Terms of Use

1. About these terms

These terms are an agreement between MortgageBloc Limited, trading as TaxBloc (“we”, “us”, “our”), and the accountancy practice that opens a TaxBloc account (“the Practice”, “you”). MortgageBloc Limited is registered in England and Wales under company number 12844126. Our registered office is 71-75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ.

You accept these terms when you apply for an account or use TaxBloc. If you accept them on behalf of a firm, you confirm you have authority to bind it.

In these terms:

• Authorised User means a person you allow to use TaxBloc on your behalf.
• Client means a person or business you act for, whom you ask to connect their bank accounts.
• Client Data means the bank account and transaction data we collect from a Client for you.
• Export means a CSV or other file of Client Data that you download from TaxBloc.
• Plaid means Plaid Financial Ltd, which provides the Open Banking connection.

2. What TaxBloc does

TaxBloc collects your Clients’ bank transactions and gives them to you in a standard format. You send a Client a link. The Client connects their bank accounts through Open Banking. You download their transactions as an Export.

We operate as an agent of Plaid Financial Ltd, an authorised payment institution regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (Firm Reference Number 804718). Plaid provides the regulated account information service. Clients connect under Plaid’s End User Privacy Policy as well as the information in section 18.

Access is read-only. We cannot make payments, move money or change a bank account. We never see or store bank login details.

TaxBloc does not file anything with HMRC and does not give tax, accounting or financial advice. You remain responsible for your professional work, including checking Client Data before you rely on it.

3. Who can use TaxBloc

TaxBloc is only for accountancy, bookkeeping and tax practices based in the UK and acting for UK-resident Clients. It is provided for business use only. It is not a consumer service.

Individuals, including landlords and sole traders, cannot open an account themselves. They can ask their accountant to send them a TaxBloc link.

You must be supervised for anti-money laundering purposes by a UK professional body or by HMRC, or tell us when you apply that you are not.

4. Opening an account and checks

Because TaxBloc handles bank data, we check every Practice by hand before its account goes live. We may ask for your professional body and registration number, your Companies House number, proof of identity or proof of address, and any other information we reasonably need.

We may refuse an application, or ask for more information, at our discretion. We do not have to give a reason.

You must keep the information you give us accurate. Tell us within 14 days if your supervision lapses or changes, or if your Practice changes ownership.

5. Practice accounts and users

5.1 Account structure

The Practice is our customer. All fees, obligations and liability under these terms are owed by the Practice as a single legal entity. You nominate one or more Admins, who can invite and remove Authorised Users, change billing details and change plan. Other Authorised Users have Member access.

5.2 Authorised Users

• Each Authorised User must be an employee, partner, director, contractor or other authorised representative of the Practice.
• Each must register with their own work email address. We accept personal addresses at our discretion, and they may take longer to verify.
• Logins, sign-in links and session tokens must never be shared between people.
• Authorised Users must use any additional sign-in security, such as two-factor authentication, that we make available and require.

5.3 Your responsibility for your users

You are fully responsible for everything your Authorised Users do on TaxBloc, whether or not you authorised it. This includes Client Data accessed, Exports downloaded, links sent and any breach of these terms. You will:

• make sure your Authorised Users are trained on UK data protection law, anti-money laundering rules and your professional body’s rules;
• limit access to people with a current business need;
• remove access within 24 hours when someone leaves or no longer needs it;
• keep records of who has access and at what level; and
• have reasonable controls in place to prevent misuse.

5.4 Acceptable use

You and your Authorised Users must not:

• send a link to anyone who is not a genuine Client with a current engagement and who has not given informed consent;
• generate, keep or share Exports for any purpose outside your engagement with that Client;
• mislead, pressure or impersonate anyone to get them to connect a bank account;
• try to access another Practice’s data or accounts;
• reverse engineer, copy, scrape or access TaxBloc by automated means without our written consent;
• interfere with the security or operation of TaxBloc; or
• use TaxBloc to commit, help or hide any crime, including fraud, money laundering, tax evasion or sanctions breaches.

5.5 Audit logs

We log every action on TaxBloc with the user, time, IP address, action and the Client or record affected. We keep audit logs for at least six years to meet our legal, regulatory and contractual obligations. Audit logs can be used as evidence of what happened in any dispute or investigation. You cannot deny that an Authorised User took an action because their login may have been compromised, unless you told us about the suspected compromise before the action.

5.6 Telling us about problems

Email hello@taxbloc.ai within 24 hours of becoming aware of:

• any suspected or actual misuse of TaxBloc;
• an Authorised User who has left or changed role but still has access;
• any lost, stolen or compromised login, device or sign-in link; or
• any complaint from a Client about TaxBloc.

6. Sending links to clients

Before you send a link, you must:

• have a current engagement with the Client;
• have a lawful basis under UK data protection law to receive their bank data; and
• explain to them what will be shared, who will see it and why, so their consent is informed.

A Client can connect as many of their own accounts as your engagement reasonably needs. A Client can withdraw access at any time, through their bank, by telling you, or by contacting us. When access is withdrawn, we stop collecting new transactions for that Client. Banks may require Clients to renew their connection from time to time.

7. Client data and data protection

7.1 Roles

For Client Data, you are the controller and we are your processor under UK data protection law. Plaid acts independently when providing the Open Banking connection, under its own terms and privacy policy. For information about you and your Authorised Users, such as names, emails and billing details, we are the controller. Our Privacy Policy explains how we use that information.

7.2 What we commit to as your processor

We will:

• process Client Data only to provide TaxBloc to you, and on your documented instructions, which include these terms and your use of TaxBloc, unless the law requires otherwise;
• make sure everyone who processes Client Data is bound by confidentiality;
• keep appropriate technical and organisational security measures in place;
• tell you without undue delay, and within 48 hours of becoming aware, of any personal data breach affecting your Client Data;
• help you respond to requests from Clients exercising their data rights, and with any data protection impact assessments or dealings with the Information Commissioner’s Office, where reasonable;
• delete Client Data as set out in section 7.4; and
• give you the information you reasonably need to show we meet these commitments.

7.3 Sub-processors

You authorise us to use the following sub-processors for Client Data:

• Plaid Financial Ltd, for the Open Banking connection; and
• Amazon Web Services, for hosting, storage and email.

We will tell you at least 30 days before adding or replacing a sub-processor. If you object on reasonable data protection grounds, you may close your account and we will refund any prepaid fees for the unused period. Each sub-processor is bound by data protection terms that offer at least the same protection as this section. We will not transfer Client Data outside the UK unless UK data protection law allows it and appropriate safeguards are in place.

7.4 How long we keep Client Data

We keep Client Data while your account is open and the Client remains on it. If you remove a Client, or a Client withdraws access, we delete their Client Data within 90 days. When your account closes, we delete all Client Data within 90 days. We may keep audit logs, and anything else the law requires us to keep, for longer.

8. Exports

Exports contain transactions as supplied by the Client’s bank. We present them in a standard format and may add categories to help you, but we do not check that the bank’s data is complete or correct. Categories are a guide only.

Once you download an Export, it is your responsibility. This includes where you store it and who you share it with. If you put an Export into another tool, including any AI tool, you must make sure that is allowed by your engagement, by UK data protection law and by your firm’s own policies.

Sample files and demos on our website contain fictional data only.

9. Plans, pricing and payment

9.1 Free plan

You can use TaxBloc for up to 10 Clients free of charge. No card is needed and there is no time limit. We may change or withdraw the free plan by giving you at least 30 days’ notice.

9.2 Paid plans

To go beyond 10 Clients, you need a paid plan. Plans and prices are shown on our pricing page. Prices exclude VAT, which is added where it applies.

• You can pay monthly or annually, in advance, by card through our payment provider.
• Plans renew automatically at the end of each monthly or annual period until cancelled.
• You can cancel a monthly plan at any time. It ends at the end of the month you have paid for.
• You can cancel an annual plan at any time. It ends at the end of the year you have paid for. Annual fees are not refundable unless these terms or the law say otherwise.
• You must move to a plan that covers the number of Clients you have before adding more.

If a payment fails, we will tell you. If it is still unpaid 14 days later, we may suspend your account until it is paid.

We may change our prices by giving you at least 30 days’ notice. The new price applies from your next billing period.

9.3 What counts as a Client

Plan limits are measured in Clients. A Client is one taxpayer. That means a single individual, such as a sole trader or landlord, or a single legal entity, such as a limited company, LLP or partnership. A Client is normally identified by one Unique Taxpayer Reference or one Companies House number. Each Client counts once, however many bank accounts or banks they connect.

A Client record must not be used to collect bank data for more than one taxpayer. Where an individual also runs a separate legal entity, the individual and the entity are separate Clients.

9.4 Fair use

There is no charge per Export. We may review use that looks inconsistent with genuine use for one Client. Examples include an unusually high number of connections on one Client record, or connected accounts whose holder does not match the Client. If we think a record is being used for more than one taxpayer, we will contact you first. We may ask you to separate the records, to count each taxpayer towards your plan limit, or to move to the right plan. Repeated or deliberate misuse is a breach of these terms.

10. Availability of the service

We aim to keep TaxBloc available and working well, but we cannot guarantee it will be uninterrupted or error-free. TaxBloc depends on banks and on Plaid. Their systems may be unavailable, slow or return incomplete data, and we are not responsible for that. We may carry out maintenance, and will try to give notice of planned downtime.

We may improve and change TaxBloc over time. If we remove a feature you rely on in a way that materially reduces the service, you may cancel. We will then refund any prepaid fees for the unused period.

11. Suspension, cancellation and closure

11.1 Suspension

We may suspend an Authorised User or your whole account without notice where we reasonably suspect:

• a breach of these terms;
• fraud, financial crime or unauthorised access;
• activity that puts a Client, or our regulatory standing as an agent of Plaid, at risk; or
• that an Authorised User no longer represents you.

Suspension does not affect our right to recover fees due or to take other action. It also does not affect our right to report a matter to the FCA, your supervisory body, the National Crime Agency or any other authority where the law requires.

11.2 Closing your account

You can close your account at any time from your settings or by emailing us. Paid plans end as set out in section 9.2.

We may close your account by giving you 30 days’ notice. If we do this for a reason other than your breach, we will refund prepaid fees for the unused period.

We may close your account immediately if you seriously or repeatedly breach these terms, or if continuing would put us in breach of the law or of our obligations as an agent of Plaid.

11.3 What happens on closure

When your account closes, access ends and Client connections are disconnected. Download any Exports you need before your account closes. We then delete Client Data as set out in section 7.4. Sections 5.5, 7, 8, 11.3 and 13 to 17 continue to apply after closure.

12. Regulatory cooperation

We operate as a registered agent of Plaid Financial Ltd (FCA FRN 804718). You agree to comply promptly with any reasonable instruction, request for information or operational change that we need to keep that status. This includes giving us information about your Authorised Users or their activity where Plaid, the FCA or another authority requires it.

13. Indemnity

You will compensate us, our directors, employees and affiliates for all losses, claims, damages, fines, regulatory penalties and reasonable legal costs arising from:

• the actions of any of your Authorised Users;
• your breach of these terms; or
• your breach of data protection law, including sending links without a lawful basis.

This does not apply to the extent the loss was caused by our own breach of these terms, negligence or wilful misconduct.

14. Liability

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot be limited or excluded by law.

We are not liable for:

• loss of profit, revenue, business, goodwill or anticipated savings;
• any indirect or consequential loss;
• errors, gaps or delays in data supplied by banks or Plaid; or
• decisions, filings or advice you make or give based on Client Data or Exports.

Our total liability to you, however it arises, is limited to the greater of the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim, or £100.

15. Intellectual property

We own TaxBloc, including its software, design, content and export formats. We give you a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use TaxBloc for your Practice while your account is open.

You and your Clients keep all rights in Client Data. You allow us to use it only to provide TaxBloc to you, as set out in section 7. We may use anonymised, aggregated information about how TaxBloc is used to run and improve it. This information will not identify you or any Client.

If you send us feedback or suggestions, we may use them freely.

16. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. For material changes, we will email your Admins at least 30 days before the change takes effect.

If you do not agree with a change, you may close your account before it takes effect, and we will refund prepaid fees for the unused period. If you keep using TaxBloc after that date, you accept the updated terms.

We may make changes that the law or a regulator requires with shorter notice.

17. General

• These terms, together with the Privacy Policy and anything they refer to, are the whole agreement between us about TaxBloc.
• You may not transfer your rights under these terms without our written consent. We may transfer ours to another organisation that takes over TaxBloc, and will tell you if we do.
• If any part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest still applies.
• If we do not enforce a right straight away, we can still enforce it later.
• Neither of us is liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control.
• No one other than you and us has any right to enforce these terms under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.
• We will send notices to the email address of your Admins. You can send notices to hello@taxbloc.ai.
• These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.

18. If your accountant sent you a link

This section is for people who have been sent a TaxBloc link by their accountant.

• Your accountant asked for your bank transactions to help with your tax and accounts. You do not need a TaxBloc account.
• You connect your bank through Plaid, an FCA-authorised Open Banking provider. You log in to your own bank. We never see your bank login details.
• Access is read-only. Nobody can move money or make payments through TaxBloc.
• Your transactions are shared only with the accounting practice that sent you the link. They decide how the data is used, as the controller of your data.
• You can withdraw access at any time, through your bank, by telling your accountant, or by emailing hello@taxbloc.ai.

Plaid’s End User Privacy Policy explains how Plaid handles your data. Our Privacy Policy explains how we do.

19. Contact

Email hello@taxbloc.ai, call 020 7788 7952, or write to MortgageBloc Limited, 71-75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ.