Privacy Policy

1. Scope of This Policy

This policy covers information collected through nextleveltaxco.com, through our scheduling and contact tools, and in the course of providing bookkeeping, payroll oversight, tax preparation, and tax planning services. If you become a client, your engagement letter also governs how we handle your information. Where the engagement letter and this policy differ, the engagement letter controls.

2. Information We Collect

Information You Give Us Before You Become a Client

When you use our contact form or booking questionnaire, we collect your name, email address, your state, whether you are a business owner, nonprofit, or individual, your industry, an approximate annual revenue range, how your business is set up, the services you are interested in, and anything you choose to write in your message. We use this information only to respond to you and to recommend the right service. If you sign up for deadline reminders, we collect your email address and use it only to send those emails, which you can unsubscribe from at any time.

Information We Collect as Your CPA Firm

To provide services, we collect information such as your name, address, date of birth, Social Security number or taxpayer identification number, and the same information for a spouse or dependents when a return requires it. We also collect bank and payment platform activity, payroll records, prior-year tax returns, IRS and state correspondence, entity documents, and other financial records you provide or authorize us to access.

Information Collected Automatically

Our website host records standard technical information, such as IP address, browser type, and the pages requested, to deliver and secure the site. We do not use advertising cookies, and we do not sell or rent visitor information. Section 12 describes the third-party tools that load on this site.

3. Clinical and Patient Information

We do not need, and we ask you not to send, the names of your clients or patients, session notes, diagnoses, or any other clinical information. Your books and tax returns can be prepared from deposit amounts, payer names, and business records alone. Please remove or redact clinical details from anything you upload or send us. If clinical information reaches us anyway, we will limit access to it, will not use it, and will delete it or return it to you once we identify it.

4. How We Use Information

We use information to respond to your inquiry and schedule calls; to decide whether we can accept an engagement; to provide the services in your engagement letter; to prepare, file, and support your tax returns; to communicate with you about your account; to meet our legal, regulatory, and professional obligations; and to protect our systems and our clients.

We do not use your tax return information to market unrelated products or services, and we never sell it.

5. Tax Return Information and Federal Law

As tax return preparers, we are subject to Internal Revenue Code §7216 and Treasury Regulations §§301.7216-1 through 301.7216-3. These rules make it a federal crime for a preparer to knowingly or recklessly use or disclose tax return information for any purpose other than preparing a return, except as the regulations allow. Internal Revenue Code §6713 imposes civil penalties for the same conduct.

"Tax return information" includes anything you give us in connection with preparing a return, as well as information we compute or derive from it. Under these rules:

• We use and disclose tax return information only to prepare and file your returns, to provide the related services you engage us for, or as Treas. Reg. §301.7216-2 otherwise permits, such as disclosures required by a court order, subpoena, or federal or state law.
• We will ask for your separate written consent before any other use or disclosure. Any consent we request will meet the requirements of Treas. Reg. §301.7216-3 and, for individual returns in the Form 1040 series, the format and content requirements of Revenue Procedure 2013-14. Each consent will state what will be disclosed and to whom, and will tell you that you are not required to sign it to receive our services.
• We will not disclose your tax return information to a tax return preparer located outside the United States without your prior signed consent, as Treas. Reg. §301.7216-3 requires.
• You may revoke a consent at any time by writing to us. Revocation does not affect disclosures made before we receive it.

If you believe your tax return information has been used or disclosed improperly, you may report it to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1-800-366-4484 or online at tigta.gov.

6. Professional Confidentiality Under Florida Law

As Florida-licensed CPAs, we are bound by Florida Board of Accountancy Rule 61H1-23.001, Florida Administrative Code (Confidential Client Information), which prohibits us from disclosing confidential client information without your consent, except in the limited circumstances the rule allows. The AICPA Code of Professional Conduct imposes the same duty through its Confidential Client Information Rule (ET §1.700.001).

Florida law also gives you an accountant-client privilege. Under Section 473.316, Florida Statutes, you may refuse to disclose, and may prevent others from disclosing, the contents of confidential communications made to us in the course of accounting services. The statute says the privilege does not apply when our services were sought to commit a crime or fraud, when a communication is relevant to a claim that either of us breached a duty to the other, in certain civil disputes between clients who consulted us jointly, or in a disciplinary proceeding before the Florida Board of Accountancy or the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. The records of a peer review of our firm are separately privileged under Section 473.316(6).

If you live outside Florida, the confidentiality rules of your state may also apply to our work for you. Where two rules apply, we follow the more protective one.

7. Financial Privacy Under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act

Firms that prepare tax returns and provide financial services are treated as financial institutions under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, 15 U.S.C. §§6801–6809, and its implementing privacy regulation, Regulation P (12 C.F.R. Part 1016). We collect nonpublic personal information only to serve you, and we do not disclose it to nonaffiliated third parties except as those rules permit, such as to service providers who perform work for us under a contract that restricts their use of the information (15 U.S.C. §6802(b)(2)), to complete transactions you request, or to comply with law (15 U.S.C. §6802(e)).

Because we are licensed CPAs subject to Florida rules that prohibit disclosing client information without consent, federal law exempts us from the Gramm-Leach-Bliley privacy notice requirement (15 U.S.C. §6803(d)). We publish this policy anyway, so you know exactly how we handle your information.

Because we do not share your information beyond these exceptions, there is nothing you need to opt out of. If our practices ever change in a way that would require an opt-out, we will notify you before the change takes effect.

8. Who We Share Information With

We share information only as described in Sections 5 through 7, and only with:

• Service providers that we use to run the firm, including our secure client portal and document storage, tax preparation and electronic filing software, accounting software, payroll software, business email, scheduling, website hosting and forms, electronic signature, and payment processing. Each one receives only what it needs to perform its function, and each is required to safeguard the information.
• Government agencies, such as the IRS and state revenue departments, when we file returns or respond to notices on your behalf, and only as you authorize.
• Other people you direct us to share with, such as your lender, attorney, financial advisor, or spouse, after you give us written consent.
• Authorities when the law requires it, such as a subpoena or court order we are legally required to honor, or a Board of Accountancy disciplinary inquiry. Where the accountant-client privilege applies, we will assert it on your behalf and notify you unless the law prohibits us from doing so.

If the firm is ever sold, merged, or transferred, client information would move only as federal law (including 15 U.S.C. §6802(e)(7)), Board Rule 61H1-23.001, and our professional standards permit, and we would notify you in advance.

9. How We Protect Information

We maintain a written information security plan that meets the FTC Standards for Safeguarding Customer Information (the Safeguards Rule, 16 C.F.R. Part 314) and follows IRS Publication 4557, Safeguarding Taxpayer Data, and the security requirements for authorized IRS e-file providers in IRS Publication 1345. Our safeguards include:

• Multi-factor authentication on every system that stores client information
• Encryption of client information in transit and at rest
• An encrypted client portal for document exchange, so sensitive documents are not sent by ordinary email
• Access limited to the people who need it to serve you
• Regular review of our safeguards, service providers, and security training

No system is perfectly secure. Please help protect your information by using the client portal rather than email for sensitive documents and by keeping your portal login private.

10. How Long We Keep Information

Federal law requires us to keep a copy or list of each return we prepare for at least three years after the close of the return period (Internal Revenue Code §6107(b); Treas. Reg. §1.6107-1). We keep client records and workpapers for the period stated in your engagement letter, which is long enough to meet federal, Florida, and professional requirements and to support you if a return is examined. When records are no longer needed, we destroy them securely.

If you contact us or book a call but do not become a client, we delete your inquiry information within 24 months, or sooner if you ask.

11. If a Security Incident Occurs

If we discover that your personal information was accessed or acquired without authorization, we will notify you as required by the Florida Information Protection Act of 2014, Section 501.171, Florida Statutes, which generally requires notice within 30 days, and by the breach notification laws of your state of residence. If a breach affects 500 or more Florida residents, we will also notify the Florida Department of Legal Affairs within 30 days, as Section 501.171(3) requires. If a security event involves the information of 500 or more consumers, we will notify the Federal Trade Commission no later than 30 days after discovery, as the Safeguards Rule requires (16 C.F.R. §314.4(j)). If tax information is involved, we will report the incident to the IRS so that it can help protect your account against fraudulent returns.

12. Cookies and Third-Party Tools on This Site

This site loads a small number of third-party services:

• Calendly, which displays our booking calendar and may set cookies needed to schedule a call. Information you enter when booking is handled under Calendly's privacy policy as well as this one.
• Google Fonts, which delivers the typefaces on this site and receives your IP address when the fonts load.
• Netlify, which hosts this site, processes our contact form, and keeps standard server logs.

We do not use these tools to track you across other websites. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. If you do, the booking calendar may not work, but you can still reach us by the contact form or email.

13. Your Choices and Requests

You may ask us to show you the personal information we hold about you, correct it, or delete inquiry information that we are not required to keep. You may also revoke a §7216 consent or stop receiving any newsletter or marketing email we send. Every marketing email will include an unsubscribe link, as the CAN-SPAM Act (15 U.S.C. §7704) requires, and we will honor your request promptly.

Some states give their residents additional privacy rights. If one of those laws applies to you, we will honor your request as that law requires. Some records cannot be deleted while we are legally required to keep them; if that applies, we will tell you which records and why.

To make a request, email us at the address below. We may need to verify your identity before acting on it.

14. Children's Privacy

This site is intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect information online from children under 13, consistent with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (15 U.S.C. §§6501–6506). A dependent's information is collected only from a parent or guardian, and only when a return requires it.

15. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy as our services or the law change. We will post the updated version here with a new effective date. If a change materially affects how we use client information, we will notify clients directly before it takes effect.

16. How to Contact Us

Next Level Tax & Accounting Co. PLLC
Attn: Marty Coressel, CPA
14422 Shoreside Way, Suite 110-330
Winter Garden, Florida 34787
marty@nextleveltaxco.com
(407) 205-8158 (by appointment)