessary for billing and payment for our tax preparation, advisory and/or general business consulting services, as well as all correspondence between you and FTS. Transaction information would also include your payment history with us, billing records, and any collection effort engaged in by us for payment of services rendered to you. Credit card details for prior payments are not stored on our website or TaxDome (our client portal vendor).
PRIVACY POLICY
The Federal Trade Commission has issued regulations that require tax preparation firms to provide an annual statement of firm privacy policies. Here is our policy:
We handle all information you provide to us with the utmost confidentiality. Your personal information will only be shared with members of FTS who need to know this information in order to complete the work you have hired us to do. We will not disclose your personal information to anyone outside FTS without your express written permission to do so, or unless we are legally required to do so.
We also maintain electronic, physical and procedural safeguards in compliance with applicable laws and regulations to guard your nonpublic information. Please see our Security Policies and Procedures for a more detailed explanation of our safeguards.
NOTICE REGARDING ADVISOR-CLIENT PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATIONS
As tax preparers, we are prohibited by Internal Revenue Code Section 7216 from disclosing your income tax return information without your consent, other than for the specific purpose of preparing, or obtaining and providing services in connection with the preparation of an income tax return for you.
You should also be aware that anything you tell us during the interview for the preparation of your tax return is confidential, but not protected from the IRS. Privileged communications (those that are protected from IRS authority to compel our testimony) are limited to non-criminal tax advice on matters before the IRS or non-criminal tax proceedings in federal courts. Although we consider any information you provide us as confidential, return preparation engagements are not covered by advisor-client privilege.
If you feel the nature of any subject matter to be discussed requires protected communications, please raise that issue so that we can discuss your possible need to consult with an attorney for legal advice.
FTS WEBSITE
FTS does not use your IP address for any purpose and we do not track your IP address as matched to any personal information.
The FTS site does store “Cookies” on your computer to manage your use of our website.
CHOICE/OPT-OUT
We give users the opportunity to opt-out of receiving communications from FTS at any time. The following options are available for removing your information from our database, so as not to receive future communications or to no longer use our services.
- You can send an email to info@foothilltaxservices.com
- You can call us at (336) 650-6586
NOTIFICATION OF CHANGES
This policy may be revised over time as new features are added to our website. We will post those changes prominently so that you will always know what information we gather, how we might use that information, and whether we will disclose it to anyone. Please check our website for information about revisions to our privacy policy.
LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES
The FTS website contains links to other websites. This privacy statement is for the sole use and purpose of the FTS website. Please be aware that FTS is not responsible for the privacy practices of other websites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on each and every website that collects your personally identifiable information.
CONTACTING US
If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, Security Policy and Procedures or information on our website, please contact us at info@foothilltaxservices.com or (336)650-6586.