Legal

Terms of Use & Disclaimer

Last updated: May 26, 2026 · Last reviewed: June 2026 (no material changes) · 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 & Lenses

The Compounder Score (0–10), Compounder Rank (0–100), Dividend Safety Score (0–10), and the Income, Growth, and Value lenses and the Quality gate are heuristic algorithms based on publicly available financial data:

These scores, lenses, and gates are informational analytical opinions, not investment advice or recommendations, and are not predictions of future performance, dividend continuation, or risk.
The Income, Growth, and Value lenses and the Quality gate (a returns-on-capital and leverage screen) are alternative analytical views of the same public data; a high or low lens score or quality tier does not constitute a recommendation to buy, hold, or sell.
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. Guru Owners & 13F Institutional Ownership

The Guru Owners feature and Guru Consensus screen show which of a curated list of well-known institutional investors (for example Warren Buffett / Berkshire Hathaway, Bill Ackman, Donald Yacktman, Thomas Gayner, Tom Russo, and others) report holding a given security. You acknowledge that:

This data is derived solely from public Form 13F filings submitted to the SEC and from public CUSIP-to-ticker mappings; it is informational only and is not a recommendation to buy, hold, or sell any security.
Form 13F filings are reported quarterly and may be filed up to approximately 45 days after the end of the calendar quarter, so the holdings shown may be significantly delayed and may no longer reflect an investor's current positions. 13F filings also exclude short positions, certain non-US holdings, and cash.
The named investors, funds, and management firms have no affiliation with, involvement in, or endorsement of Compounder HQ or MARS Studio. Their names are used only to identify the source of publicly filed ownership data. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.
The presence or absence of a given investor for any security reflects the contents and timing of public filings and any limitations of the CUSIP-to-ticker mapping, and should not be relied upon as complete or current.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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, including covered-call ETF distribution notices and the Form 13F institutional-ownership filings that power the Guru Owners feature.
OpenFIGI (by Bloomberg) — maps the CUSIP identifiers in 13F filings to ticker symbols for the Guru Owners feature.

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.

13. Subscriptions

Pro is an auto-renewable subscription, and an active Pro subscription (or its 14-day free trial) is required to use the app. Pro unlocks unlimited accounts and positions, after-tax income forecast with Section 19(a)-1 covered-call ETF tax intelligence, full Compounder Score breakdown, Margin of Safety, Quality-Growth screener, capital allocation grade with buyback yield and owner earnings, Portfolio X-Ray with SPY benchmark, all alerts, DRIP simulator, and unlimited CSV imports. There is no free tier — new users get a 14-day free trial of full Pro access (see below), after which a Pro subscription is required to continue using the app.

Pricing. Pro is billed at $39.99 USD per year for subscribers in the United States. Apple applies its standard regional pricing matrix in other countries; the current local price is shown on the in-app paywall before purchase and on your iOS subscription confirmation screen.

14-day free trial for new subscribers. New Pro subscribers receive 14 days of full Pro access at no cost. If you do not cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the free trial, your Apple ID will be charged the then-current Pro price at the end of the trial. The trial offer is available once per Apple ID and may not stack with other promotional offers.

Auto-renewal. Your Pro subscription will automatically renew at the then-current annual price unless auto-renewal is cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your Apple ID account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period.

Managing or cancelling. You can manage your subscription, view renewal date, or cancel auto-renewal at any time after purchase by going to iOS Settings › [Your Name] › Subscriptions › Compounder HQ. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period; you keep Pro access until that date and are not refunded for the remainder of the period unless required by Apple's standard refund policy.

Refunds. All payments are processed by Apple. MARS Studio cannot directly issue refunds. Refund requests are subject to Apple's standard refund policy — please contact Apple Support via reportaproblem.apple.com.

14. 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.
    

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. Contact

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