These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a legally binding agreement between you ("you", "customer") and the company operating under the name BorderFile ("BorderFile", "we", "us", "our"). They govern your access to and use of the BorderFile marketing website at borderfile.io, the BorderFile dashboard, our APIs, and any associated services (together, the "Services"). By creating an account, booking a demo, or using any part of the Services you confirm that you have read, understood, and accepted these Terms. If you do not accept them, do not use the Services.
1. Who we are
BorderFile is a cross-border compliance and tax-filing platform aimed at non-US founders who own US companies. We prepare the annual Form 5472 together with the pro-forma Form 1120 for foreign-owned single-member LLCs that are treated as disregarded entities, and we coordinate adjacent US compliance filings (Form 7004 extensions, Delaware franchise and annual tax, Form 1099-NEC, registered-agent renewals) plus — through our expert desk — one-off engagements such as Form 1040-NR preparation, full 1120 returns, IRS notice responses, amendments, and penalty-abatement correspondence.
Legal and tax work that is signed and submitted to a taxing authority is performed by an Enrolled Agent ("EA") or Certified Public Accountant ("CPA") engaged by BorderFile. BorderFile itself is the software platform; the professional engagement, when it exists, is between you and the credentialed professional named on your engagement letter.
2. Account eligibility
To create a BorderFile account you must be at least 18 years old and legally able to form a binding contract in your jurisdiction. You must register with an email address you control and provide accurate information during intake. You may create an account on behalf of a legal entity you are authorised to represent; in that case the entity, not you personally, is the customer and you confirm that you have authority to accept these Terms on its behalf.
You are responsible for keeping your credentials safe, for every action taken under your account, and for notifying us immediately at support@borderfile.io if you suspect that your credentials have been compromised. We will suspend an account at the account holder's request pending reasonable verification.
3. Scope of the Services
The Services BorderFile offers include, but are not limited to:
- Compliance calendar. We generate a per-company calendar of US federal and selected state deadlines from versioned deadline rules. The calendar is informational until a specific filing is engaged.
- Intake and preparation. We collect company, owner, and transaction information through the dashboard, validate it against uploaded documents (CP 575 / 147C letters, bank statements), and prepare the applicable forms.
- Two-person review. Each filing is reviewed by a BorderFile reviewer against a stored checklist and then by an EA or CPA. The preparer, reviewer, and approver are three different people.
- Signature and submission. You e-sign the final filing through our in-house e-signature flow. We transmit the filing to the IRS by fax (or by mail where fax is not permitted), store the confirmation page, and provide a proof pack.
- Record retention. We retain filing data for seven years after submission, which aligns with the general US tax statute of limitations with a safety buffer. Legal holds extend retention until lifted. See section 10 for your rights.
- Expert desk. Scoped engagements beyond the standard filings; a separate engagement letter applies.
4. What we don't do
BorderFile is not a law firm, is not an audit firm, and does not provide investment, financial-planning, immigration, or legal advice. Marketing content on the website, including guides and blog posts, is for educational purposes only; following any suggestion in that content without a scoped engagement letter does not create a professional relationship and does not entitle you to rely on BorderFile for the outcome.
5. Your responsibilities
- Provide accurate, complete, and current information during intake.
- Upload complete statement coverage for every active bank account for the tax year.
- Confirm or correct our transaction tag suggestions before submission.
- Review and e-sign the final filing within the window stated in the dashboard; filings can be held indefinitely, but we cannot submit without your signature.
- Pay the applicable fees before submission; see section 6.
- Respond to reasonable follow-up questions from the reviewer or EA/CPA within five business days during an active engagement.
- Keep your government-issued identification and tax-identification numbers accurate.
6. Fees, payment, and taxes
All fees are shown at checkout and processed through Stripe. Fees are quoted in US dollars and are inclusive of our software and professional-review services unless the engagement letter specifies otherwise. You authorise Stripe to charge the payment method on file at the time you confirm the purchase. Where local law requires us to collect sales tax, VAT, or similar indirect taxes, those will be shown separately at checkout.
State filing fees (for example, Delaware's $300 LLC annual tax) are collected and remitted on a cost pass-through basis and are shown as a separate line item.
7. Content, intellectual property, and licence
All BorderFile software, website content, written content, visual design, and documentation (together, "BorderFile Materials") are our intellectual property or that of our licensors and are protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the BorderFile Materials for the sole purpose of using the Services for your own compliance.
You retain ownership of the data you upload ("Customer Data"). You grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to host, copy, transmit, display, and process Customer Data solely to provide the Services, improve them (in aggregated, anonymised form only), and meet our record-retention obligations. We will not sell Customer Data and will not use it for marketing without your separate consent.
8. Acceptable use
You will not: (a) attempt to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Services or any system we operate; (b) use the Services to file for a company or an owner whose identity you cannot verify; (c) upload malware, illegal content, or content that infringes a third party's rights; (d) use any automated means to access the Services other than our documented APIs; or (e) resell, sublicense, or rebrand the Services without a written agreement.
9. Confidentiality and security
We treat tax identification numbers (EINs, foreign tax IDs, US TINs where applicable) as highly sensitive. They are encrypted at rest using AES-256-GCM with a versioned key; the dashboard and public APIs return only the last four digits; full values are only ever returned through audited, rate-limited reveal endpoints. See the Privacy Policy for the full data-protection posture.
10. Data subject rights
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, port, or delete your personal data. Where you ask us to delete data that we are also required to keep under US recordkeeping rules (for example, filing records for seven years), the longer retention period controls. Email support@borderfile.io to exercise your rights.
11. Disclaimers and limitation of liability
The Services are provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, BorderFile disclaims all warranties, whether express, implied, statutory, or otherwise, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Services will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that any particular tax outcome will be achieved.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total liability to you for any claim arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the twelve months preceding the event giving rise to the claim or (b) one hundred US dollars. Neither party will be liable for indirect, consequential, incidental, special, exemplary, or punitive damages. Nothing in this section limits liability that cannot be excluded under applicable law in your jurisdiction.
12. Indemnity
You will indemnify, defend, and hold harmless BorderFile and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any third-party claim arising out of (a) your breach of these Terms, (b) your violation of applicable law, or (c) your Customer Data infringing a third party's rights.
13. Term and termination
These Terms remain in effect while you have an active account. You may close your account at any time from the dashboard, which will stop future billing and lock further intake; it will not delete filings that have been submitted to the IRS, which we are required to retain. We may suspend or terminate accounts that materially breach these Terms or applicable law, with notice where reasonable.
14. Changes to the Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. When we make a material change we will post the revised Terms here, update the "Last updated" date, and notify active customers by email at least thirty days before the change takes effect. Continued use of the Services after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.
15. Governing law and dispute resolution
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflicts-of-law provisions. Any dispute will be resolved by binding arbitration seated in the State of Delaware, with the sole exception of claims for injunctive relief protecting intellectual property, which may be brought in a court of competent jurisdiction. Where you reside in the European Union, the United Kingdom, or another jurisdiction that mandates specific consumer protections, those protections apply notwithstanding the above.
16. Entire agreement; severability
These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, Disclaimer, and any engagement letter you sign for a specific filing, constitute the entire agreement between you and BorderFile regarding the Services. If any provision is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in full force.
17. Contact
Questions about these Terms? Email support@borderfile.io.