Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Form5472 Prep is the data controller for personal information you submit through the Service. We are based in the United States and process data on servers located in the United States and the European Union.

2. What we collect and why

We collect the information needed to prepare, review, submit, and support your IRS filing:

• Full name, email, and phone: used to create your account, contact you about your order, and confirm who is using the Service.
• Company details: company name, address, state and date of formation, county, and number of owners are used to prepare Form 5472 and pro forma Form 1120.
• Owner details: owner name, date of birth, home address, citizenship, and country of residence are used where the IRS forms ask for owner identity data.
• Passport details: passport number and expiry are used when they are needed to support an identity or tax filing workflow.
• U.S. tax number: an EIN, ITIN, SSN, or other U.S. tax number is used where you provide one for the filing.
• Uploaded documents: bank statements, dissolution certificates, extension proof, and chat attachments are used to prepare, evidence, or support your filing and support requests.
• Signature data: the signature image you draw, the name typed beside it, the time, IP address, browser used, and version of the wording agreed are used to show what was signed and when.
• Prepared forms and signed copies: forms we prepare and signed copies are used to submit your package to the IRS and provide your records.
• IRS fax responses: faxes received on our number from the IRS about your application are used to track filing status and provide proof or follow-up.
• Support messages: messages you send us are used to answer questions, resolve account issues, and keep a record of support we provided.
• Payment metadata: handled by Stripe and used to confirm payment, receipts, refunds, and accounting records. We never see or store your card details.

Some of this is sensitive identity information. We collect it only because the IRS forms or related filing workflows require it, and we never sell it.

When you visit the site we record your IP address, an approximate location derived from it (country and city), the pages you view, the referring site and your browser type. IP addresses are deleted after 30 days and page-view records after 90 days. We use this information to keep the site secure and to understand how visitors use it.

3. Bank account connections via Plaid

If you choose to connect your business bank account to import transactions automatically, we use Plaid Inc. as our financial data provider. Plaid handles the authentication directly with your financial institution. We never see, store, or have access to your online banking credentials.

What Plaid sends us: when you authorize a Plaid connection, Plaid returns transaction history for the tax year or years you are filing (date, amount, description, counterparty, and the institution name), along with a non-public account identifier and an access token scoped to your account.

How we use it: solely to categorize transactions as contributions or distributions and pre-fill the reportable transactions section of your IRS Form 5472. Plaid-sourced data is never used for advertising, profiling, sold, or shared with any third party other than as needed to complete your filing.

Your control: you can revoke the Plaid connection at any time from your dashboard or by emailing support@form5472prep.com. Revoking access invalidates our access token and stops any future data access. You may also request deletion of the imported transaction data at any time; we will delete it within 30 days of the request and immediately purge the access token.

Plaid's own privacy practices: Plaid's use of your data is governed by Plaid's End User Privacy Policy.

4. Why we collect it

We collect this information to prepare and transmit your IRS filings, provide you with copies and proof of those filings, review filings before submission, respond to support requests, process payment and refunds, maintain security, and comply with our own legal obligations.

5. How we share it

We share data only with:

• The IRS: the completed, signed filing is transmitted to the IRS Ogden Service Center.
• Service providers acting on our behalf: Vercel (application hosting), our managed PostgreSQL database provider, Cloudflare R2 (file storage), Plaid (bank account connectivity), Google (optional sign-in via Google OAuth and advertising measurement), Meta (optional advertising measurement when you consent), Stripe (payment processing), Telnyx (fax), and Resend (transactional email). Each is allowed to use your data only to provide its service to us.

We do not sell your personal information. We use Google for limited advertising measurement and, only if you allow Meta advertising cookies, share campaign events with Meta. A Meta purchase event may include order value, currency, a deduplication ID, and a one-way hash of your email address. We never send tax IDs, filing answers, addresses, bank data, signatures, or documents to advertising platforms. You can decline optional Meta advertising cookies without affecting the service.

6. Marketing emails

We send reminders about unfinished filings and seasonal deadline reminders. Every marketing email has an unsubscribe link. Opting out of marketing emails does not affect emails about an order, payment, filing, account security, or support request.

After your filing is delivered to the IRS, we may ask Trustpilot to send you one invitation to review our service. For this, Trustpilot receives your name, email address and an order reference. Leaving a review is entirely optional.

7. Where we store it

Personal data is stored on encrypted servers operated by our infrastructure providers (Vercel-hosted application, managed PostgreSQL database, Cloudflare R2 for file storage). All data at rest is encrypted. All connections to our service and between our service and its sub-processors are encrypted in transit.

Data may be processed in the United States and the European Union. Transfers out of the EEA and the UK rely on the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.

8. How long we keep it

We retain records according to the data type and purpose. See our Data Retention Policy for the full schedule, including signature records, IRS fax responses, support attachments, and uploaded documents.

You can request earlier deletion of any retained data at any time. Some account-level records (email address, payment history) are retained for the period required by applicable tax and accounting law, typically up to seven years.

9. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, export, or delete your personal information; to object to or restrict processing; and to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. To exercise any of these rights, contact us at support@form5472prep.com. We respond within 30 days.

EU/UK residents (GDPR)

Our legal basis for processing your data is the performance of our contract with you (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR) and, for retention periods beyond contract performance, compliance with legal obligations (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR).

California residents (CCPA)

We do not sell personal information as defined by the CCPA, and we have not done so in the preceding 12 months.

10. Security

We use administrative, technical, and physical safeguards. No method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure, and we work to protect your data.

If we confirm a breach affecting personal data, affected customers will be notified by email within 72 hours.

11. Children

The Service is not directed to children under 16. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 16.

12. Changes

We may update this policy. Material changes will be communicated by email and via a notice on this page. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page always reflects the current version.

13. Contact

Privacy questions or requests: support@form5472prep.com.