Privacy

Your tax data stays local during normal preparation.

TakoTax is designed so the sensitive parts of preparation happen in your browser. The plain-English version is simple: your return data is local; standard web infrastructure still creates limited operational records.

What stays on your device

During normal preparation, TakoTax does not send these materials to TakoTax servers:

  • Uploaded tax documents
  • Extracted and manually entered values
  • In-progress return projects
  • Generated tax forms

What TakoTax may receive

Loading and operating a website creates limited operational data such as IP address, request timestamps, browser user-agent, requested resources, and performance signals. If diagnostic error reporting is enabled, reports should be scrubbed before transmission. TakoTax does not sell tax data or use ad pixels in the preparation flow.

The marketing site (www.tako.tax) uses Cloudflare Web Analytics — a cookieless page-view counter. It tells us which pages people visit and how the site is performing, and never runs on the application origin where you prepare your return. The preparation app (app.tako.tax) loads no analytics scripts at all.

Local storage responsibility

Your project is saved in browser storage. Clearing site data, using private browsing, switching browsers, or changing devices can make the local project unavailable. Project file export and import are not available yet, so there is no backup or recovery path — finish a return in a single session if you cannot afford to lose it.

E-file, when enabled

Built-in e-file is not active yet. If it is enabled later, and only when you authorize a transmission, TakoTax will package the return into the IRS Modernized e-File format and send it to the IRS (and to a state agency where supported). The transmission necessarily includes the identity and return information the IRS requires for filing — names, SSNs/ITINs, address, dependents, wages, and the computed return.

TakoTax will also keep records the IRS requires for online providers — the signed authorization, the transmitted return, and the acknowledgement — for the period IRS rules require. TakoTax does not sell tax return information, does not share it with advertising platforms, and will not use or disclose it beyond preparation, filing, support, and required reporting without a separate written consent under Internal Revenue Code §7216. Declining a §7216 consent does not block you from filing your return through TakoTax.

The formal handling rules are in the legal privacy notice. The plain-English summary of the e-file workflow itself is on the E-file Disclosures page.

Future account features

Accounts, if added later, would require account data. The privacy notice will be updated before that feature launches.

Formal notice and contact

For the formal legal privacy notice, see Legal → Privacy Notice. Privacy questions can be sent to [email protected].