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Privacy notice.
What we collect when you contact us or become a client, why we hold it, who sees it, and how to ask us to change or delete it.
What this covers
This notice applies to this website and to the enquiry and client relationships that start here. Because we work across the United States and Canada, information you give us may be handled in either country, and in some cases in both.
We do not sell your information. We name the entity behind this site as Clarity Cross Border LLC.
What we collect
Three separate categories, held for different reasons and for different lengths of time.
When you browse
- Standard server log data, including IP address, browser type and the pages you viewed
- Basic analytics about how the site is used, so we can tell which pages are useful
- No advertising trackers and no cross-site profiling
When you enquire
- Your name and email address, and a phone number if you give one
- Whatever you choose to tell us about your situation in the message field
- The country or countries involved, so we can route your enquiry to the right person
When you become a client
- Tax identification numbers, including SSN, ITIN or SIN
- Income, asset, account and residency information needed to prepare a return
- Identity documents where a filing or an anti-money-laundering check requires them
- Correspondence with you and with the IRS or the CRA on your behalf
Our lawful basis
Enquiry details are held because you asked us to respond to you, and because we need to check we can act for you without a conflict. Client information is held to perform the engagement you have signed, and because tax and professional rules require us to keep records of work we have filed.
Some of what we hold, we hold because the law says we must rather than because we want to. Retention periods for filed returns and supporting records are set by tax authorities and professional bodies, not by us, and they generally run for several years after the year concerned.
Who sees it
A short list, and it does not include anyone buying data.
- Our own team. Access is limited to the people working on your matter and those supervising it
- Tax authorities. The IRS, the CRA and state or provincial authorities, where a filing or a lawful request requires it
- Service providers. Software and hosting suppliers who process information on our instructions and are bound to keep it confidential
- Nobody else without your instruction, unless we are legally compelled and permitted to tell you
Where your information goes
Cross-border work means cross-border information. If you are resident in Canada and we prepare a US return for you, details of your Canadian income and accounts will be handled by people and systems in the United States, and the reverse applies for US clients filing in Canada.
That transfer is a necessary part of the service you are asking for. Where a transfer needs a safeguard beyond that, we put appropriate contractual protections in place with the supplier concerned.
Your choices
Depending on where you live, some of these are rights you can enforce and others are simply things we will do if you ask.
- See what we hold. Ask for a copy of your information and we will provide it
- Correct it. Tell us what is wrong and we will fix it
- Ask us to delete it. We will, except where a tax or professional retention rule requires us to keep it, and we will tell you which parts we cannot remove and why
- Withdraw from marketing. We send very little, and you can stop all of it in one reply
- Complain. To us first, and then to the privacy regulator where you live if we have not put it right
Cookies, analytics and call tracking
What runs on this site, what each thing does, and how to stop it.
Cookies
- Cookies needed to make the site work and remember your preferences
- Analytics cookies that tell us which pages are read and where visitors arrive from
- Cookies set by Google, which may be used for advertising measurement
- You can refuse or delete cookies in your browser settings at any time
Call tracking
- We use CallRail, a call tracking service
- It may display a different phone number depending on how you reached the site, so we can tell which pages generate enquiries
- It records the number you call from, the time and length of the call, and the page you called from
- Calls may be recorded or transcribed for quality and record keeping. You will be told at the start of the call, and you can ask us not to record
Log files
- Our host records IP address, browser, referring page and timestamp, as all hosts do
- Used to keep the site secure and to understand traffic patterns
- Not used to build a profile of you
Rights that depend on where you live
California. Under the CCPA you may ask what categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected, ask us to delete it, and direct us not to sell it. We do not sell personal information. We respond within the statutory period.
Canada. Under PIPEDA and equivalent provincial laws you may ask for access to your personal information, challenge its accuracy, and complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada if you are not satisfied with our response.
The UK and EU. Where the GDPR applies you have rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection and portability, and a right to complain to your supervisory authority.
Tax retention rules can override a deletion request. Where that happens we will tell you which records we must keep, and for how long.
Security, children and contact
Tax documents are sensitive, so we ask you not to email them. We use an encrypted portal for document exchange, and access to client files inside the firm is restricted to the people who need it.
This site and our services are not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has given us information, contact us and we will remove it.
To ask about anything in this notice, or to exercise any of the choices above, email [email protected] and put Privacy in the subject line. We will acknowledge within a few working days.
If we change this notice in a way that affects how we handle your information, we will say so here before the change takes effect.
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