Privacy Policy

Effective Date: January 1, 2017

Last Updated: January 1, 2026

Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Distinct Tax Consulting Group ("Distinct Tax," "we," "us," or "our") respects your privacy and is committed to protecting the personal and financial information you share with us. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use and protect it, and the choices you have.

This policy applies to information we collect through our website at www.distincttax.com (the "Site"), through our tax, accounting, and advisory services (the "Services"), and through other interactions with us, such as email, phone, consultations, and our client portal.

By using our Site or Services, you agree to the practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Site or provide us with your information.

2. INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We collect information in three ways: information you give us directly, information we collect automatically, and information we receive from third parties.

Information you provide directly

Depending on how you interact with us, this may include:

Contact and identification information — name, email address, phone number, mailing address, and business name.

Financial and tax information — the information necessary to provide our Services, which may include Social Security numbers or taxpayer identification numbers, income and expense records, prior tax returns, bank and investment account details, employer information, dependents' information, and other supporting documentation.

Business information — entity structure, ownership, payroll, bookkeeping records, and other records related to business tax and advisory services.

Communications — information you include when you fill out a contact or consultation form, email us, call us, or otherwise correspond with us.

Account information — login credentials and information you submit through our client portal.

You are not required to provide personal information, but some information is necessary for us to deliver our Services (for example, we cannot prepare a return without tax data).

Information we collect automatically

When you visit our Site, we and our service providers may automatically collect:

Device and usage information — IP address, browser type, operating system, referring pages, pages viewed, links clicked, and dates and times of access.

Cookies and similar technologies — small data files stored on your device that help the Site function, remember your preferences, and measure how the Site is used. See Section 6 for details.

Information from third parties

We may receive information about you from third parties, such as:

Referral sources and business partners.
Service providers that help us verify information, process payments, or deliver our Services.
Publicly available sources and government agencies, where relevant to the Services.

3. HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

We use the information we collect to:

Provide, perform, and manage our tax, accounting, and advisory Services;
Prepare and file tax returns and related documents;
Communicate with you, respond to inquiries, and schedule consultations;
Operate, maintain, secure, and improve our Site and client portal;
Process payments and maintain records for billing and accounting;
Send you service-related messages and, where permitted, newsletters, resources, or updates about our Services (you can opt out of marketing communications at any time — see Section 9);
Comply with legal, regulatory, and professional obligations, including recordkeeping requirements;
Detect, prevent, and address fraud, security issues, and misuse; and
Enforce our agreements and protect our rights and the rights of others.

4. HOW WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION

We do not sell your personal information. We share information only as described below:

Service providers. We share information with vendors who perform services on our behalf — such as secure document storage, tax preparation software, cloud hosting, e-filing providers, payment processors, and email or scheduling platforms. These providers are permitted to use your information only to perform services for us.
With your consent or at your direction. For example, when you ask us to send information to a lender, financial advisor, attorney, or other party.
Legal and regulatory requirements. We may disclose information to comply with applicable law, a subpoena, court order, or lawful request by a government or tax authority (including the IRS and state tax agencies), or to protect our legal rights.
Business transfers. If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to this Privacy Policy.
To prevent harm. To protect the safety, rights, or property of our clients, our firm, or others, and to prevent fraud or illegal activity.

5. CONFIDENTIALITY OF TAX AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Because we provide tax preparation and financial services, we handle certain information with heightened care and in accordance with applicable law and professional standards:

Tax return information. Under Internal Revenue Code Section 7216 and related regulations, we will not use or disclose your tax return information for purposes other than preparing your return, or as otherwise permitted by law, without your prior written consent.
Financial privacy. As a provider of financial services, we handle nonpublic personal financial information in a manner consistent with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) and applicable state financial-privacy laws. We restrict access to your nonpublic personal information to employees and contractors who need it to provide Services to you, and we maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect it.

If you would like a copy of our separate financial-privacy notice, please contact us using the information in Section 14.

6. COOKIES AND TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES

Our Site uses cookies and similar technologies to operate the Site, remember your preferences, understand how visitors use the Site, and improve your experience. We may use:

Essential cookies, required for the Site and client portal to function;
Analytics cookies, which help us understand Site traffic and usage (for example, through tools such as Google Analytics); and
Preference cookies, which remember choices you make.

You can control cookies through your browser settings and can usually set your browser to refuse cookies or alert you when cookies are being sent. If you disable cookies, some parts of the Site may not function properly.

7. DATA SECURITY

We maintain reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect your personal and financial information against unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. These measures include restricted access, secure transmission and storage, and encryption where appropriate.

No method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is completely secure. While we work to protect your information, we cannot guarantee absolute security. To help protect your information, please use our secure client portal for sensitive documents rather than standard email, and keep your login credentials confidential.

8. DATA RETENTION

We retain personal and financial information for as long as necessary to provide our Services, maintain our client relationship, comply with legal, regulatory, tax, and professional recordkeeping obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. When information is no longer needed, we take reasonable steps to securely delete or de-identify it.

9. YOUR CHOICES AND PRIVACY RIGHTS

Marketing communications. You may opt out of marketing emails at any time by using the "unsubscribe" link in the email or by contacting us. We may still send you non-promotional messages related to your account or Services.

Access and updates. You may request to review or update the personal information you have provided to us by contacting us using the details in Section 14.

State privacy rights. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights over your personal information — such as the right to know what personal information we collect, the right to request access or deletion, the right to correct inaccurate information, and the right to opt out of certain uses. For example, residents of California (under the CCPA/CPRA) and certain other states may have these rights. We do not sell your personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. To exercise any applicable rights, contact us using the information below. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your privacy rights, and we will verify your request before responding as required by law.

10. THIRD-PARTY LINKS

Our Site may contain links to third-party websites, tools, or resources that we do not control. This Privacy Policy does not apply to those third parties. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party sites you visit.

11. CHILDREN'S PRIVACY

Our Site and Services are intended for adults and businesses and are not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will take steps to delete it. (Note: We may process information about dependents as part of preparing a client's tax return; that information is provided to us by the adult client.)

12. DO NOT TRACK

Some browsers offer a "Do Not Track" (DNT) signal. Because there is no consistent industry standard for responding to DNT signals, our Site does not currently respond to them.

13. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last Updated" date above and post the updated policy on this page. If we make material changes, we will provide additional notice as required by law. Your continued use of the Site or Services after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

14. CONTACT US

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your information, or if you would like to exercise a privacy right, please contact us:

Distinct Tax Consulting Group

4751 Best Road, Suite 332

Atlanta, GA 30337

Phone: (770) 742-9136

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.distincttax.com

DISTINCT TAX CONSULTING GROUP understands that your privacy is important to you. We are committed to protecting the privacy of your personally-identifiable information as you use this website. This Privacy Policy tells you how we protect and use information that we gather from you. By using this website, you consent to the terms described in the most recent version of this Privacy Policy. You should also read our Terms of Use to understand the general rules about your use of this website, and any additional terms that may apply when you access particular services or materials on certain areas of this website. “We,” “our” means DISTINCT TAX CONSULTING GROUP and its affiliates. “You,” “your,” visitor,” or “user” means the individual accessing this site.

PERSONAL AND NON-PERSONAL INFORMATION

Our Privacy Policy identifies how we treat your personal and non-personal information.

WHAT IS NON-PERSONAL INFORMATION, AND HOW IS IT COLLECTED AND USED?

Non-personal information is information that cannot identify you. If you visit this website to read information, such as information about one of our services, we may collect certain non-personal information about you from your computer’s web browser. Because non-personal information cannot identify you or be tied to you in any way, there are no restrictions on the ways that we can use or share non-personal information. What is personal information, and how is it collected? Personal information is information that identifies you as an individual, such as your name, mailing address, e-mail address, telephone number, and fax number. We may collect personal information from you in a variety of ways:

• When you send us an application or other form

• When you conduct a transaction with us, our affiliates, or others

• When we collect information about you in support of a transaction, such as credit card information, In some places on this website you have the opportunity to send us personal information about yourself, to elect to receive particular information, to purchase access to one of our products or services, or to participate in an activity.

ARE COOKIES OR OTHER TECHNOLOGIES USED TO COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION?

Yes, we may use cookies and related technologies, such as web beacons, to collect information on our website. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a webpage server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you. One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenient feature to save you time. The purpose of a cookie is to tell the Web server that you have returned to a specific page. For example, if you register with us, a cookie helps DISTINCT TAX CONSULTING GROUP to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. This simplifies the process of recording your personal information, such as billing addresses, shipping addresses, and so on. When you return to the same DISTINCT TAX CONSULTING GROUP website, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the features that you customized. A web beacon is a small graphic image that allows the party that set the web beacon to monitor and collect certain information about the viewer of the web page, web-based document or e-mail message, such as the type of browser requesting the web beacon, the IP address of the computer that the web beacon is sent to and the time the web beacon was viewed. Web beacons can be very small and invisible to the user, but, in general, any electronic image viewed as part of a web page or e-mail, including HTML-based content, can act as a web beacon. We may use web beacons to count visitors to the web pages on the website or to monitor how our users navigate the website, and we may include web beacons in e-mail messages in order to count how many messages sent were actually opened, acted upon or forwarded.

Third party vendors also may use cookies on our website. For instance, we may contract with third parties who will use cookies on our website to track and analyze anonymous usage and volume statistical information from our visitors and members. Such information is shared externally only on an anonymous, aggregated basis. These third parties use persistent cookies to help us to improve the visitor experience, to manage our site content, and to track visitor behavior. We may also contract with a third party to send email to our registered [users/members].

To help measure and improve the effectiveness of our email communications, the third party sets cookies. All data collected by this third party on behalf of DISTINCT TAX CONSULTING GROUP is used solely by or on behalf of DISTINCT TAX CONSULTING GROUP and is shared externally only on an anonymous, aggregated basis. From time to time, we may allow third parties to post advertisements on our website, and those third-party advertisements may include a cookie or web beacon served by the third party. This Privacy Policy does not cover the use of information collected from you by third party ad servers. We do not control cookies in such third party ads, and you should check the privacy policies of those advertisers and/or ad services to learn about their use of cookies and other technology before linking to an ad. We will not share your personal information with these companies, but these companies may use information about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements on this site and other sites about goods and services that may be of interest to you, and they may share your personal information that you provide to them with others.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of the DISTINCT TAX CONSULTING GROUP websites you visit.

HOW DOES DISTINCT TAX CONSULTING GROUP USE PERSONAL INFORMATION?

DISTINCT TAX CONSULTING GROUP may keep and use personal information we collect from or about you to provide you with access to this website or other products or services, to respond to your requests, to bill you for products/services you purchased, and to provide ongoing service and support, to contact you with information that might be of interest to you, including information about products and services of ours and of others, or ask for your opinion about our products or the products of others, for record keeping and analytical purposes and to research, develop and improve programs, products, services and content.

Personal information collected online may be combined with information you provide to us through other sources. We may also remove your personal identifiers (your name, email address, social security number, etc.). In this case, you would no longer be identified as a single unique individual. Once we have de-identified information, it is non-personal information, and we may treat it like other non-personal information. Finally, we may use your personal information to protect our rights or property, or to protect someone’s health, safety or welfare, and to comply with a law or regulation, court order or other legal process.

DOES DISTINCT TAX CONSULTING GROUP SHARE PERSONAL INFORMATION WITH OTHERS?

We will not share your personal information collected from this website with an unrelated third party without your permission, except as otherwise provided in this Privacy Policy. In the ordinary course of business, we may share some personal information with companies that we hire to perform services or functions on our behalf. In all cases in which we share your personal information with a third party for the purpose of providing a service to us, we will not authorize them to keep, disclose or use your information with others except for the purpose of providing the services we asked them to provide.

We will not sell, exchange or publish your personal information, except in conjunction with a corporate sale, merger, dissolution, or acquisition. For some sorts of transactions, in addition to our direct collection of information, our third party service vendors (such as credit card companies, clearinghouses and banks) who may provide such services as credit, insurance, and escrow services may collect personal information directly from you to assist you with your transaction. We do not control how these third parties use such information, but we do ask them to disclose how they use their personal information before they collect it.

If you submit a review to a third party (person or business) using our Facebook Fan Review Application, during the submission process we ask your permission to gather your basic information (such as name and email address) which we then share with the third party for whom you are submitting the review. We may be legally compelled to release your personal information in response to a court order, subpoena, search warrant, law or regulation.

We may cooperate with law enforcement authorities in investigating and prosecuting website visitors who violate our rules or engage in behavior which is harmful to other visitors (or illegal). We may disclose our personal information to third parties if we feel that the disclosure is necessary to protect our rights or property, protect someone’s health, safety or welfare, or to comply with a law or regulation, court order or other legal process. As discussed in the section on cookies and other technologies, from time to time we may allow a third party to serve advertisements on this website.

If you share information with the advertiser, including by clicking on their ads, this Privacy Policy does not control the advertisers' use of your personal information, and you should check the privacy policies of those advertisers and/or ad services to learn about their use of cookies and other technology before linking to an ad.

HOW IS PERSONAL INFORMATION USED FOR COMMUNICATIONS?

We may contact you periodically by email, mail or telephone to provide information regarding programs, products, services and content that may be of interest to you. In addition, some of the features on this website allow you to communicate with us using an online form. If your communication requests a response from us, we may send you a response via email. The e-mail response or confirmation may include your personal information. We cannot guarantee that our emails to you will be secure from unauthorized interception.

HOW IS PERSONAL INFORMATION SECURED?

We have implemented generally accepted standards of technology and operational security in order to protect personally-identifiable information from loss, misuse, alteration, or destruction. Only authorized personnel and third party vendors have access to your personal information, and these employees and vendors are required to treat this information as confidential. Despite these precautions, we cannot guarantee that unauthorized persons will not obtain access to your personal information.

LINKS

This site contains links to other sites that provide information that we consider to be interesting. DISTINCT TAX CONSULTING GROUP is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites.

PUBLIC DISCUSSIONS

This site may provide public discussions on various business valuation topics. Please note that any information you post in these discussions will become public, so please do not post sensitive information in the public discussions. Whenever you publicly disclose information online, that information could be collected and used by others. We are not responsible for any action or policies of any third parties who collect information that users disclose in any such forums on the website. DISTINCT TAX CONSULTING GROUP does not agree or disagree with anything posted on the discussion board. Also, remember that you must comply with our other published policies regarding postings on our public forums.

HOW CAN A USER ACCESS, CHANGE, AND/OR DELETE PERSONAL INFORMATION?

You may access, correct, update, and/or delete any personally-identifiable information that you submit to the website. You may also unsubscribe from mailing lists or any registrations on the website. To do so, please either follow the instructions on the page of the website on which you have provided such information or subscribed or registered, or contact us
[email protected]

CHILDREN’S PRIVACY

DISTINCT TAX CONSULTING GROUP will not intentionally collect any personal information (such as a child’s name or email address) from children under the age of 13. If you think that we have collected personal information from a child under the age of 13, please contact us.

CHANGES

DISTINCT TAX CONSULTING GROUP reserves the right to modify this statement at any time. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will be listed in this section, and if such changes are material, a notice will be included on the homepage of the website for a period of time. If you have any questions about privacy on any websites operated by DISTINCT TAX CONSULTING GROUP or about our website practices, please contact us at: [email protected]

Updated February 2023