Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

Marriage Tax Shield is a service of BigApple Accounting Tax & Advisory ("Marriage Tax Shield," "we," "us," or "our"), a certified public accounting practice located at 225 West 28th Street, New York, NY 10001. We provide CPA-led tax planning engagements for individuals and households navigating marriage, prenuptial agreements, separation, and divorce.

This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect through marriagetaxshield.com and its related pages, forms, scheduling tools, and communications (together, the "Site"), how we use that information, when we share it, and what choices you have.

2. Scope of This Policy

This policy applies to information we collect through the Site and through inquiries, applications, questionnaires, training registrations, and correspondence connected to it.

Once you become a client under a signed engagement letter, the information you provide in the course of that engagement is also governed by our engagement letter, by applicable professional standards for certified public accountants, and by federal law governing tax return information. Where those obligations are stricter than this policy, those obligations control.

3. Information We Collect

3.1 Information you give us

• Identity and contact details — name, email address, telephone number, and mailing address.
• Inquiry and application information — the responses you submit in our confidential questionnaire, intake forms, or application, which may include your filing status, marital situation, approximate household income, business or K-1 interests, rental property, retirement accounts, and the nature of the matter you want reviewed.
• Scheduling information — the times you select, your time zone, and any notes you add when booking a call.
• Correspondence — the content of emails, text messages, voicemails, and form submissions you send us, and our replies.
• Training registration details — the information you provide to access the private training, including what you watch and for how long.

You are not required to give us any of this information, but we cannot evaluate an inquiry or provide the training without it.

3.2 Information collected automatically

• Device and connection data — IP address, browser type and version, operating system, device type, and screen size.
• Usage data — pages viewed, time on page, scroll depth, links and buttons clicked, referring URL, and exit pages.
• Campaign data — the advertisement, search term, email, or link that brought you to the Site, including UTM parameters and click identifiers.
• Approximate location — the general city, region, and country derived from your IP address. We do not collect precise GPS location.

3.3 Information from third parties

We may receive information about you from our form, scheduling, and customer-relationship providers, from advertising and analytics platforms, from payment processors (which confirm a transaction to us without giving us your full card number), and from publicly available sources where relevant to an engagement.

3.4 Sensitive information

Do not send Social Security numbers, tax returns, bank or brokerage statements, account numbers, or copies of identification documents through the Site's web forms or by ordinary email. If an engagement requires those documents, we will send you a secure upload link or portal.

4. How We Use Information

We use personal information to:

• respond to inquiries, answer questions, and evaluate whether an engagement is a fit;
• deliver the private training and other requested materials;
• schedule, prepare for, and conduct consultations;
• prepare fixed-fee proposals and engagement letters;
• perform the services described in a signed engagement letter;
• send service messages such as confirmations, reminders, and changes to this policy;
• send marketing emails or text messages where you have asked to receive them or where permitted by law, subject to the choices described in Section 5;
• measure and improve the Site, our content, and our advertising;
• detect, investigate, and prevent fraud, abuse, and security incidents;
• maintain our books and records and comply with legal, tax, professional, and regulatory obligations; and
• establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

We do not use the information you submit through the Site to make automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you.

5. Email and Text Messaging

Email. When you submit a form or register for the training, you may receive follow-up emails about your inquiry and about our services. Every marketing email includes an unsubscribe link. Unsubscribing stops marketing messages; it does not stop transactional messages about an active engagement.

Text messages. If you provide a mobile number and consent to text messages, we may send appointment confirmations, reminders, and occasional follow-ups about your inquiry. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to any message to opt out, or HELP for assistance. Consent to receive text messages is not a condition of purchasing any service.

Calls. If you give us a telephone number, you agree that we may call you about your inquiry at that number, including a mobile number, using the means permitted by applicable law. You may ask us to stop calling at any time.

6. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

The Site uses cookies, pixels, tags, and similar technologies. We group them as follows:

• Strictly necessary — required for the Site to load, for forms to submit, and for security. These cannot be switched off through our Site.
• Analytics — help us understand which pages are read, where visitors come from, and where they drop off.
• Advertising — used by advertising platforms to measure the performance of our campaigns and to show our content to people who have visited the Site.
• Functional — remember choices such as your time zone or a form you have already completed.

You can block or delete cookies through your browser settings. Blocking strictly necessary cookies may prevent parts of the Site from working. Most browsers also offer a "Do Not Track" setting; because there is no common industry standard for responding to it, the Site does not currently respond to Do Not Track signals. We do honor recognized opt-out preference signals, such as Global Privacy Control, where required by law.

7. How We Share Information

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising in exchange for money. We disclose personal information only as follows:

• Service providers. Companies that host the Site, run our forms and scheduling, deliver email and text messages, host the training video, process payments, provide file storage, and supply analytics. They may use the information only to provide services to us.
• Professional advisors. Our own attorneys, accountants, insurers, and auditors, under duties of confidentiality.
• At your direction. Your attorney, financial advisor, spouse's counsel, or another party, when you ask us in writing to share information with them.
• Legal compliance. Where required by law, subpoena, court order, or a regulatory or professional body, or where necessary to protect our rights, safety, or property, or those of others.
• Business transfers. In connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of all or part of the practice, subject to confidentiality protections and to the notice requirements of professional standards.

Advertising and analytics platforms may collect information through the Site as described in Section 6. Depending on your state, that activity may be treated as "sharing" or "targeted advertising" under applicable law, and you may opt out as described in Section 12.

8. Confidentiality of Tax Information

Information you provide in connection with the preparation or review of a tax return is subject to Section 7216 of the Internal Revenue Code and the regulations under it, which restrict how a tax return preparer may use or disclose tax return information. We do not use or disclose tax return information for any purpose other than performing the engagement, unless the law permits it or you give us written consent that meets the requirements of those rules.

Communications with a CPA are protected by professional confidentiality standards. They are not protected by attorney-client privilege. Please see our Disclaimer for more on this point.

9. Data Retention

We keep personal information for as long as needed for the purpose it was collected, and then for as long as required by law and professional record-retention standards. In practice:

• inquiries that do not become engagements are generally retained for up to two years;
• engagement records, working papers, and deliverables are generally retained for at least seven years after the engagement ends;
• marketing contact records are retained until you unsubscribe and for a short period afterward to honor your opt-out; and
• website analytics data is retained in aggregated or de-identified form.

When a retention period ends, we delete the information or de-identify it so it can no longer reasonably be linked to you.

10. Security

We use administrative, technical, and physical safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information we hold, including encrypted transmission, access controls limiting staff access to what each role requires, and secure file transfer for client documents. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. If we become aware of a breach affecting your personal information, we will notify you and the appropriate authorities as required by law.

11. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have some or all of the following rights:

• Know and access — to be told what personal information we hold about you and to receive a copy of it.
• Correct — to have inaccurate personal information corrected.
• Delete — to ask us to delete personal information, subject to exceptions for records we must retain under tax, professional, or other law.
• Portability — to receive certain information in a portable format.
• Opt out — of targeted advertising, of the sale or sharing of personal information, and of certain profiling.
• Limit use of sensitive information — where your state provides this right.
• Withdraw consent — where we rely on your consent, without affecting processing already carried out.
• Non-discrimination — we will not deny you services, charge you a different price, or provide a lesser quality of service because you exercised a privacy right.

California residents may exercise the rights above under the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended, and may designate an authorized agent to act for them. In the preceding twelve months we have collected the categories of information described in Section 3, for the purposes described in Section 4, and disclosed them to the categories of recipients described in Section 7. We have not sold personal information for monetary consideration.

Residents of other states with comprehensive privacy laws — including Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Montana, and others as those laws take effect — may exercise the corresponding rights their law provides, including the right to appeal a decision we make about a request.

Residents of the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom may exercise rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, and objection. Where we process your information we rely on one or more of the following legal bases: performance of a contract with you, our legitimate interests in operating and marketing a professional practice, compliance with a legal obligation, and your consent. You may lodge a complaint with your national supervisory authority.

12. Exercising Your Rights

To make a request, email [email protected] with the subject line "Privacy Request," or write to us at the address in Section 17. Tell us which right you want to exercise and give us enough information to locate your records.

We will verify your identity before acting, typically by confirming details that match what we already hold. We respond within the time your law allows — generally 45 days, with an extension where permitted, and we will tell you if we need more time. There is no charge unless a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.

To opt out of advertising cookies, you may also use your browser's cookie controls, a recognized opt-out preference signal such as Global Privacy Control, or the opt-out tools offered by the advertising platforms themselves.

13. Children's Privacy

The Site is intended for adults and is not directed to children under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

An engagement may involve information about your minor children — for example, dependency claims, the child tax credit, or Form 8332 mechanics. That information is provided by you as a parent or guardian and is treated with the same confidentiality as the rest of your engagement file.

14. Third-Party Links and Embedded Content

The Site links to and embeds content from third parties, including video hosting, scheduling, and form providers. Those parties operate under their own privacy policies, which we do not control. We encourage you to read them before submitting information.

15. International Visitors

We operate in the United States, and our service providers process information in the United States. If you access the Site from outside the United States, you understand that your information will be transferred to, stored in, and processed in the United States, where data protection law may differ from the law of your country. Where required, we use appropriate safeguards such as standard contractual clauses for those transfers.

16. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in our practices or in the law. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. If the changes are material, we will provide a more prominent notice, such as an email or a banner on the Site. Your continued use of the Site after an update takes effect means you accept the revised policy.

17. Contact Us

Questions, requests, or complaints about this Privacy Policy can be directed to:

See also our Terms of Use and Disclaimer.