ACAwise Privacy Statement

We at ACAwise.com (“ACAwise”) respect your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal information. This privacy policy explains what information ACAwise collects, how we use and disclose that information, and how users can exercise their rights concerning their information. This privacy policy applies to all our websites, web applications, mobile apps, services, and applications that link to it ("Services").

Changes to Privacy Policy

We may change this privacy policy from time to time. If we make changes, we will notify you by revising the date at the top of the policy and, in some cases, send you an email notification on the changes. We encourage you to review the privacy policy whenever you access the services or otherwise interact with us to stay informed about our information practices.

Information Collected

We do not sell or rent your personal information to anyone for promotional or marketing purposes. However we may collect personal information about you and form details from the following categories and sources to complete your IRS return(s):

  • Information provided when you create an account or request services or information from us, such as name, address, email address, phone number, and payment information. We request your phone number to communicate the status of your return filed with the IRS through a
    text message.
  • Information provided by you, such as employee census, enrollment, and payroll data along with the ACA codes.
  • Information provided through user feedback, community discussions, chats, and other interactions, such as surveys, through our sites.
  • Information provided when administering technical or customer support for you to prepare your tax return or for
    other services.
  • Information provided by your system as you interact with our site(s), such as your IP address and browser information.
  • Information provided by you when you upload a form or other file, from your desktop or mobile device, we collect and store those files and/or data securely.
  • If you decide to pay for our services, we may request additional information, including payment information. If you pay using a credit card, though we will collect financial information such as credit card number and expiration date, we do not store the credit card information at our end. Instead, we use the services provided by the authorized payment gateway to authenticate your identity and approve the payment.

We may also collect:

  • Information from your use of our referral service to tell a friend about our site, we will ask you for your friend's name and email address.
  • Information from publicly available sources or third parties, such as when we partner with other companies or use service providers to help us optimize our marketing activities.

Certain personal information is required to subscribe and effectively use our services. If you ask us to delete such information or do not consent to our collection and use of this information, this may result in termination of your user account and/or your ability to use the services.

If you are a resident of California and you are seeking to exercise rights under the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA), please see the section below titled “Your California
Privacy Rights.”

Information Collected Automatically

ACAwise collects information about your browser or device as it interacts with the services. This information includes your IP address and device identification information. We log information about your use of the services, including the type of browser you use, access times, pages viewed, your IP address, and the page you visited before navigating to our services. We also collect information about the computer or mobile device you use to access our services, including the hardware model, operating system version, and mobile network information. We may combine this automatically-collected information with other information we collect about you. We do this to improve the services we offer you and to improve marketing, analytics, and site functionality. If we send you a communication, such as an electronic mail, we may collect available information regarding your receipt and review of
such communication.

We and our service providers use cookies or similar technologies to collect information about the use of our services, analyze trends, administer the website, track users’ movements around the website, and gather demographic information about our user base. Cookies are small data files stored on your hard drive or in device memory that help us improve our services and your experience, enhance security, see which areas and features of our services are popular and count visits. Web beacons are electronic images that may be used in our Services or emails and help deliver cookies, count visits, and understand usage of our Services. You may elect to have your browser not accept cookies; however, this may disable or render unusable some of the features of the Services.

For marketing-related activities, ACAwise may monitor and collect information posted on our accounts or linked to us on third party operated social networks or other web offerings (such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or Google).

We use analytics software to allow us to understand the functionality of our services better. This software may record information such as how often you use the application, the events that occur within the application, aggregated usage, performance data, and where the application was downloaded from. We do not link the information we store within the analytics software to any personally identifiable information you submit within the application. You may turn off location services at any time by going to your device settings and toggling off background location.

Information Use

ACAwise uses your information primarily to provide you with a personalized Internet or mobile application e-filing experience that delivers the resources, services, and information most relevant and helpful to our users. We do not share any customer information provided with others unless explicitly stated in this Privacy Policy or when required by law.

As part of the tax filing process, the IRS and applicable State Tax agencies require ACAwise to request the email address of the person electronically filing a tax return. If an email address is collected, it is provided by ACAwise to only the appropriate IRS/State Tax agencies. As a method for detecting fraud in connection with e-filing, the IRS also requires ACAwise to provide the Internet Protocol information (IP address) of the computer from which the
return originated.

We also use the information we collect to monitor and investigate fraud, identity theft, and other illegal activity and to personalize and improve
the Services.

ACAwise values the privacy and security of consumer information and unless we have explicit consumer consent, and allowed by Section 301-7216 of the Internal Revenue Service’s code, we
do not:

  • Sell or rent consumer personal information;
  • Use consumer personal information to market non-tax preparation products or services to consumers; or
  • Share consumer personal information with outside third parties to be used for their marketing purposes.

Disclosure and Sharing of Information

We disclose Tax Return Information in accordance with your requests. For example, when you direct us to file a tax return with the IRS or to a state taxing authority or you provide your express consent to disclose information to a third party offering its own product or service.

In certain situations, ACAwise may be required to disclose personal data in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. We also may share information about you as follows:

  • With vendors, consultants and other service providers who are required to use and disclose such information only to perform services on
    our behalf;
  • To taxing authorities, law enforcement, government agencies, and others if we believe disclosure is in accordance with any applicable law, regulation or legal process, or as otherwise required by any applicable law, rule or regulation;
  • If we believe your actions are inconsistent with the spirit or language of our user agreements or policies, or to protect the rights, property, and safety of ACAwise or
    others; and/or
  • In connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another company.

We may also share aggregated or de-identified information, which cannot reasonably be used to identify you. Examples may include but are not limited to: the total number of users served by an ACAwise product/service, general age group ratios, summary reports of tax preparation practices across large groups of customers, and other statistical data relating to tax preparation and electronic
filing service.

Links to Other Websites

Our Services may contain links to third party websites. Each of these links is clearly identified and will direct you from ACAwise's website to a third-party site. We do not direct or oversee the policies, procedures, or other practices for companies other than ACAwise. We do not endorse the products and services that are offered by third party companies. Some of these third-party sites may collect information about you or request sensitive, personal information from you. If accessing a third-party site via a link, you will be subject to the policies and procedures that have been established by the third party. We encourage you to review their privacy policies to learn more about what information is collected, how it is used, and how it is stored.

Our Services include social media features, such as the Facebook like button and widgets such as the share this button or interactive mini-programs that run on our site. These features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly through our Services. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.

Communications and Opt-Out Options

We may periodically send you communications or otherwise contact you about new products, services, or upcoming events. You may choose to be removed from our email mailing list by following the instructions in those emails or by contacting ACAwise using one of the methods listed at the top of this page (email, phone, or mail) to request that you be removed from our marketing list. Note, however, that even if you opt-out of receiving marketing communications, we will still contact you for non-marketing purposes (such as account information, feedback or research purposes, legal notices, account security, bug alerts, and/or changes that may impact your ability to use ACAwise products and services).

Upon request (see “For Further Information” section), ACAwise will provide you with information about whether we hold any of your personal information. You can access, correct or deactivate your account information by visiting www.acawise.com and selecting "Sign In" or by contacting us at the email address provided above. In certain jurisdictions, you have the right to request access and receive information about the Personal Information we maintain about you, even if you are not a registered user, to update and correct inaccuracies in your Personal Information, or to have the information deleted. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe.

If you delete or deactivate your account, you may no longer be able to access any of the information associated with that account including the information you provided through associated applications or other Services. If you choose an available option to deactivate your account, rather than deleting your account, we retain your account information in our archives even though it is no longer accessible online. We keep all printed or e-filed returns and related information as necessary to comply with our legal and contractual obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

Security Measures

We work to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, or unauthorized access, alteration, and destruction by using industry-standard safeguards, procedures, and practices. These safeguards include physical, logical, and technical protections for physical security; information security; and additional measures to restrict access to data we hold in physical and electronic forms. For example, we restrict access to personal information to those on a need to know basis, and we encrypt credit card information when it is transmitted to us. Your access to the Services is password-protected with complex password requirements, security questions, and authentication by email or mobile phone. You should use a unique password and should not share your password with anyone.

Interest-Based Ads

We partner with third parties to either display advertising on our website or to manage our advertising on other sites. Our third-party partners may use technologies such as cookies to gather information about your activities on this website and other sites to provide you advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests. Data gathered from one site may be combined with data from other websites, mobile applications, and sources.

Your California Privacy Rights

If you are a California resident, California law may provide you 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 Residents at https://www.acawise.com/ccpa-privacy-policy.

For Further Information

For questions about our privacy policy or practices, you may contact us at:

2685 Celanese Road, Suite 100,
Rock Hill, SC 29732.
Phone: 704-684-4751.