1. Who we are

SealedReturn ("SealedReturn," "we," "us," "our") is an AI-assisted document-preparation tool that helps individuals organize their tax information and generate a draft tax-return PDF. SealedReturn is operated by Iskra Astudillo and her affiliated companies. SealedReturn is not a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Enrolled Agent (EA), tax attorney, IRS Authorized e-file Provider, or registered tax preparer in any state. SealedReturn does not file returns with the IRS or any state taxing authority.

2. Acceptance of terms

By accessing or using SealedReturn, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms") and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, you must not use SealedReturn.

3. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old and a legal resident of the United States to use SealedReturn. SealedReturn is intended for individual taxpayers preparing their own personal federal and state income tax returns. You may not use SealedReturn to prepare returns for compensation as a paid preparer (state preparer-registration laws apply to such activity).

4. Your responsibilities

You are solely responsible for the accuracy and completeness of all information you provide to SealedReturn.
You are solely responsible for reviewing every line of any tax return SealedReturn generates before signing or filing it.
You are solely responsible for signing and filing your tax return — by paper, by another e-file provider, or through a tax professional.
You are solely responsible for safeguarding your password. SealedReturn cannot recover your password and cannot decrypt your data without it. Loss of your password = loss of your data, by design.

5. No legal, tax, accounting, or financial advice

SealedReturn does not provide legal, tax, accounting, or financial advice. Any output generated by SealedReturn is informational only and may contain errors or omissions. We strongly recommend that you have a qualified tax professional (CPA, EA, or tax attorney) review your return before you file it.

6. Encryption + privacy

SealedReturn encrypts your documents in your browser using libsodium-wrappers (XChaCha20-Poly1305) with a key derived from your password via Argon2id. We store ciphertext only. We cannot read your documents in normal operation. See our Privacy Policy and Security page for full details.

7. Subscription + billing

SealedReturn charges per-return (Solo $39, Self-Employed $79, Multi-LLC $149) plus optional add-ons (Privacy Plus +$10). Payments are processed by Stripe. There is no subscription auto-renewal at launch — each return is a one-time charge. If we add a subscription tier in the future, it will comply with California §17602 and other state auto-renewal disclosure laws.

8. Refund Match Guarantee

The Refund Match Guarantee is governed by separate terms published at /refund-match. Those terms are incorporated into these Terms by reference.

9. Disclaimers

SEALEDRETURN IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT SEALEDRETURN WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR SECURE FROM ATTACK BEYOND THE PROTECTIONS DESCRIBED IN OUR SECURITY DOCUMENTATION.

10. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, SEALEDRETURN'S AGGREGATE LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO YOUR USE OF SEALEDRETURN SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (i) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID SEALEDRETURN IN THE 12 MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM, OR (ii) $500. IN NO EVENT SHALL SEALEDRETURN BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA, IRS PENALTIES, OR INTEREST CHARGES — EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT EXPRESSLY PROVIDED BY THE REFUND MATCH GUARANTEE OR BY APPLICABLE TECH ERRORS & OMISSIONS INSURANCE COVERAGE.

11. Data portability + business continuity

If SealedReturn ceases operations, we will provide all users with at least 90 days of read-only access to download their data (decrypted in your browser using your password) and an export of all generated PDFs. We will also publish the encryption library on GitHub MIT (already on the roadmap), so a third party may build a recovery tool from the same primitives.

12. No attorney-client / accountant-client privilege

Communications between you and SealedReturn — including chat, email, support tickets, and document uploads — are not protected by attorney-client privilege, accountant-client privilege, or work-product doctrine. Information you share may be disclosed in response to lawful subpoenas, court orders, or government investigations as described in our Privacy Policy. (In practice, the only thing we have to disclose is ciphertext, your email, and limited login metadata — see Security page for the full threat model.)

13. Prohibited uses

You may not: (i) use SealedReturn to prepare returns for compensation as a paid preparer; (ii) reverse-engineer or attempt to extract the source code of our service, except as expressly permitted by law; (iii) interfere with the operation of SealedReturn or attempt to defeat security measures; (iv) use SealedReturn for any unlawful purpose.

14. Termination

You may terminate your account at any time by visiting /account/cancel. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms. Upon termination, you retain the right to download your data for 90 days as described in Section 11.

15. Governing law + dispute resolution

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. Disputes shall be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Santa Clara County, California, except that either party may pursue claims in small-claims court for amounts within the small-claims jurisdictional limit. (Specific arbitration / class-action waiver language to be added in a future revision after attorney review.)

16. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be announced via email at least 30 days in advance and via a notice on this page.

17. Contact

For questions about these Terms, contact legal@sealedreturn.com.

These Terms are a working draft pending final review by a tax + tech attorney. They reflect best-practice standards from competitive analysis but should not be construed as final legal language.