CCH Axcess, UltraTax, Lacerte, Drake, Karbon and QuickBooks data: what the terms say about ownership, export and AI

Why tax software data is tax return information

Under 26 CFR 301.7216-1, tax return information is any information furnished in any form or manner for, or in connection with, preparing a return, including what the preparer derives or generates from it, and statistical compilations even when no taxpayer can be identified (source: 26 CFR 301.7216-1). Section 7216 makes knowing or reckless disclosure, or use for any other purpose, a misdemeanor (source: 26 U.S.C. 7216 (Cornell LII)).

That covers everything a tax system holds: returns, organizers, source documents, e-file records, depreciation schedules, K-1 exports, diagnostics, preparer notes, and the workflow and time data tied to tax engagements. The vendors say so too:

• Drake's 2026 license defines Taxpayer Data as any information obtained or used by the licensee in preparing a tax return, and makes the licensee solely responsible for its backup and retention (1(q), 4(g)) (source: Drake Software 2026 License and Non-Disclosure Agreement (updated 7/10/26)).
• Intuit's Lacerte terms note that information in the software may be subject to disclosure and use limits under Section 7216, and put consent obligations on the licensee (source: Intuit, Lacerte Tax TY2024 terms (Platform Terms v02122026; Lacerte Terms v09172024)).
• Canopy's terms, section 11(a), say client content is not information disclosed under 26 U.S.C. 7216 and that Canopy is in no way subject to 7216 (source: Canopy Terms of Service, 5, 11, 13(b)). The 7216 burden stays with the firm.

Ownership under a vendor contract is a separate question from what federal law lets you disclose. A vendor saying the content remains yours does not make client tax data licensable. The accounting firm data licensing guide covers the consent and penalty rules in full.

CCH Axcess, UltraTax CS, Lacerte and Drake: what the terms say

A few notes on the table:

• UltraTax CS. The Onvio terms govern Thomson Reuters products that reference them. For UltraTax CS, Thomson Reuters says you can read your agreement under Help, then About, in the software. Firms that first licensed a CS Professional Suite application before June 7, 2017 accepted the CS Professional Suite License Agreement; later firms accepted the Customer Agreement (source: Thomson Reuters, Review your UltraTax CS license agreement).
• Lacerte. The newest Lacerte terms we could read were for tax year 2024, with platform terms dated version 02122026. Each tax year needs a separate agreement, so check the current one in the product (source: Intuit, Lacerte Tax TY2024 terms (Platform Terms v02122026; Lacerte Terms v09172024)).
• Drake. The 2026 license applies only to the tax year 2026 version of the software (source: Drake Software 2026 License and Non-Disclosure Agreement (updated 7/10/26)).

Owners often search for a CCH Axcess export of tax data or a Lacerte export of a client file. Those exports are for your own work, a successor firm or record retention. None of them is a dataset you can license.

Karbon, Canopy and TaxDome: who owns practice management data

Practice management systems hold a mix: client email and portal messages, job histories, time entries, and the firm's own work templates. The terms put ownership with the firm:

• Karbon. The Terms of Use (17 October 2025) say Karbon does not claim ownership of your content and treat customer content as the customer's confidential information. Karbon takes a license that includes analyzing and improving the operation of its services, bars automated software or processes that scrape or download data from its web pages, and says it has no obligation to store your content (source: Karbon Terms of Use (17 Oct 2025)).
• Canopy. Section 13(b) says client content remains the exclusive property of the subscriber or its users. Section 11(b) says Canopy has no obligation to maintain any client content or work product. Section 11(c) lets Canopy use client content on an aggregated, de-identified basis and distribute or license that data to third parties. Section 5 bars access through any bot, web crawler or non-human user (source: Canopy Terms of Service, 5, 11, 13(b)).
• TaxDome. When we read its terms on October 15, 2026, they said TaxDome claims no ownership or control over user content and allowed bulk extraction only through the platform's standard backup tools, with no scraping or bulk extraction without its prior written consent (source: TaxDome Terms of Service (read Oct 15, 2026)). Its site blocked our automated check on October 18, so confirm the current wording on its policies page.

In all three, the client side of the system stays out: messages, uploaded documents, organizers, and job and time history on client engagements, which the AICPA rule protects and 7216 covers for tax work. The firm side, meaning work templates, checklists and automations your team wrote, can be considered. Our guide to audit programs, close checklists and SOPs your firm owns explains how to tell the two apart.

QuickBooks Online Accountant: client books are not firm data

QuickBooks Online Accountant is how many firms reach their clients' books. Intuit's platform terms say “Your Content remains yours” and give Intuit a license to operate and improve the platform, and they list scraping or downloading content that doesn't belong to you, and training or developing AI or machine learning models, among prohibited uses (source: Intuit, QuickBooks Online U.S. Terms of Service (Platform Terms v02122026)).

The practical point is simpler. The client companies in your QuickBooks Online Accountant account are your clients' books, held as part of an engagement. They are confidential client information under the AICPA rule and, when you use them to prepare returns, tax return information. Buyers that name accounting firms typically exclude client books (source: program terms, Regulr buyer directory); each figure and exclusion is a program's own published term, and our buyer directory links to each program's terms.

Your firm's own QuickBooks file is different. Overhead, vendors and accounts payable can be considered after removing client names in receivables, billing detail and staff payroll. When a subscription is cancelled, Intuit says you keep read-only access for one year, and it cancels automatically after three failed charges (source: Intuit, Cancel your QuickBooks Online subscription (updated Sep 25, 2026)).

Karbon AI, Lacerte and vendor AI: what vendors do with your data

Owners searching for CCH Axcess AI, UltraTax AI or TaxDome AI features often ask a second question: is the vendor already training on my data? The terms we read answer differently:

• Karbon says in its AI terms that Karbon is not authorized to train the Karbon AI, with or without client or customer data, and that its AI providers have represented they will not train on customer data (source: Karbon AI Terms of Use, II.3(b)).
• Intuit says in the Lacerte terms that it may use aggregated and de-identified personal information to analyze and improve the software, including for emerging technologies such as generative AI, and its platform terms say it owns de-identified or aggregated data (source: Intuit, Lacerte Tax TY2024 terms (Platform Terms v02122026; Lacerte Terms v09172024)).
• Canopy may distribute or license aggregated, de-identified client content to third parties under section 11(c) (source: Canopy Terms of Service, 5, 11, 13(b)).
• TaxDome's privacy policy, as we read it on October 15, 2026, said customer data is not used for AI model training (source: TaxDome Privacy Policy (read Oct 15, 2026)).

None of this gives your firm a right to license the same data. Vendor rights come from your contract with the vendor; your duties to clients come from 7216, the AICPA code and your state board. The AICPA code also says that before a firm discloses confidential client information to a third-party service provider, it should either have a confidentiality agreement with reasonable assurance about the provider's safeguards or get the client's specific consent (ET 1.700.040) (source: AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, ET 1.700.040 (updated through Sep 2026)), which is a good reason to read your vendors' aggregation clauses anyway.

Exporting firm-authored material from practice software

The material that can qualify is usually spread across a few systems: Karbon or Canopy work templates, engagement letter templates, checklists in SharePoint or Google Drive, and training in a wiki. To get it out cleanly:

1. Use the vendor's own export. Thomson Reuters, Karbon, Canopy, TaxDome and Drake all restrict automated access or scraping in their terms (source: Thomson Reuters terms (Onvio), 1(a), 1(d), 1(h), 4(c), 10(d), Karbon Terms of Use (17 Oct 2025), Canopy Terms of Service, 5, 11, 13(b), Drake Software 2026 License and Non-Disclosure Agreement (updated 7/10/26)). Export through the product, or ask the vendor, and never give a buyer a connector or a crawler.
2. Export templates, not jobs. A work template is firm material. A job created from it on a client engagement carries client facts and timing.
3. Leave tax systems alone. Nothing from CCH Axcess, UltraTax CS, Lacerte, Drake or a tax portal belongs in the set.
4. Separate vendor library content. Templates imported from a vendor's library were written by someone else.
5. Review, then approve in writing. A partner reads the final set and you approve the scope before anything is shared.

Before you cancel: retention clauses that delete firm material

Firms switching tax software, merging or closing lose data on the vendor's timetable, not theirs:

• Drake: no obligation to store web-based data if you do not renew (11(g)) (source: Drake Software 2026 License and Non-Disclosure Agreement (updated 7/10/26)).
• Canopy: no obligation to maintain any client content or work product (11(b)) (source: Canopy Terms of Service, 5, 11, 13(b)).
• Karbon: no obligation to store any of your content (source: Karbon Terms of Use (17 Oct 2025)).
• Thomson Reuters: each side destroys the other's property at termination (10(d)) (source: Thomson Reuters terms (Onvio), 1(a), 1(d), 1(h), 4(c), 10(d)).
• QuickBooks Online: one year of read-only access after cancellation (source: Intuit, Cancel your QuickBooks Online subscription (updated Sep 25, 2026)).

Export what you must keep for retention and client requests, and pull firm-authored templates out at the same time. If a sale or retirement is behind the switch, see selling an accounting practice for what transfers to a successor. To see how we describe the firm-owned records buyers ask about, read what accounting firms can license to AI labs, and our data value checker shows which factors move a price.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

Thomson Reuters, Intuit, Drake, Karbon and Canopy terms and the AICPA code were read on each source's own pages on October 18, 2026. TaxDome blocked automated reads that day; its terms and privacy policy are cited as read on October 15, 2026. The CCH Axcess master agreement could not be read. Program terms were checked against each program's own pages on October 15, 2026; the buyer directory lists the programs and links to those terms.

1. 26 CFR 301.7216-1
2. 26 U.S.C. 7216 (Cornell LII)
3. AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, ET 1.700.040 (updated through Sep 2026)
4. Thomson Reuters terms (Onvio), 1(a), 1(d), 1(h), 4(c), 10(d)
5. Thomson Reuters, Review your UltraTax CS license agreement
6. Intuit, Lacerte Tax TY2024 terms (Platform Terms v02122026; Lacerte Terms v09172024)
7. Intuit, QuickBooks Online U.S. Terms of Service (Platform Terms v02122026)
8. Intuit, Cancel your QuickBooks Online subscription (updated Sep 25, 2026)
9. Drake Software 2026 License and Non-Disclosure Agreement (updated 7/10/26)
10. Karbon Terms of Use (17 Oct 2025)
11. Karbon AI Terms of Use, II.3(b)
12. Canopy Terms of Service, 5, 11, 13(b)
13. TaxDome Terms of Service (read Oct 15, 2026)
14. TaxDome Privacy Policy (read Oct 15, 2026)
15. program terms, Regulr buyer directory