Terms of Use

www.apnindia.com, an online income tax return preparation and filing website, operated by APN & Co.,("APN & Co.,"), in association with Bookminders Private Limited ("Bookminders") and collectively "the service providers"

You (the user or customer) can use and access www.apnindia.com (hereinafter referred to as "Website") and avail the service, subject to the terms and conditions of use, as changed/updated from time to time entirely at the discretion of APN & Co as set out below. The Terms and Conditions of Use shall continue and would be in force till the time You access this Website and use its services. You agree that You are bound by the terms as mentioned herein. Nothing in these Terms and Conditions of Use should be construed to confer any rights on You or any third party beneficiaries.

By visiting this Website You agree to be bound by the following terms and conditions:

The term 'APN & Co' is used through this entire Terms and Conditions of Use document to refer to the Website, its owners and the employees and associates of the owner.

The term 'Service' is used through this entire Terms and Conditions of Use document to refer to the Service owned or developed by APN & Co., and made available for Your use and access upon purchase of such Service by You from APN & Co.

All the Terms and Conditions of Use below have been expressed keeping Individuals in view.

Registration

By registering, You certify that all information that You provide, now or in the future, is accurate.

Once You agree to accept the terms of our service You will receive an account designation upon completing the Website's registration procedure. You shall be solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the password and account, and are fully responsible for all activities that occur under Your password or account and APN & Co shall not be responsible for any losses, damage or harm caused as a result of You sharing the password with third party. You also agree that You exit from Your account at the end of each session. APN & Co cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from Your failure to comply with the Website's registration process.

You agree to receive periodic SMS/newsletter/email alerts from APN & Co unless You have specifically declined / unsubscribed for the same.

Eligibility and registration

By registering for the APN & Co service, You represent and warrant that You are 18 years or older and that You have the capacity to understand, agree to and comply with these Terms and Conditions of Use. Since Indian laws do not permit us to contract with a minor person (minor is a person who has not completed 18 years of age), You as a minor, will be registering for the APN & Co service through Your legal guardian.

However, since the Income Tax Legislations provides a minor to file income tax return in certain circumstances, in such instance APN & Co presumes that the parent/guardian has registered himself to enroll the minor only as a tax payer on our Website and all the inputs, information provided our under guidance and assistance of at least one of his/her parent/guardian.

By registering to APN & Co.com you hereby consent to add yourself as CLIENT of APN & Co. and authorise APN & Co to get the information which are with Income Tax Department for the purpose of providing the Services Contemplated by this Site. You hereby agree for passing of communication by APN & Co to the Income Tax Department or any of their affiliates of Income Tax Department informing them about your intention become CLIENT of APN & Co by providing information as solicited by them. You can deactivate the registration by Logging in into your account at www.incometaxindiaefilling.gov.in.

Appropriate individual registration, access & conduct of user and content for personal use only

You shall not use APN & Co service for any illegal or unauthorized purpose, including misusing permanent account number (PAN) and Financial Information of another person. International users agree to comply with all Indian laws & regulations, including laws regulating the export of data from the United States or Your country of residence. You are solely responsible for Your conduct and any data, text, information, graphics, that You submit, & post on the Website.

While APN & Co strictly prohibits such conduct on its Website, You understand and agree that You nonetheless may be exposed to such misuse or blocking by other users and that You use the Website and the APN & Co service at Your own risk. Such misuse or unauthorised use shall be severely dealt and legal action shall be initiated under appropriate law.

For certain services such as Email, contents and calculators, registration by the visitor is required. By registering, You agree to the following terms in addition to any other specific terms, which shall be posted at an appropriate location of the Website. Each registration is for a single individual user with creation of single taxpayers return known to the registering user only. To access these services, You will be asked to enter your individual User Name, Password and Email Address. Therefore, we do not permit any of the following:

• Any other person sharing Your User Name and Password unless Your express permission is granted;
• Any part of the Website being cached in proxy servers and accessed by person/s who is not registered with APN & Co as users of the Website and Service/s.

If APN & Co is under a reasonable belief that a User Name and Password is being used / misused in any manner, APN & Co reserve the right to cancel all access rights immediately without notice, and block access to all Users from that IP address.

Charges

This Website reserves the right to charge fees in respect of Services offered by APN & Co. You shall be made aware of the charges upon registration and Your willingness to buy the Services offered in the Website. You agree that all activities that occur under Your account for payment towards the Services shall be your sole responsibility and APN & Co shall not be liable for any claims which may arise directly or incidentally due to the discharge of Your obligations under this clause. The same will apply for any Service/s being offered without any charges whenever made chargeable.

Pricing policy

The Services may be available individually or in combination and as such they will have to be bought in the same format without any customization of combination unless a choice or an upgrade facility is provided. Even if it is a combination of more than one service together, for all practical, legal and taxability purposes/issues it will be assumed to be one and the applicable taxes, if any, will be collected according to the common commercial parlance and that the You agree to bind Yourself without debate. The same will be true even where third parties' (Alliance Partners') services are included in the combination. The purchase of Services is through online transactions, wherein complete ability of service is enabled for the purchaser upon receiving payment. Upon receiving payment, it is also presumed that the service will or is delivered/rendered for all practical/legal purposes including the chargeability of applicable taxes if any like service tax, etc. If any time the legal interpretation or the concerned authorities raise a different view point at a later stage then APN & Co is free to take such necessary steps for recovering or refunding the tax so as to abide by and comply with the applicable law and You agree to binds Yourself for such change without notice. The same will be true whenever the Services are used irrespective of the fact that they are part of third parties' (Alliance Partners') service and have been purchased through them and their policies may interpret otherwise than the above.

Payment policy

The credit/debit card details disclosed by You for the purpose of availing APN & Co's services shall be correct. You shall not use any credit/debit card which does not lawfully belong to You i.e. in a credit/debit card transaction, You must use Your own credit/debit card. You further agree and undertake to disclose the correct and valid credit/debit card details to APN & Co. APN & Co will not utilize/share Your credit/debit card information with any third party except as per our Privacy Policy or as required by and under any law, regulation or court order. APN & Co will not be liable for any credit/debit card fraud. The liability for the use of credit/debit card fraudulently will solely be borne by You and the onus to 'prove otherwise' shall rest exclusively upon You.

The above terms shall apply to the information of net banking payment option usage i.e. user name and/or password etc provided by You.

You also agree and undertake not to stop and/or dispute any credit/debit card payment once initiated by You. You further agree to indemnify in full any expense/s incurred by APN & Co consequent to Your failure to abide by this clause.

Changes to terms and conditions

APN & Co reserves the right to add to or change/modify the terms of this Terms and Conditions of Use including but not limited to suspend/cancel, or discontinue any or all service at any time without notice to You and make modifications and alterations in any or all of the content and services contained on the Website without prior notice. Such changes will be posted on the Website for Your convenience to understand Your responsibility as a user. You are responsible for regularly reviewing these Terms and Conditions of Use so that You will be apprised of any changes. You will be deemed to have accepted such change/s if You continue to access the Website subsequent to such changes.

Delay in services

APN & Co (including its and their partners, employees, affiliates, agents, representatives or subcontractors) shall not be liable for any loss or liability resulting, directly or indirectly, from delays or interruptions due to electronic or mechanical equipment failures, telephone interconnect problems, defects, weather, strikes, walkouts, fire, acts of God, riots, armed conflicts, acts of war, or other like causes. APN & Co shall have no responsibility to provide You access to this Website while interruption of APN & Co is continued, due to any such cause mentioned here.

Liability disclaimer

YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT USE OF THE WEBSITE AND THE PRODUCTS/SERVICES IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK.

THE CONTENTS, INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, FEATURES AND SERVICES PUBLISHED ON THIS WEB SITE MAY INCLUDE INACCURACIES OR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. CHANGES ARE PERIODICALLY ADDED TO THE CONTENTS HEREIN. APN & CO AND/OR ITS RESPECTIVE SUPPLIERS MAY MAKE IMPROVEMENTS AND/OR CHANGES IN THIS WEB SITE AT ANY TIME. THIS WEB SITE MAY BE TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE FROM TIME TO TIME DUE TO REQUIRED MAINTENANCE, TELECOMMUNICATIONS INTERRUPTIONS, OR OTHER DISRUPTIONS. APN & CO AND/OR ITS RESPECTIVE ASSOCIATED ENTITIES MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY OF THE CONTENTS, INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, FEATURES AND SERVICES CONTAINED ON THIS WEB SITE. APN & CO AND/OR ITS ASSOCIATED ENTITIES HEREBY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS WITH REGARD TO THESE CONTENTS, INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, FEATURES AND SERVICES, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND AVAILABILITY.

IN NO EVENT SHALL APN & CO AND/OR ITS ASSOCIATED ENTITIES BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH THE USE OF THIS WEB SITE OR WITH THE DELAY OR INABILITY TO USE THIS WEBSITE, OR FOR ANY CONTENTS, INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, FEATURES AND SERVICES OBTAINED THROUGH THIS WEB SITE, OR OTHERWISE ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS WEB SITE, WHETHER BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF APN & CO OR ANY OF ITS ASSOCIATED ENTITIES HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGES.

Information collection and use

At the time of registering with APN & Co, the Website will ask You for Personal Information such as Your name, email address, birth date, pin code, occupation and industry. Once You register with APN & Co and sign in to the services, You are not anonymous to APN & Co.

APN & Co will only collect, store, use, and share your personal information (including email address) as it is defined by our privacy statement and as regulated by Indian laws. When filing a tax return online, in addition to entering Your own personal information, You may be asked to enter personal information of those who are either dependants or persons for whose income You are liable. APN & Co does not disclose Your information (including email address) to third parties except when the user requests to efile their return. APN & Co will disclose Your information to the appropriate government officials if the same is mandated by law. We may use the information provided by you to intimate the Income Tax Department, the fact that you have chosen to become CLIENT of APN & Co.

Only information provided by You is stored by APN & Co. APN & Co does not supplement Your information with information from other companies. The exception to this would be when Your employer has bought the services for bulk use for its employees and to facilitate that we may upload information provided by Your employer.

In case you avail any other services of APN & Co wherein APN & Co is required to access your form 16 be it in physical or electronic form provided to APN & Co either physically through post, courier or any other mode or by email, it is presumed that you have read this terms of service and has authorized APN & Co to access such information as is required for the service sought.

Any changes in tax laws and procedures would be incorporated in the Website without unreasonable delay. However APN & Co disclaims all responsibility to update the Website or the service/s offered for any reason whatsoever. You understand and agree that the Tax laws are liable to subjective interpretations and opinions and while offering the service/s and or products APN & Co's team of tax experts interpret the vast number of tax law provisions in the most reasonable and law abiding manner. The income and tax calculations may be different from another tax professional's point of view. Hence, You understand and agree that APN & Co will not be responsible for any errors, misrepresentation or miscalculations in case of income or tax areas reported or displayed or printed in any form through the service/s or products.

Information sharing and disclosure

For the purpose of this Website, Personal Information is information about You that is personally identifiable like Your name, age, sex, address, email address, or phone number, and that is not otherwise publicly available. Financial Information is information about Your PAN, Bank Account Details & Transactions, Credit Card Account Details & Transactions.

APN & Co does not rent, sell, or share any of the above information (personal and financial) with other people or non-affiliated companies.

APN & Co does not intend to transfer Personal Information and Financial Information without Your consent to third parties who are not bound to act on APN & Co's behalf unless such transfer is legally required in response to court orders, warrants, legal process, or to establish or exercise its legal rights or defend against legal claims etc.

APN & Co believes it is necessary to share Personal Information in order to investigate, prevent, or take action against illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of APN & Co's terms of use, or as otherwise required by law.

Information disclaimer

You acknowledge that the information provided through APN & Co is compiled from sources, which are beyond the control of APN & Co. Though such information is recognized by the parties to be generally reliable, the parties acknowledge that inaccuracies may occur and APN & Co does not warrant the accuracy or suitability of the information. For this reason, as well as the possibility of human and mechanical errors and other factors, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT APN & CO IS PROVIDED TO YOU ON AN "AS IS" BASIS. APN & CO EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS, ORAL, IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE, OF ANY KIND TO THE USERS AND/OR ANY THIRD PARTY, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ACCURACY, TIMELINESS, COMPLETENESS, MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AS WELL AS ANY WARRANTIES ARISING BY VIRTUE OF CUSTOM OF TRADE OR COURSE OF DEALING AND ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF TITLE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. FURTHER, APN & CO DOES NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT IT WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR IS SUITABLE FOR YOUR NEEDS.

Under this Terms and Conditions of Use, You are responsible for all risk of errors and/or omissions in APN & Co, including the transmission or translation of information. You assume full responsibility for implementing sufficient procedures and checks to satisfy Your requirements for the accuracy and suitability of APN & Co, including the information, and for maintaining any means, which You may require for the reconstruction of lost data or subsequent manipulations or analyses of the information under the Terms and conditions of Use.

Equipment and operation

You shall provide and maintain all telephone/internet and other equipment necessary to access this Website, and the costs of any such equipment and/or telephone/internet connections or use, including any applicable taxes, shall be borne solely by You. You are responsible for operating Your own equipment used to access APN & Co.

Intellectual property

Unless otherwise stated, copyright and all intellectual property rights in all material presented and contained in the Websites, together with the Website design, text and graphics, and their selection and arrangement, and all software compilations, underlying source code and software including but not limited to text, audio, video or graphical images, trademarks and logos appearing on this Website belongs to APN & Co., its parent, affiliates and associates and are protected under applicable Indian laws. Strict action shall be taken against any infringement and shall be vigorously pursued and defended to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Copyright and all intellectual property rights in all material presented on this Website belonging to Third party products shall be governed by the terms and conditions specified by them in this behalf.

Usage of the website

The Website is intended for personal, non-commercial use. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of Your passwords, login and account information. You will be responsible for all use of the Website by You and anyone using Your password and login information (with or without Your permission). You may not use the Website to make any fraudulent applications. You agree not to use the Website for any purpose that is unlawful, illegal or forbidden by these Terms, or any local laws that might apply to You. APN & Co is running the Website in India, so remember that by using the Website, we need You to agree to comply with laws that apply to India, including laws that apply to exporting technical data.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold APN & Co, its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, and other partners and employees harmless from any loss, liability, claim, or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of Your use of the Website, including Your use of the Website which provide a link to another Website or arising out of any uploading of any content by You or Your violation of any rights of any other person or any breach of any applicable law or other information on the Website.

Delivery policy

APN & Co shall provide You with an access code upon registration and payment, to the email address or via SMS registered with us and You shall be able to access and use WWW.APNINDIA.COM upon entering the access code in the manner specified in the Website.

Refund policy

Any product/service once purchased cannot be cancelled since the nature of Products/Services is online, they are instantly delivered and/or once the process of delivery gets initiated and cannot be stopped without any misuse/loss to APN & Co.

However, APN & Co will refund any payment made to You in the following circumstances:

• If there has been a duplicate payment in error.

Notwithstanding anything contained above, a Cancellation/Refund request may be granted only in cases where the Products/Services have not complied with and/or fall short in the fulfillment of its feature as expressed in the Product/Service description and/or there is delay in serviceability of the same and the usability is lost due to essence of timing and/or unavoidable circumstances beyond the reach or fault of the customer. The grant of such request will be at the sole discretion of the APN & Co team and You consent to the terms while making Your application for refund. The refund so granted will be subject to verification of payment realized and after reduction of the taxes and/or finance charges as applicable (if any) for such transaction.

Force majeure

APN & Co shall have no liability to You for any interruption or delay in access to the Website irrespective of the cause.

Force Majeure event shall be one when there is any cessation, interruption or delay in the performance of APN & Co's obligations due to causes beyond its reasonable control, including but not limited to: technical, earthquake, flood, or other natural disaster, act of God, labor controversy, civil disturbance, war (whether or not officially declared) or the inability to obtain sufficient supply of service, transportation, or other essential commodity or service required in the conduct of its business, or any change in or the adoption of any law, regulation, judgment or decree. Without limiting the foregoing, under no circumstances shall APN & Co be held liable for any delay or failure in performance resulting directly or indirectly from acts of nature, forces, or causes beyond its reasonable control, including, without limitation, Internet failures, computer equipment failures, telecommunication equipment failures, other equipment failures, electrical power failures, strikes, labor disputes, riots, insurrections, civil disturbances, shortages of labor or materials, fires, floods, storms, explosions, acts of God, war, governmental actions, orders of domestic or foreign courts or tribunals, non-performance of third parties, or loss of or fluctuations in heat, light, or air conditioning of Your information & or data received and or stored or any of our service/s.

Entire agreement

The Terms and Conditions of Use constitutes the entire agreement between the parties, and no other agreement, written or oral, exists between You and APN & Co. By using the Information on WWW.APNINDIA.COM, You assume full responsibility for any and all gains and losses, financial, emotional or otherwise, experienced, suffered or incurred by You. APN & Co does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of, or otherwise endorse in any way, the views, opinions or recommendations expressed in the Information. The Information does not constitute a solicitation by the information providers, APN & Co or other of the purchase or sale of securities.

Termination

The Terms and Conditions of Use hereunder shall remain in full force and effect unless terminated or canceled by APN & Co for any of the following reasons: (a) immediately, for any unauthorized access or use by You (b) immediately, if You assign or transfer (or attempt the same) any rights granted to You under this Agreement; (c) immediately, if You violate any of the other terms and conditions of this Agreement. Termination or cancellation of this Agreement shall not effect any right or relief to which APN & Co may be entitled, at law or in equity. Upon termination by APN & Co of this Agreement all rights granted to You will terminate and revert to APN & Co.

Consent to transfer

This Website is operated in India. If You are located outside India, please be aware that any information You provide to us will be transferred to India. By using our Website, participating in any of our services and/or providing us with Your information, You consent to this transfer and You consent that You are abiding by the laws of India.

Privacy policy

Your use of this Website is subject to our Privacy Policy.

Jurisdiction

The terms of the agreement are exclusively based on and subject to Indian law. You hereby consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of courts in Bengaluru, India in all disputes arising out of or relating to the use of this Website.