At JTH Tax, Inc. d/b/a Liberty Tax Service (referred to as Liberty Tax Service, "us" or "we" in this Privacy Policy), we are dedicated to serving your needs. We know you care about your personal privacy. Because we care about you, we have adopted the practices described in this Privacy Policy.
eSmart Tax is Covered
This Privacy Policy applies to use of the eSmart Tax Online income tax preparation service. It does not apply to other portions of our website or to services offered through our office locations.
The Information We Collect
eSmart Tax collects your tax-related information such as your name, address, income, birth date, social security number, employment and other information necessary to prepare and electronically file your tax return. You also provide to us your Username, Password, Password Prompt Question, e-mail address and telephone number as part of the registration process to use this service. We also collect the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the computer from which the return originated (see discussion under “URL and IP Address” below). If you pay by credit card, we collect your credit card type, number, and expiration date. If you pay by e-check or request direct deposit of your tax refund, we collect the bank name, and bank account and routing number.
The Way We Use Information
The tax return information that we collect is used to prepare and, if requested, electronically file your tax return. The tax return information is used only as authorized by you or as allowed by law.
The IRS requires us to provide to them the IP address of the computer from which the return originated, as well as the e-mail address of the person who electronically filed the return.
Your credit card information or bank account information will be shared with credit card processing companies to bill you for services purchased.
If you apply for a bank product such as a refund anticipation loan, your information will be shared with the lending bank upon your express authorization and the bank’s use of that information will be covered by the bank’s privacy policy.
The information you give us also allows us to statistically analyze Site usage, improve our content and product offerings, and customize our Site's content, layout and services.
We will send you service-related announcements on rare occasions when it is necessary to do so. For instance, we might send you an e-mail to announce the start of the IRS filing season and our service each year, the filing status and result for your tax return, actions required to complete your e-file, or if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance.
Generally, you may not opt-out of these communications because our tax e-file services include e-file, processing, submission, result analysis and possibly resubmission required for the tax return. Without these communications, you may not find out if your tax return has been accepted by the IRS or not, resulting in refund delay or other difficulties.
We will send you tax related information in a newsletter to your email address if you have authorized it.
Choice/Opt-Out
If you do not wish to receive tax information, including the newsletter, you may opt-out of receiving it by following the instructions included in each email or on the Update Profile page by visiting the following URL: https://onlinetax.esmarttax.com/gateway.asp.
Restrictions on Disclosing Information To Third Parties.
We are not in the business of selling or renting your personally identifiable information to others. We do not reveal personally identifiable information about you to third parties (outside of any affiliate or subsidiary we may have) for their independent use unless: (1) you request or authorize it; (2) the information is provided to complete a transaction for you; (3) the information is provided to comply with the law or in response to a subpoena or other legal process; or (4) the disclosure is done as part of a purchase, sale or transfer of services or assets (for example, if substantially all of your assets are acquired by another party, your information may be one of the transferred assets).
URL and IP Address
Like many other websites, we collect information about our users' utilization and navigation of our Site through the use of log files. This information helps us to design our Site to better suit our users' needs. We also use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server and to administer our Site, gather broad demographic information and to help identify you. Our log files are tied to your personally identifiable information in order to facilitate the resolution of Site and user-specific problems.
Cookies
Cookies are pieces of information that a website transfers to a user's hard drive for record-keeping purposes. Like many websites, we use cookies at our Site. Cookies can make using the Internet easier by, among other things, saving your passwords and preferences for you. For example, a cookie lets the Site remember that you have registered, which allows us to speed up your future activities at our Site, and which allows you to enter your password/login ID less frequently when visiting our Site. Cookies allow us to track the user's activities and to determine the customer's preference. You may choose to decline the cookie, however by doing so, you may have limited access to some parts of the website. There are products commercially available that are designed to help you disable cookies. Although we want you to be aware that such products exist, please note that if you choose to use them, we may not be able to provide you with personalized service, your use of the Site may be slowed, and it may result in certain features and services not being available to you. We do not link the information we store in cookies to any personally identifiable information you submit while on our site.
Security Measures to Protect Information
To help protect the privacy of the data you transmit through use of this Site, eSmart Tax and Liberty Tax Service use security policies and procedures that include administrative, technical and physical safeguards designed to (a) ensure the security and confidentiality of non-public customer information, (b) protect against anticipated threats or hazards to the security of such non-public customer information, and (c) protect against unauthorized access or use of such non-public customer information. All transmissions of your tax return and credit card information between your computer and our website are SSL encrypted. We update and test our security technology on an ongoing basis. In addition, we train our employees about the importance of confidentiality and maintaining the security of your information. We commit to taking appropriate disciplinary measures to enforce our employees’ privacy responsibilities. It is also important for you to help protect against unauthorized access by signing off of our Site each time you finish using it. We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with applicable law and federal standards.
Your Access To Your Personal Information
With eSmart you always have access to certain areas of your personal information in our database. You may view and, in certain cases, update your Personally Identifiable Information in our database by visiting the following URL: https://onlinetax.esmarttax.com/gateway.asp.
If you believe that any of your information is incorrect, notify us immediately at privacy@libtax.com and we will promptly correct any information that i’s not accurate.
Inapplicability of Privacy Policies of Any Linked Sites or Other Third Parties.
This Privacy Policy only addresses eSmart Tax and Liberty Tax Service's use and disclosure of your personally identifiable information. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of any third parties or the content of linked sites, although we encourage you to read any applicable privacy policies of such parties or websites.
Conditions of Use, Notices and Changes to Our Privacy Policy
By using this Site you agree to the terms and conditions in this Privacy Policy and the Liberty Tax Service User Agreement also provided on this site. It is our goal to make our policies easy to understand. While we try to maintain consistent policies between our Privacy Policy and our User Agreement, there may be a case where the two policies conflict. In those rare instances, the User Agreement shall be the controlling document.
As our business changes from time to time, this Privacy Policy and the User Agreement are expected to change. We reserve the right to amend the Privacy Policy and User Agreement at any time, for any reason. Should we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you of these changes by prominent notice on our home page and via this privacy policy. The provisions contained herein supersede all previous notices or statements regarding our privacy practices.
Questions Regarding This Privacy Policy
We are a licensee of the TRUSTe privacy program. TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to enable individuals and organizations to establish trusting relationships based on respect for personal identity and information by promoting the use of fair information practices. Because we want to demonstrate our commitment to your privacy, we have agreed to disclose our information practices and have our privacy practices reviewed for compliance by TRUSTe. Should you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please email us at privacy@libtax.com. Our physical address is 1716 Corporate Landing Parkway, Virginia Beach, Virginia 23454. If you do not receive acknowledgment of your inquiry or our response is not satisfactory, you should then contact TRUSTe through the TRUSTe Watchdog Dispute Resolution Process (http://www.truste.org/consumers/watchdog_complaint.php). TRUSTe will serve as a liaison with us to resolve your concerns.
Keeping Your Data Protected