These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of 3520file.com (the "Service"), operated by 3520file LLC ("we," "us," "our"). By creating an account, paying for a filing, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms together with our Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, and Data Security page — these documents together form the entire agreement between us. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. What the Service Does

3520file is software that generates IRS Form 3520 PDFs from information you provide. We collect facts about your foreign gifts or inheritances, apply the published IRS form mechanics, perform a historical foreign-currency-to-USD conversion, produce a print-ready PDF, and (for Concierge customers) ship a pre-stamped certified-mail envelope through Lob.com. The Service does NOT submit anything to the IRS — Form 3520 has no e-file path; you print, sign in pen, and mail it yourself.

2. Important Disclaimer — Not Legal or Tax Advice

3520file is NOT a CPA firm, NOT a law firm, and NOT an enrolled agent. We do NOT provide tax advice, legal advice, audit defense, or representation before the IRS. Software-as-a-service tax preparation is not a substitute for licensed professional advice in complex situations. If your facts involve a foreign trust beneficiary status, contested inheritance, ongoing IRS examination, multi-year amendments, or cross-border estate matters, consult a licensed tax attorney or CPA before relying on this Service. Filing Form 3520 incorrectly can result in penalties of 5% per month up to 25% of the gift amount — when in doubt, get professional advice.

3. Eligibility and Account Registration

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account. You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information during registration and to keep that information up to date. You are responsible for safeguarding your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. If you become aware of unauthorized access, notify us immediately at security@3520file.com. We use Clerk for authentication and recommend you enable multi-factor authentication in your Clerk account.

4. Authorization to File

By submitting facts and signing the generated Form 3520, you warrant that: (a) you are the US person who received the foreign gift or inheritance, OR (b) you are an authorized representative (parent or guardian of a minor recipient, executor of a decedent's estate filing for the year of death, or attorney-in-fact under a valid power of attorney) acting within your authority. We do not verify the validity of your authority — that responsibility is yours. Filing Form 3520 on behalf of someone else without authorization may constitute a federal offense under 18 U.S.C. § 1001 and other statutes.

5. Your Responsibilities

You are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of every fact you enter — donor names, donor countries, transaction dates, currency codes, foreign-currency amounts, and your description of each transaction. You are responsible for reviewing the generated Form 3520 before signing and confirming that every line correctly reflects your facts. You are responsible for mailing the form certified (or accepting our Concierge mail-kit) and retaining your USPS certified-mail receipt — the IRS does not send acceptance letters for Form 3520, so the USPS certified-mail receipt IS your legal proof of timely filing. You are responsible for any subsequent IRS correspondence; we do not represent you before the IRS.

6. Electronic Signature

IRS Notice 2023-31 (made permanent in subsequent guidance) permits electronic signatures on Form 3520. By signing in our HTML5 canvas you agree: (a) the electronic signature has the same legal effect as a wet-ink signature for purposes of the IRS's e-signature acceptance; (b) we may record the timestamp, IP address, browser user-agent, and signature image as part of the audit trail required by IRS Publication 4557; and (c) you have read the entire Form 3520 PDF prior to signing.

7. Wet Signature on the Printed Form

IRS practice for paper-filed Form 3520 also requires a wet (pen) signature on the printed form, alongside the electronic signature that proves you reviewed and approved the form in our app. We surface this requirement in the in-app instructions, on the printable PDF itself, and (for Concierge customers) on the printed cover sheet inside the mail-kit. You agree to sign the printed form in pen before mailing it to the IRS.

8. Pricing and Payment

Standard tier is $99 per filing. Concierge tier is $149 per filing and includes a printed mail-kit (Form 3520, envelope, certified-mail label, instructions) shipped to you via Lob.com. Prices are in US dollars, do not include applicable sales tax (if any), and may be adjusted with 30 days' written notice posted on the pricing page and emailed to active customers. All fees are charged in full at checkout via Stripe.

9. Refunds

We offer a full refund if you request one within 24 hours of payment AND you have not yet downloaded the printable PDF (Standard) or had a Concierge kit shipped. After the PDF has been downloaded or the kit shipped, we have delivered the prepared form and fees are non-refundable. Stripe processing fees we incurred on your transaction may be deducted from your refund. To request a refund, email support@3520file.com.

10. Prohibited Uses

You agree NOT to: (a) submit false, fraudulent, or misleading information to us or to the IRS via the form we generate for you; (b) use the Service to file a form for someone else without their authorization (see Authorization to File above); (c) attempt to reverse-engineer, decompile, or extract source code from any part of the Service; (d) scrape, mirror, or republish our content, pricing, or interfaces; (e) use bots, scripts, or automated tools to interact with the Service except through documented APIs (we do not currently expose a public API); (f) use the Service to facilitate any activity that is illegal under US federal or state law; (g) probe, scan, or test the security of the Service except under an authorized bug-bounty arrangement. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate this section, with or without notice depending on severity.

11. User Content and Intellectual Property

We own all rights in the Service, the underlying software, the question-flow logic, the generated form templates, and the 3520file brand. You retain ownership of the personal information and documents you provide. By submitting facts to us you grant us a limited, royalty-free license to use that information solely to provide the Service and to retain it for the period described in our Privacy Policy. If you upload supporting documents (e.g. donor letters, bank statements) for our reference, you represent that you have the right to share them and that they do not infringe any third-party rights.

12. Third-Party Services

The Service relies on third-party providers — including Clerk (auth), Stripe (payments), Resend (email), Railway (hosting), Cloudflare (DNS/CDN), OpenExchangeRates (FX rates), Lob.com (Concierge mail), Sentry (error monitoring), and PostHog (analytics). These providers each have their own terms of service and privacy policies that apply when you interact with their products. We select vendors carefully but we are not responsible for the acts or omissions of these third parties beyond our contractual obligations to you.

13. No Warranty of IRS Acceptance

WE PROVIDE THE SERVICE "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE." WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE GENERATED FORM 3520 WILL BE ACCEPTED BY THE IRS WITHOUT QUESTION, THAT YOUR FILING WILL AVOID PENALTIES, OR THAT THE IRS WILL NOT REQUEST ADDITIONAL INFORMATION OR ASSESS PENALTIES IN A LATER EXAMINATION. YOU REMAIN RESPONSIBLE FOR REVIEWING THE FORM BEFORE SIGNING AND MAILING. WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

14. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, OUR TOTAL CUMULATIVE LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY CLAIM OR SERIES OF RELATED CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF 3520FILE IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US FOR THE FILING IN QUESTION OR (B) ONE HUNDRED US DOLLARS ($100). WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES — INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IRS PENALTIES, INTEREST, ACCRUED INTEREST ON UNPAID TAX, LOST OPPORTUNITY, PROFESSIONAL FEES YOU INCUR IN RESPONDING TO THE IRS, OR REPUTATIONAL HARM. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN DAMAGES — IN THOSE JURISDICTIONS THIS LIMITATION APPLIES TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

15. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless 3520file LLC, its officers, directors, employees, and contractors from any third-party claim, demand, loss, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from: (a) any inaccurate, fraudulent, or incomplete information you provided to us; (b) your filing of Form 3520 — including any IRS examination, penalty, or interest assessed against you; (c) your violation of these Terms or applicable law; (d) your infringement of any third party's rights.

16. Account Suspension and Termination

We may suspend or terminate your account at any time, with or without notice, if you violate these Terms, submit fraudulent information, attempt to file for someone else without authorization, or otherwise misuse the Service. You may close your account at any time by emailing support@3520file.com. Termination does not entitle you to a refund of fees already earned by us and does not relieve you of obligations that survive termination (including Sections on Limitation of Liability, Indemnification, Governing Law, and Dispute Resolution).

17. Dispute Resolution and Binding Arbitration

PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY — IT AFFECTS YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service shall first be addressed by good-faith negotiation between you and us for 30 days after written notice. If unresolved, the dispute shall be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, in Wilmington, Delaware, or by video conference at your election. You and we each waive the right to a jury trial and to participate in a class action, class arbitration, or consolidated proceeding. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by sending written notice to legal@3520file.com within 30 days of first agreeing to these Terms; opting out does not affect any other provision. Notwithstanding the foregoing, either party may bring an individual claim in small-claims court if it qualifies, and either party may seek injunctive relief in court to protect intellectual property or confidential information.

18. Governing Law

These Terms and any dispute arising out of them are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. Except as provided in the Dispute Resolution section, any litigation permitted under these Terms shall be filed exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Wilmington, Delaware, and you consent to personal jurisdiction there.

19. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, that provision shall be enforced to the maximum extent permitted and the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect. The unenforceability of one provision does not affect the enforceability of the rest of the agreement.

20. No Waiver and Assignment

Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms is not a waiver of that right or provision. You may not assign or transfer these Terms or any rights under them without our prior written consent; any attempt to do so is void. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of substantially all of our assets, provided the assignee assumes our obligations to you.

21. Changes to These Terms

We may modify these Terms from time to time. Material changes — meaning a change that materially expands your obligations, materially limits your rights, or materially changes pricing — will be announced via email to active customers at least 30 days before they take effect. By continuing to use the Service after the effective date of a change you accept the revised Terms. If you do not accept a change, your remedy is to stop using the Service and request account deletion.

22. Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, and Data Security page, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service. They supersede any prior agreement or understanding between us on this subject. Section headings are for convenience only and have no legal effect.

23. Contact

General questions about these Terms: legal@3520file.com. To exercise dispute-resolution rights or to send formal legal notice: same address. Mailing address: 3520file LLC, c/o Legal Department, Wilmington, Delaware (full mailing address provided on request).