Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms

1.1. These Terms of Service (“Terms”) constitute a legally binding agreement between you (“Member,” “you,” or “your”) and Radha Emporium, a sole proprietorship registered under the laws of India, operating the software platform known as The Finance Laboratory (“TFL,” “Platform,” “Service”), accessible at thefinancelaboratory.com and associated subdomains.

1.2. By registering for, accessing, or using the Platform, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms, our Privacy Policy, and any additional guidelines or policies referenced herein.

1.3. If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not access or use the Platform. Continued use of the Platform after any modification to these Terms constitutes your acceptance of such modifications.

1.4. You represent and warrant that you are at least 18 years of age and have the legal capacity to enter into this agreement.

2. Description of Service

2.1. TFL is an artificial intelligence-powered software platform designed to assist practicing Chartered Accountants (“CAs”) in India with income tax litigation workflows. The Platform provides:

• Automated parsing and extraction of structured data from tax notices and orders;
• AI-assisted litigation strategy generation based on verified case law precedents;
• AI-assisted draft submission generation with verified, hyperlinked citations;
• Document editing integration with Microsoft Word via OneDrive;
• Automated assembly of filing deliverables and annexures;
• Compliance calendar and deadline tracking;
• Engagement management and case lifecycle tracking;
• Research tools for Indian tax case law.

2.2. TFL is a research and drafting aid only. TFL does not provide legal advice, tax advice, or professional consulting services. All outputs generated by TFL are AI-assisted drafts that require professional review, verification, and sign-off by a qualified Chartered Accountant before any use, filing, or submission.

2.3. TFL uses artificial intelligence models (provided by a third-party AI provider) to generate outputs. While TFL employs verified data sources (including established third-party legal databases) and implements zero-hallucination architecture for case law citations, AI-generated content may contain errors, omissions, or inaccuracies. The Member bears sole responsibility for reviewing, verifying, and approving all outputs before use.

3. Eligibility and Registration

3.1. Professional Qualification Requirement: The Platform is designed exclusively for use by:

• Members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) holding a valid Certificate of Practice; or
• Chartered Accountant firms registered with ICAI; or
• Article Clerks and staff of registered CA firms, under the supervision of a practicing CA member.

3.2. ICAI Membership Validation: During registration, you must provide your valid ICAI Membership Number. TFL reserves the right to verify this information and suspend or terminate accounts that provide false or invalid membership details.

3.3. Account Information: You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information during registration and to update such information to keep it accurate. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activities that occur under your account.

3.4. One Account Per Member: Each ICAI membership number may be associated with only one TFL account unless operating under a Firm plan with multiple seats.

4. Subscription and Payment

4.1. Free Trial: TFL offers a 14-day free trial with full access to all Platform features. No credit card or payment information is required to start the free trial.

4.2. Subscription Plans: After the trial period, continued access requires an active paid subscription. Available plans and pricing are displayed on the Platform and may be updated from time to time.

4.3. Pricing: All prices displayed on the Platform are exclusive of Goods and Services Tax (GST). The applicable GST (currently 18% under SAC Code 998314 — IT Software Services) will be added to the subscription amount and clearly shown before payment confirmation.

4.4. Payment Processing: Payments are processed through Razorpay, a third-party payment processor. By making a payment, you also agree to Razorpay's terms of service. TFL does not store your credit card, debit card, or bank account details.

4.5. GST Invoice: A GST-compliant tax invoice will be automatically generated and emailed to your registered email address for every payment. Invoices are issued by Radha Emporium (GSTIN as provided on the invoice). Members may claim Input Tax Credit (ITC) on these invoices as applicable.

4.6. Auto-Renewal: Subscriptions automatically renew at the end of each billing cycle (monthly or annual) unless cancelled before the renewal date. You will be charged the then-current subscription rate at each renewal.

4.7. Cancellation: You may cancel your subscription at any time from your account settings. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. No prorated refunds are provided for partial billing periods.

4.8. Refund Policy: Subscription fees are non-refundable once a billing cycle has commenced, except where required by applicable law. If you experience a technical issue that renders the Platform completely unusable and TFL is unable to resolve it within 7 business days, you may request a prorated refund for the unused portion of the current billing cycle by contacting support.

4.9. Tax Deduction at Source (TDS): Subscription fees for TFL are payments for a software licence/SaaS subscription classified under SAC Code 998314 (IT Software Services). These payments are not subject to TDS deduction under Sections 194J, 194C, or 194-O of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (or corresponding provisions of the Income Tax Act, 2025, as applicable). Subscription fees are payable without deduction of tax at source.

4.10. Price Changes: TFL reserves the right to modify subscription pricing. Existing subscribers will be given at least 30 days' notice before any price increase takes effect. Price increases apply only at the next renewal after the notice period.

5. Member Obligations and Acceptable Use

5.1. Professional Responsibility: You acknowledge and agree that:

• You are a qualified professional subject to the ICAI Code of Ethics and applicable professional standards;
• All outputs generated by TFL are AI-assisted drafts requiring your professional review and judgment;
• You bear full professional responsibility for any document filed with any authority, tribunal, or court, regardless of whether it was generated with the assistance of TFL;
• You must independently verify all case law citations, legal propositions, and factual statements in any TFL-generated output before relying upon or filing them;
• TFL is a tool to assist your professional practice — it does not replace your professional judgment, expertise, or obligations.

5.2. Client Consent: Before uploading any client documents, data, or information to the Platform, you represent and warrant that:

• You have obtained appropriate consent from your client(s) to use AI-assisted tools in the provision of professional services;
• You have informed your client(s) that their case documents will be processed by AI systems;
• You are authorised to share such documents and information with TFL for the purpose of availing the Platform's services.

5.3. Prohibited Uses: You shall not:

• Use the Platform for any purpose other than legitimate professional tax litigation work;
• Attempt to reverse-engineer, decompile, or extract the source code, algorithms, or AI prompts of the Platform;
• Upload content that is fraudulent, misleading, or intended to facilitate tax evasion (as distinguished from legitimate tax planning and avoidance);
• Share your account credentials with unauthorised persons;
• Attempt to circumvent usage limits, rate limits, or subscription restrictions;
• Use automated scripts, bots, or scrapers to access the Platform except through TFL's official API;
• Attempt to inject malicious prompts, instructions, or payloads into document uploads with the intent of manipulating AI outputs;
• Resell, sublicense, or white-label TFL's services without prior written agreement;
• Use the Platform in any manner that violates applicable law, regulation, or professional ethical standards.

6. Intellectual Property

6.1. TFL's Intellectual Property: The Platform, including its software, algorithms, AI agent architectures, system prompts, user interface designs, branding, logos, and documentation, is the intellectual property of Radha Emporium and is protected by applicable intellectual property laws. Nothing in these Terms grants you any right, title, or interest in TFL's intellectual property except the limited right to use the Platform in accordance with your subscription.

6.2. Your Content: You retain all rights in the documents, data, and information you upload to the Platform (“Your Content”). By uploading Your Content, you grant TFL a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to process Your Content solely for the purpose of providing the Platform's services to you.

6.3. AI-Generated Outputs: Outputs generated by TFL's AI agents (including strategy memos, draft submissions, and filing deliverables) are created using your inputs and are provided to you as part of the subscription service. You may use, modify, and file these outputs in the course of your professional practice. TFL does not claim ownership of the final outputs after your review and modification.

6.4. No Training on Your Data: TFL does not use Your Content, your client documents, or any data uploaded to the Platform to train, fine-tune, or improve any artificial intelligence model, whether TFL's own models or third-party models. Your data is used solely to provide the service to you and is not used for any other purpose.

6.5. Feedback: If you provide suggestions, feature requests, or feedback about the Platform, TFL may use such feedback to improve the Platform without any obligation or compensation to you.

7. AI Disclaimer and Limitation of AI Outputs

7.1. AI-Generated Content Disclaimer: All content generated by TFL's AI agents — including but not limited to parsed notice data, litigation strategy memos, draft submissions, case law research results, filing deliverables, and any other outputs — is AI-generated content created with the assistance of artificial intelligence models.

7.2. Mandatory Review: Every AI-generated output carries the following mandatory disclaimer, which you acknowledge and accept:

“AI-generated draft. The Chartered Accountant retains full professional responsibility for the contents of this document. All citations, legal propositions, and factual statements must be independently verified before filing with any authority, tribunal, or court.”

7.3. No Guarantee of Accuracy: While TFL employs verified data sources and implements citation verification processes, TFL does not guarantee that:

• All case law citations are current, accurately reported, or have not been overruled or distinguished;
• The legal analysis or strategy suggestions are correct, complete, or appropriate for your specific case;
• The draft submissions will achieve any particular outcome;
• The AI models will not produce errors, hallucinations, or inaccuracies despite safeguards.

7.4. Citation Verification: TFL retrieves case law citations from live API sources (including verified third-party legal-data sources) and does not rely on AI model training data for citations. Where available, each citation includes a clickable hyperlink for independent verification. Despite these safeguards, you must independently verify every citation before relying upon it.

7.5. Judicial Hierarchy: TFL's AI agents are designed to respect judicial hierarchy (Supreme Court > High Court > ITAT > CIT(A)) in ranking and presenting case law. However, the applicability and binding nature of any precedent to your specific case remains your professional judgment.

8. Data Protection and Privacy

8.1. Your use of the Platform is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference.

8.2. TFL is committed to compliance with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (“DPDP Act”) and all applicable Indian data protection laws.

8.3. Data Residency (Storage): All of your data is stored in India, on secure cloud infrastructure located in the Mumbai region — this includes all database records, uploaded documents, generated outputs, and account information. Other than transient operational logs (such as server and error logs kept briefly for security and debugging), no permanent copy of your data is stored outside India.

8.4. Cross-Border Processing: While your data is stored in India (Section 8.3), certain transient processing occurs on the infrastructure of our service providers located outside India, including (a) our application-hosting provider, which runs the software that receives and processes your requests, and (b) our AI sub-processor, which performs AI inference. This processing is limited to operating the Platform and generating outputs; aside from transient operational logs, no permanent copy of your data is retained outside India, your data is not sold, and it is not used to train any AI model. Under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, such transfers are currently permitted, and by using the Platform you acknowledge and agree to this cross-border processing for the purpose of providing the Service.

8.5. AI Model Provider: TFL uses a third-party AI provider's models for AI processing. The AI provider's data processing is governed by their data processing agreement with TFL. The AI provider does not use TFL user data to train its models.

9. Confidentiality

9.1. TFL recognises that information uploaded to the Platform may include confidential client information subject to the CA-client privilege and professional secrecy obligations under the ICAI Code of Ethics.

9.2. TFL shall maintain the confidentiality of all data uploaded to the Platform and shall not disclose such data to any third party except:

• As necessary to provide the Platform's services (including processing by AI model providers as described in Section 8.5);
• As required by applicable law, regulation, or court order;
• With your explicit written consent.

9.3. TFL employees, contractors, and agents with access to user data are bound by confidentiality obligations.

10. Service Availability and Support

10.1. Availability: TFL aims to maintain reasonable uptime for the Platform but does not guarantee uninterrupted, error-free, or continuous service. The Platform may be temporarily unavailable due to maintenance, updates, or circumstances beyond TFL's reasonable control.

10.2. Support: Support is provided via:

• Email: guptakaran.1501k@gmail.com
• WhatsApp: +91 9163045425

TFL aims to respond to support queries within one business day during regular business hours (Monday to Saturday, 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM IST).

10.3. Maintenance: TFL may perform scheduled and unscheduled maintenance that may temporarily affect Platform availability. Where practicable, TFL will provide advance notice of scheduled maintenance.

11. Limitation of Liability

11.1. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law:

• TFL, its proprietor, employees, contractors, and agents shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including but not limited to loss of profits, loss of data, loss of business opportunity, professional liability claims, or damages arising from reliance on AI-generated outputs;
• TFL's total aggregate liability to you for any and all claims arising out of or relating to these Terms or the use of the Platform shall not exceed the total amount paid by you to TFL in the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the claim;
• TFL shall not be liable for any loss, damage, or liability arising from: your failure to verify AI-generated outputs before filing; errors or inaccuracies in AI-generated content despite verification safeguards; any outcome of any litigation, appeal, or proceeding; actions of any tax authority, tribunal, or court; interruption or unavailability of the Platform; unauthorised access resulting from your failure to maintain credential security; or actions of third-party service providers.

11.2. Essential Basis of Agreement: You acknowledge that the limitations of liability in this Section reflect a reasonable allocation of risk and are an essential basis of the agreement between you and TFL.

11.3. Professional Insurance: TFL strongly recommends that you maintain appropriate professional indemnity insurance covering your professional practice, including any use of AI-assisted tools.

12. Indemnification

12.1. You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless TFL, its proprietor, employees, contractors, and agents from and against any and all claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or relating to:

• Your use of the Platform or any AI-generated output;
• Your violation of these Terms;
• Your violation of any applicable law, regulation, or professional ethical standard;
• Any claim by your client or any third party relating to documents or submissions prepared with the assistance of TFL;
• Your failure to obtain appropriate client consent as required by Section 5.2;
• Any misrepresentation regarding your professional qualifications or ICAI membership.

13. Account Suspension and Termination

13.1. By You: You may terminate your account at any time by contacting TFL support. Termination takes effect at the end of the current billing period. Upon termination, you may request export of Your Content within 30 days.

13.2. By TFL: TFL may suspend or terminate your account immediately if:

• You breach any material provision of these Terms;
• Your ICAI membership is found to be invalid, suspended, or revoked;
• You engage in any prohibited use as described in Section 5.3;
• You fail to pay subscription fees when due (after a 7-day grace period);
• TFL is required to do so by applicable law or regulation;
• TFL reasonably believes your account is being used for fraudulent or illegal purposes.

13.3. Effect of Termination: Upon termination:

• Your access to the Platform will be revoked;
• Your Content will be retained for 30 days to allow you to request data export;
• After the 30-day retention period, Your Content will be permanently deleted from TFL's systems;
• Any obligations that by their nature should survive termination (including Sections 6, 7, 11, 12, and 15) shall survive.

14. Modifications to Terms

14.1. TFL reserves the right to modify these Terms at any time. Material changes will be communicated to you via email and/or a prominent notice on the Platform at least 15 days before taking effect.

14.2. Your continued use of the Platform after modified Terms take effect constitutes acceptance of the modified Terms. If you do not agree to the modified Terms, you must discontinue use of the Platform and cancel your subscription.

15. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

15.1. Governing Law: These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of India, without regard to conflict of law principles.

15.2. Jurisdiction: Subject to the arbitration clause below, the courts of Kolkata, West Bengal, India shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any disputes arising out of or relating to these Terms.

15.3. Arbitration: Any dispute, controversy, or claim arising out of or relating to these Terms, or the breach, termination, or invalidity thereof, shall first be attempted to be resolved through good-faith negotiation between the parties for a period of 30 days. If the dispute is not resolved through negotiation, it shall be referred to and finally resolved by arbitration in accordance with the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (as amended). The arbitration shall be conducted by a sole arbitrator mutually agreed upon by the parties, in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, in the English language.

15.4. Waiver of Class Action: You agree that any dispute resolution proceedings will be conducted on an individual basis and not as part of any class, consolidated, or representative action.

16. General Provisions

16.1. Entire Agreement: These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any subscription-specific terms, constitute the entire agreement between you and TFL regarding the Platform and supersede all prior agreements and understandings.

16.2. Severability: If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision shall be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable, and the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.

16.3. Waiver: The failure of TFL to enforce any provision of these Terms shall not constitute a waiver of that provision or any other provision.

16.4. Assignment: You may not assign or transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms without TFL's prior written consent. TFL may assign its rights and obligations to a successor entity (including TFL LLP upon migration from the sole proprietorship structure) without your consent, provided that such assignment does not materially diminish your rights under these Terms.

16.5. Force Majeure: TFL shall not be liable for any failure or delay in performing its obligations where such failure or delay results from circumstances beyond its reasonable control, including but not limited to natural disasters, epidemics, government actions, internet disruptions, third-party service provider outages, or failure of AI model providers.

16.6. Notices: Notices to you will be sent to the email address associated with your TFL account. Notices to TFL should be sent to guptakaran.1501k@gmail.com.

16.7. No Agency: Nothing in these Terms creates any agency, partnership, joint venture, or employment relationship between you and TFL.

16.8. Language: These Terms are drafted in English. In the event of any translation, the English version shall prevail.

17. Contact Information