Legal

Terms of Use & Disclaimer

Last updated: May 4, 2026 · Applies to: Compounder HQ (iOS) v1.0+

Universal Shield — Summary: Compounder HQ provides financial information for educational and analytical purposes only. Nothing in this app or on this website constitutes financial advice, an investment recommendation, a tax opinion, or a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Tax classifications, after-tax projections, and yield calculations are estimates based on publicly available data and may differ from your actual broker-issued 1099 / consolidated tax statement. Use of this app is at your own risk — consult a qualified tax professional before filing.

1. Scope

These Terms of Use and Disclaimer apply to all users of Compounder HQ, published on the Apple App Store by MARS Studio. By downloading and using the app, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agreed to these terms. The app is intended for adults aged 18 or older.

2. Not Financial, Investment, or Tax Advice

Compounder HQ is an informational and analytical tool. All content, data, scores, classifications, projections, and ranks within the app are provided for educational purposes only:

No content in this app constitutes financial, investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice.
No content should be relied upon as the sole basis for any investment decision or any tax filing.
MARS Studio is not a registered investment adviser, broker-dealer, tax preparer, or financial institution in any jurisdiction.
You should consult a qualified financial professional and a qualified tax professional before making investment decisions or filing taxes.
Compounder HQ does not place trades, hold custody of securities, or transmit orders to any brokerage. The app is read-only with respect to your real holdings.

3. Scope of Coverage — US-Listed Securities Only

Compounder HQ is designed for tracking US-listed securities only — NYSE, NASDAQ, US-listed ETFs, and US ADRs. The app's tax-classification engines, distribution-class manifests, Compounder Score, and after-tax projections are calibrated for US-listed instruments. The app is not intended for tracking non-US-listed equities, mutual funds traded outside the US, or non-US ETFs. Adding such instruments may produce incorrect classifications, projections, or scores.

4. Section 19(a)-1 Distribution Classifications

Compounder HQ classifies distributions from covered-call ETFs (currently JEPI, JEPQ, SPYI, QQQI, XDTE, ULTY, XYLD, QYLD, DIVO, SVOL) into qualified, ordinary, return-of-capital, and Section 1256 components, drawing on a curated manifest of typical historical splits and SEC Section 19(a)-1 notices where available. You acknowledge that:

Section 19(a)-1 notices are preliminary mid-year estimates issued by the fund. Final tax classifications are determined at year-end on Form 1099-DIV (Boxes 1a, 1b, 2a, 3, etc.) and on the broker-issued consolidated tax statement.
The curated manifest reflects typical splits observed in prior tax years and may not match the actual final breakdown for any given year.
Return-of-capital adjustments to your cost basis are computed prospectively from the dividend pipeline and are not a substitute for the cost-basis adjustments shown on your year-end 1099-B.
Funds may revise distribution classifications during or after the tax year. The app's manifest is updated periodically but may lag actual notices.
Always reconcile against your broker's year-end statement before filing taxes.

5. Multi-Residency Tax Engine

Compounder HQ supports nine residency settings (United States, Japan, United Kingdom, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Korea, and Other) with treaty-based withholding rates and residency-aware after-tax projection. You acknowledge that:

Treaty withholding rates baked into the engine reflect the United States' bilateral tax treaty with each listed country and may not reflect rate changes, treaty amendments, or special-status exemptions applicable to your specific situation.
The engine applies a simplified Foreign Tax Credit (FTC) calculation: net total tax = max(US withholding, domestic gross tax). Real-world FTC limitation, carryforward, and per-basket sourcing rules (e.g. IRS Form 1116, UK Foreign Notes, India DTAA Article 25) may differ.
Tax-advantaged wrappers (NISA, iDeCo, ISA, SIPP, SRS, MPF, IRP, NPS, PPF, etc.) shelter domestic tax only. US withholding still applies on US dividends inside these wrappers and is generally unrecoverable. The app reflects this; many users do not learn this until they see their broker statement.
Capital-gain tax rules, surtaxes, threshold-based bracketing, NIIT (US), additional rate taxpayer status (UK), surcharge (India), and comprehensive financial income (Korea) are not modelled in v1.0.
The residency engine is informational. Always consult a qualified tax adviser in your country of residence before making decisions or filing.

6. Specific-Lot Tax Accounting (TaxLot)

Compounder HQ creates a TaxLot for every Buy transaction and consumes lots on Sell using your chosen allocation method (FIFO, LIFO, min-tax, max-tax, or average cost):

Lot data is computed from your manually-entered cost basis or imported CSV cost basis. The app cannot verify these against your brokerage records.
Realised gain/loss figures, holding-period classifications (long-term vs short-term), and after-tax proceeds shown in the Sell preview are estimates that depend on the accuracy of your input data.
Wash-sale disallowed losses (US IRC §1091) are not automatically detected or adjusted in v1.0.
Specific-identification elections at the broker level may differ from the in-app method — reconcile before filing.

7. Compounder Score, Compounder Rank & Dividend Safety Score

The Compounder Score (0–10), Compounder Rank (0–100), and Dividend Safety Score (0–10) are heuristic algorithms based on publicly available financial data:

These scores are not predictions of future performance, dividend continuation, or risk.
Score components include the Chowder Rule (David Crosetti), Lowell Miller's quality filters, and Aristocrat / Champion streak data — these frameworks are vendor-defined and have no formal academic peer-review basis.
A high Compounder Rank does not constitute a buy recommendation; a low rank does not constitute a sell recommendation.
30-year DRIP projections ($1,000 × ((1+y)(1+g))³⁰) are illustrative compound-growth examples and not forecasts.

8. DRIP Simulation

The DRIP (Dividend Reinvestment Plan) toggle simulates forward-only reinvestment using the position's loaded chart for share-price reference. You acknowledge that:

Past dividends remain as cash audit rows; only future dividends after the toggle is enabled trigger simulated buys.
Simulated DRIP buys do not reflect actual brokerage executions. They are projections to model what your portfolio would have looked like with DRIP enabled at the broker.
Real DRIP enrolment must be set up at your brokerage; this app does not communicate with your brokerage.

9. After-Tax Income Forecast & FIRE Date

The After-Tax Income Forecast and FIRE Date / Income Goal projections are forward-looking estimates:

They assume continuation of historical dividend payments at the rate set in your inputs and the user-supplied dividend growth rate.
Companies may reduce, suspend, or eliminate dividends at any time. Past dividend history does not guarantee future payments.
Yield-on-cost figures reflect historical purchase prices and current dividend rates — they do not predict future income.
Market conditions, regulatory changes, currency-exchange shifts, and company-specific factors can materially impact actual outcomes.
Projections beyond a few years carry significant uncertainty — the 60-year horizon in the FIRE date model is for illustration of compounding mechanics, not a financial forecast.

10. Portfolio X-Ray

The Portfolio X-Ray feature uses a curated top-10 holdings manifest for popular US ETFs to estimate effective exposure to underlying securities. You acknowledge that:

The manifest reflects holdings at a point in time and may lag actual ETF holdings; ETFs reweight regularly.
Exposures shown are top-10 approximations; the long tail of an ETF's holdings is not surfaced.
Future versions may move to live ETF-holdings fetch when our data-tier permits.

11. Third-Party Data

Compounder HQ fetches market data from the following third-party sources. MARS Studio is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of data provided by these services:

Finnhub — quotes, fundamentals, dividend history, profiles, basic financials, earnings calendar, analyst data.
SEC EDGAR — publicly available regulatory filings.

Data outages, rate-limiting, or upstream errors may cause stale prices, missing dividends, or incomplete fundamentals. The app surfaces error states with retry affordances where applicable.

12. Subscriptions

Pro ($39.99/yr) auto-renews until cancelled in iOS Settings > [your name] > Subscriptions. Free tier limits (2 accounts, 25 positions, 1 CSV import) apply when not subscribed. Apple's standard refund policy applies — MARS Studio cannot directly issue refunds; please contact Apple Support.

13. Regional Notice

This app is available globally. Local laws and regulations regarding financial information, investment services, and tax-classification tools vary by country. It is your responsibility to ensure that use of this app complies with the laws of your jurisdiction.

      If you are located in the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, or Korea, please be aware that this app does not constitute regulated investment advice or regulated tax-preparation services under the laws of those jurisdictions (US Investment Advisers Act 1940 · US IRS Circular 230 · Japan FIEA · UK FSMA · SEBI IA Regulations · MAS FAA · SFO · CSRC · FSC). Compounder HQ is a data display and analytical tool only.
    

14. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, MARS Studio, its founders, developers, and affiliates shall not be liable for any loss or damage — including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or tax-penalty losses — arising from your use of or reliance on Compounder HQ or any data, score, classification, projection, or analysis it provides.

15. Changes to These Terms

We may update these terms from time to time. Material changes will be reflected in the "Last updated" date above. Continued use of the app after any changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated terms.

16. Contact

Questions about these terms? Contact us at chq-privacy@marsstudio.app or write to us at MARS Studio, marsstudio.app.