Cookie policy

BackYears is an independent referral service. We are not a CPA firm, tax preparer, or law firm, and we are not affiliated with the IRS or any government agency. Tax services are provided by independent licensed professionals.

Always on

These are needed for the site to work, or are first-party only and never sent to an ad network.

• cu_consent: remembers your cookie choice (6 months).
• first_touch: remembers the campaign tags in the link you first arrived from (30 days), so we know which channels help people. It holds no answers, and if you finish our questions the tags are saved with them (see the privacy policy).
• Sign-in cookies for partners and admins only.
• Cloudflare Turnstile checks that forms are sent by a person, not a bot.

Your browser also keeps a draft of your answers on your own device while you fill in our questions (up to 7 days). It isn't sent to us until you submit.

Only if you say yes

• PostHog product analytics, to see which pages help people. Automatic capture and session recording are off.
• Google Ads, Meta and TikTok conversion measurement, to see which ads lead to someone finishing our questions.

These never receive your answers. Ad platforms only get the fact that someone finished the questions, with a random id. They don't load at all on your personal next steps page or in the partner and admin areas. Google Consent Mode starts with everything set to denied, and ad personalisation stays off even if you say yes.

Some state privacy laws call letting ad platforms measure visits this way "selling" or "sharing". That is why it only happens if you click "Allow".

Global Privacy Control

If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal, we treat it as "No thanks" on every visit, even if you clicked "Allow" before. Nothing in the "only if you say yes" list loads.

Changing your mind

Use the "Cookie settings" link at the bottom of any page to change your choice at any time. The "Your privacy choices" link explains all your options.