Privacy Policy

Big Accountants provides outsourced bookkeeping, accounting, tax preparation and filing, and financial advisory services to businesses. The website at bigaccountants.com and our services are operated by Great Inventh Private Limited, referred to in this policy as Big Accountants, we, us or our.

This privacy policy explains how we collect, use, share and protect personal information when you visit our website, contact us, or become a client. It also covers the personal information contained in the financial records and tax documents our clients give us.

We collect only what we need to respond to you and to deliver the services you engage us for.

• To provide the services in your engagement letter, including bookkeeping, reporting, payables, receivables, and tax preparation and filing
• To reply to inquiries, prepare proposals and onboard new clients
• To send invoices, collect payment and keep business records
• To send service updates and, where permitted, information about our services. You can unsubscribe from marketing email at any time.
• To secure our systems, prevent fraud and investigate misuse
• To meet our legal, tax and professional obligations
• To understand how our website is used and improve it

We do not use your information for automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects on you.

Information you give us to prepare a tax return is tax return information under section 7216 of the Internal Revenue Code. Federal law limits how a tax return preparer may use or disclose it.

• We use and disclose tax return information to prepare and file your returns, and as otherwise permitted by section 7216 and its regulations.
• Any other use or disclosure, including for marketing, requires your separate, signed and dated written consent. You may decline, and declining does not affect the return we prepare for you.
• Where tax return information is handled by members of our team located outside the United States, we ask for your written consent first, as the regulations require.
• For individual income tax returns, Social Security numbers are not disclosed to team members outside the United States unless the conditions set by the IRS for that disclosure are met.

If you are in the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, we rely on one or more of these legal bases under the UK GDPR and the EU GDPR:

• Contract: to deliver services you have engaged us for, or to take steps you ask for before engaging us
• Legal obligation: to meet tax, accounting and record keeping duties
• Legitimate interests: to run and secure our business and website, where those interests are not overridden by your rights
• Consent: for marketing cookies and certain communications. You may withdraw consent at any time.

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

• Our team. Team members in our offices in the United States, the United Kingdom and India, on a need to know basis and under confidentiality obligations.
• Service providers. Providers of hosting, document exchange, email, payments, analytics and customer support, who process data on our instructions under contract.
• Platforms you choose. Accounting, payroll, banking and tax software you use or ask us to use, under that provider’s own terms.
• Tax authorities. The IRS and state or other tax authorities, when we file returns or respond to notices for you.
• Legal requirements. Courts, regulators or law enforcement, where the law requires it.
• Business transfers. A buyer or successor in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, subject to this policy.
• With your consent. Anyone else you authorize, such as your attorney, lender or another adviser.

Our team works across the United States, the United Kingdom and India, so your information may be processed in a country other than your own. Those countries may have data protection laws that differ from yours.

When we transfer personal information out of the UK or the EEA, we use a transfer mechanism recognized by the relevant law, such as approved contractual clauses. Transfers of tax return information also follow the consent rules in section 4.

Accountants and tax preparers are financial institutions under the Gramm Leach Bliley Act, and the FTC Safeguards Rule requires a written information security program. Our program includes:

• Encryption of data in transit using SSL and TLS
• Access controls based on least privilege, so team members see only what their work requires
• Multi factor authentication for access to client information
• Secure storage, monitoring and threat detection
• Removal of our access to your systems when an engagement ends

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure. If a security incident affects your personal information, we will notify you and the authorities as the law requires.

We keep personal information only for as long as we need it for the purposes in this policy, or for longer where the law or professional standards require it. Tax and accounting records are kept for the periods needed to support filed returns and meet record keeping duties. After that, information is securely deleted or anonymized.

When an engagement ends, we return your records on request, as set out in our Cancellation and Refund Policy.

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• access the personal information we hold about you
• correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete
• delete your information, subject to legal record keeping duties
• restrict or object to certain processing
• receive your information in a portable format
• withdraw consent you have given, without affecting earlier processing
• opt out of marketing communications at any time

To make a request, email mail@bigaccountants.com. We verify your identity before acting on a request, and we respond within the time the applicable law requires. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights.

If you are in the UK or the EEA, you may also complain to your data protection authority, such as the Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK. If you are in India, you will have rights under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 as its provisions come into force.

Cookies are small text files stored on your device. We use four types:

• Essential: needed for the site to work, such as page navigation and security
• Performance: anonymous usage data. We use Google Analytics to understand how the site performs.
• Functional: remember your preferences
• Marketing: used to show relevant content and advertising, only where you allow them

You can manage cookies through our cookie banner and your browser settings. Blocking essential cookies may stop parts of the site from working. For more on cookies, visit allaboutcookies.org.

Our website and services are for businesses and are not directed at children under 13, or under 16 in the EEA. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children online. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

Clients may give us information about dependents when we prepare tax returns. We use it only to prepare and file those returns, under section 4.

Our website may link to other websites, such as software providers and government agencies. We are not responsible for their privacy practices, and we recommend reading their policies.

We may update this policy as our services or the law change. We post the updated version on this page with a new date, and we tell clients about significant changes by email.

For any privacy question or request, email mail@bigaccountants.com. You can also reach us by phone.

Big Accountants is operated by Great Inventh Private Limited. Read our Terms and Conditions and Cancellation and Refund Policy.