Tax PDF Redactor

100% private — your files never leave this device

Add one or many tax PDFs (1040s, K-1s, cover letters), or a whole folder. Detected PII (SSN, EIN, names, addresses, phone, email, account numbers) is physically removed. Names and addresses found in one file are redacted in every file of the batch. All processing happens right here in your browser — nothing is uploaded to any server.

Drop PDFs or folders here

Folders are searched recursively for .pdf files

Redaction is heuristic — always review the output before sharing, especially for non-standard or scanned (image-based) PDFs, where text can't be searched.

Command-line version

Same engine, for your terminal: redact many files or whole folder trees (recursively) in one command. Runs locally, just like this page. Needs Node.js 20+.

npm package (.tgz) ~5 MB Portable (.zip) ~5 MB
Step-by-step install on a Mac
  1. Install Node.js (one time). Download the macOS installer (.pkg, "LTS") from nodejs.org and double-click it. If you already use Homebrew, brew install node works too.
  2. Open Terminal. Press Cmd + Space, type Terminal, press Return. Check Node is there (should print v20 or higher):
    node -v
  3. Install redacttax. Paste this and press Return:
    If you see EACCES: permission denied (common with the nodejs.org installer), run it with sudo instead and enter your Mac login password (nothing appears as you type):
  4. Check it worked:
    redacttax --help
  5. Redact a folder. Type redacttax -r (with a space at the end), then drag your tax folder from Finder into the Terminal window and press Return. Its path is filled in for you, and every PDF inside (including subfolders) gets a _redacted.pdf copy next to it.
    redacttax -r ~/Desktop/TaxFiles
    Add --dry-run first to only list what would be removed. Open each _redacted.pdf and review it before sharing.
  6. Update later by running the install command from step 3 again. To remove it: npm uninstall -g redacttax (add sudo if you installed with it).

Quick version (any OS, Node already installed):

  1. Install once (adds the redacttax command):
  2. Redact a folder and everything under it:
    redacttax TaxFiles/ -r -o Redacted/

No npm? Unzip the portable version and run node redacttax/redacttax.mjs TaxFiles/ -r. Run redacttax --help for all options.

Source code

The complete source: this web app, the command-line version, and the Python CLI (RedactTaxCLI). You can check exactly what runs on your files, or build and run it yourself. Start with README.md.

Source code (.zip)