Data Retention and Data Removal Policy

DEANNA NGUEKET CPA LLC
Effective: August 29, 2026

1. Purpose and Scope

1.1 What this policy covers. This policy explains how long Deanna Ngueket CPA LLC keeps information, how it is disposed of, and how to ask us to remove it. It covers three different things: client records, meaning the documents and data you give us; engagement files, meaning the returns, financial statements, workpapers, notes, and correspondence we produce; and website and inquiry data collected through dngueketcpa.com.

1.2 Retention comes first. As a public accountancy firm we are required to keep records for defined periods by professional standards, by federal tax and electronic filing rules, and by the need to support work already delivered if it is later examined or disputed. Removal requests are honored only where those obligations do not apply. We will not agree to delete records we are required to keep.

2. How Long We Keep Information

2.1 Client records and completed returns. Kept for seven years measured from the later of the filing date of the return and the date the engagement ends, a period set by reference to the assessment and amendment periods that can apply to a return.

2.2 Engagement files and workpapers. Kept for seven years from completion of the engagement, a period set by reference to the record requirements of the Rules of Professional Conduct of the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy and the need to support the work if it is later reviewed.

2.3 Electronic filing records. Kept for the period required of authorized IRS e-file providers, which runs from the end of the calendar year in which the return was filed.

2.4 Billing and business records. Kept for seven years, a period set by reference to tax, accounting, and limitations requirements applicable to the Firm.

2.5 Inquiries that do not become engagements. Contact form submissions, scheduling records, and related correspondence are kept for twenty-four months and then deleted.

2.6 Backups. Copies of live systems are held in secure backups on a rolling cycle and are overwritten in the ordinary course. Removing information from a live system does not remove it from a backup immediately, and backups are not searched to fulfil a removal request.

3. Return of Your Records

You may ask us at any time for the return of records you provided to us, and we will return them within twenty business days of a written request, in the format in which we hold them. We return client records whether or not fees are outstanding, as the Rules of Professional Conduct of the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy require. Returning your records does not require us to delete our own copies or our engagement files, which remain subject to the retention periods in Section 2.

4. Legal Hold

If we learn of an examination, an inquiry from a taxing authority or regulator, a subpoena, a claim, or a threatened dispute touching an engagement, we shall suspend disposal of the affected records until the matter is resolved, whether or not the retention period has run and whether or not a removal request is pending.

5. Removal Requests

5.1 How to make one. Send a written request to info@dngueketcpa.com identifying yourself, the information you want removed, and the engagement it relates to. We will verify your identity before acting, using information already in our records, and we will not treat an unverified request as valid.

5.2 What we do. We will respond within thirty days. Where the information is not subject to a retention obligation or a legal hold, we will remove it from our live systems and confirm that we have done so. Where it is, we will tell you which category applies and when the retention period ends.

5.3 What we can usually remove. Marketing contacts, inquiry records that did not lead to an engagement, and information collected through the Site that is not part of an engagement file.

5.4 What we generally cannot remove. Completed returns and the records supporting them, engagement files and workpapers, electronic filing records, and billing records, in each case until the applicable period in Section 2 has run.

6. Copies Held Elsewhere

Removing information from our systems does not remove copies held by you, by a taxing authority, by your bank or bookkeeping platform, or by a service provider acting on your own account. Where a vendor holds information on our behalf, we will instruct it to dispose of that information on the same schedule.

7. Tax Return Information

A request to remove information is not consent to use or disclose tax return information, and it does not change how that information is protected. We retain tax return information as federal law permits and requires, and we use or disclose it only as described in the Privacy Policy.

8. Disposal

At the end of a retention period, paper records are shredded and electronic records are deleted using a method designed to prevent reconstruction. Disposal happens on a periodic cycle rather than on the exact anniversary of each record.

9. Changes and Contact

We may update this policy. The version posted on the Site is the version in effect, and the Effective date shows when it last changed. Questions and requests go to info@dngueketcpa.com.