Terms of Service

1. Definitions

In these Terms, the following words have the following meanings:

• "Agreement" means these Terms of Service together with our Privacy Policy and any other policies incorporated by reference.
• "Service" means the TalentCost web platform, calculator, dashboard, API, and all associated features available at talentcost.com and calculator.talentcost.com.
• "We", "us", "our" means TalentCost, operated by Kliqer Holding B.V., Radarweg 29, 1043 NX Amsterdam, Netherlands.
• "You", "your" means the individual or legal entity that has accepted these Terms and is accessing or using the Service.
• "Account" means the account you register to access the Service.
• "Subscription" means a paid plan (Pro or Enterprise) that grants access to additional features and calculation credits.
• "Output" means any payroll calculation result, cost breakdown, or AI-generated response produced by the Service in response to your inputs.
• "Content" means any data, text, or files you submit to the Service.

2. Eligibility and account registration

You must be at least 16 years old and capable of entering into a binding contract under applicable law to use the Service. If you are using the Service on behalf of a legal entity, you represent that you are authorised to bind that entity to these Terms.

When registering an Account, you must provide accurate and complete information. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your credentials and for all activity that occurs under your Account. You must notify us immediately at legal@talentcost.com if you suspect unauthorised access.

You may not create more than one free Account. We reserve the right to refuse registration or to close Accounts that violate these Terms.

3. Description of the Service

TalentCost is a global payroll intelligence platform that provides estimates of employer total cost, employee net pay, and tax and social-security breakdowns for employment relationships in 160+ countries & territories.

The Service is offered on the following plan tiers:

Features and pricing may change from time to time. We will provide advance notice of material changes as described in Section 12.

4. Important disclaimer — no legal, tax, or financial advice

Payroll regulations, tax rates, social contributions, and labour laws change frequently and vary by jurisdiction, employment type, contract structure, and individual circumstances. Our calculation engine reflects general statutory rates and standard assumptions at a point in time and cannot account for all applicable local rules, collective agreements, exemptions, or individual circumstances.

You must not rely on any Output as a basis for employment decisions, salary offers, tax filings, or compliance without independently verifying the information with a qualified legal, tax, or HR professional in the relevant jurisdiction.

We accept no liability for decisions made on the basis of Outputs from the Service. See Section 14 (Limitation of liability) for further detail.

5. Subscriptions and billing

5.1 Subscription period

Paid Subscriptions are billed on a monthly basis, starting on the date you subscribe. Annual billing is available where offered. Your Subscription renews automatically at the end of each billing period unless you cancel before the renewal date.

5.2 Payment

All payments are processed by Stripe, Inc. By providing payment details, you authorise us (via Stripe) to charge your payment method for the applicable Subscription fee on each billing date. Prices are shown exclusive of VAT where applicable. VAT will be added at checkout in accordance with applicable European rules.

5.3 Free trial

We may offer a free trial period for paid plans. Unless you cancel before the trial ends, your payment method will be charged the applicable Subscription fee at the end of the trial. We will notify you before any charge.

5.4 Cancellation

You may cancel your Subscription at any time from Dashboard → Settings → Billing. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. You will retain access to paid features until the period ends. We do not prorate or refund partial billing periods unless required by law.

5.5 Refund policy

If you are a consumer resident in the European Union, you have a statutory right of withdrawal of 14 days from the date of your initial Subscription purchase, provided you have not yet used the Service during that period. To exercise this right, contact legal@talentcost.com. By starting to use the Service (running a calculation) you expressly request that we begin providing the Service and acknowledge that you waive the right of withdrawal for that Subscription period.

Outside the statutory right of withdrawal, Subscription fees are non-refundable except at our sole discretion.

5.6 Calculation credits

Credits are granted monthly and reset on your billing date. Unused credits do not roll over to the next period. Credits are consumed per calculation run. We reserve the right to adjust credit allocations with 30 days' notice.

5.7 Failed payment

If a payment fails, we will retry the charge using Stripe's standard retry schedule. If payment remains outstanding for more than 7 days, we may suspend or downgrade your Account to the Free plan. You will retain your data.

5.8 Price changes

We may change Subscription prices with at least 30 days' notice by email. The new price will apply from your next renewal after the notice period. If you do not accept the new price, you may cancel before your next renewal.

6. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use the Service for any unlawful purpose or in violation of applicable law.
• Attempt to circumvent credit limits, authentication, or access controls.
• Scrape, systematically download, or harvest data from the Service using automated means, except via our documented API within your plan limits.
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble, or attempt to derive the source code of the Service or our calculation engine.
• Resell, sublicense, or provide access to the Service to third parties without express written permission, except as permitted by your plan (e.g. Enterprise API).
• Submit to the Service any data that is unlawful, fraudulent, or infringes the intellectual property or privacy rights of any third party.
• Interfere with or degrade the performance or security of the Service or its underlying infrastructure.
• Use the Service or Outputs to develop a competing product or service without express written consent.

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate Accounts that violate this Section, without prior notice where necessary to protect the Service or other users.

7. Your content

You retain ownership of any Content (salary inputs, company data, questions) you submit to the Service. By submitting Content, you grant us a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to store and process it solely to provide and improve the Service.

You represent that you have all necessary rights to submit the Content and that it does not violate any applicable law or third-party rights. You are responsible for the accuracy of the inputs you provide.

We do not use your specific calculation inputs or Outputs to train AI models for third parties. Aggregated, anonymised statistical data (e.g. number of calculations per country) may be used for product analytics and published research.

8. Intellectual property

The Service, including its software, calculation engine, design, trademarks, and all content we produce, is owned by TalentCost or our licensors and is protected by copyright, trade secret, and other intellectual property laws. Nothing in these Terms grants you any ownership right in the Service.

Subject to your compliance with these Terms, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to access and use the Service for your internal business or personal purposes.

Outputs generated by the Service are provided to you for your use. You may reproduce Outputs internally (e.g. in reports, presentations, offers) provided you clearly attribute them as estimates and include an appropriate disclaimer consistent with Section 4.

9. Privacy and data protection

Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your personal data. It is incorporated into these Terms by reference. By using the Service, you acknowledge that you have read and understood the Privacy Policy.

If you are using the Service on behalf of an organisation and you submit personal data about third parties (e.g. employee salary data), you represent that you have a lawful basis to do so and that the individuals have been informed of the processing in accordance with applicable data protection law.

10. Confidentiality

Each party may have access to information of the other party that is designated as confidential or that reasonably ought to be considered confidential given the nature of the information ("Confidential Information"). Each party agrees to hold the other's Confidential Information in strict confidence and not to disclose it to third parties or use it for any purpose other than performing obligations under this Agreement, except as required by law or with the other party's prior written consent.

11. Service availability and changes

We aim to provide the Service with 99% uptime (excluding scheduled maintenance) but do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free access. We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Service at any time, with reasonable notice where practicable.

We will endeavour to give at least 30 days' notice before permanently discontinuing the Service or removing a material feature, giving you time to export your data. In the event of discontinuation, we will issue a pro-rata refund of any unused prepaid Subscription period.

12. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by email (to the address on your Account) at least 14 days before they take effect. If you continue to use the Service after the changes take effect, you accept the revised Terms. If you do not agree to the changes, you must stop using the Service and may cancel your Subscription before the effective date.

The latest version of these Terms is always available at talentcost.com/terms.

13. Term and termination

13.1 Term

This Agreement begins when you create an Account or first use the Service and continues until terminated.

13.2 Termination by you

You may terminate this Agreement at any time by cancelling your Subscription (if applicable) and deleting your Account from Dashboard → Settings, or by contacting legal@talentcost.com.

13.3 Termination by us

We may suspend or terminate your Account immediately if you breach these Terms, particularly the Acceptable Use provisions, fail to pay amounts due, or if required by law. For less serious breaches, we will notify you and allow reasonable time to cure before termination.

13.4 Effect of termination

Upon termination, your right to use the Service ceases immediately. We will retain and then delete your personal data in accordance with our Privacy Policy. Provisions of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination (including Sections 4, 8, 14, 15, and 16) will survive.

14. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law:

• We exclude all implied warranties including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. The Service is provided "as is".
• We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including loss of profits, loss of data, business interruption, or reputational damage, even if we were advised of the possibility of such damages.
• Our total aggregate liability to you for any claim arising out of or related to these Terms or the Service will not exceed the greater of (a) the total fees paid by you to us in the 3 months immediately preceding the claim, or (b) €100.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

If you are a consumer under EU or Swiss law, mandatory consumer protection rights apply and are not affected by this Section.

15. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless TalentCost and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or relating to: (a) your use of the Service in violation of these Terms; (b) Content you submit to the Service; or (c) your violation of any applicable law or third-party rights.

16. Governing law and dispute resolution

16.1 Governing law

These Terms and any dispute arising from them are governed by the laws of the Netherlands, excluding its conflict-of-law provisions.

16.2 Consumer rights

If you are a consumer resident in the European Union, you may also benefit from any mandatory provisions of the law of the country in which you reside. Nothing in these Terms affects your rights as a consumer under mandatory local law.

EU consumers may use the European Commission's Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) platform at ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr.

16.3 Informal resolution

Before initiating formal proceedings, we encourage you to contact us at legal@talentcost.com so we can try to resolve the issue informally within 30 days.

16.4 Jurisdiction

Subject to Section 16.2, any disputes that cannot be resolved informally will be submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts of the Netherlands.

17. General provisions

Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any order form or plan description, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service and supersede all prior agreements, representations, and understandings.

Severability. If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect.

No waiver. Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms does not constitute a waiver of that right or provision.

Assignment. You may not assign or transfer your rights under these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign our rights and obligations (including in the context of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets) with 30 days' notice to you.

Third parties. These Terms do not confer any rights on third parties.

Force majeure. Neither party is liable for failure to perform obligations due to circumstances beyond their reasonable control (e.g. natural disasters, war, widespread internet outages, regulatory actions).

Language. These Terms are written in English. In the event of any conflict with a translated version, the English version controls.

Contact. For any questions about these Terms, contact us at legal@talentcost.com or by post at Kliqer Holding B.V., Radarweg 29, 1043 NX Amsterdam, Netherlands.