Protection Plus is a third-party company that provides audit assistance and identity theft restoration services for taxpayers. When enrolled, Protection Plus will work directly with the IRS and state taxing authorities on your client’s behalf, reducing the time you spend responding to notices.

Protection Plus provides the following benefits:

• Audit Assistance - Protection Plus can assist with almost any letter a taxpayer receives from the IRS or State about their individual tax return. Protection Plus case resolution specialists are full time employees and have an EA and/or CPA designation. Some common tax issues that Protection Plus assists with are:

  • Assistance with denied credits such as EIC, Child, and Education Credits.

  • Assistance with Schedules A, C, and E

  • Tax debt resolution services including Offer in Compromise, installment agreements, tax penalty abatement, wage garnishment relief, and innocent spouse relief.

• $2,500 Preparation Guarantee - Up to the first $2,500 is paid by Protection Plus if a legitimate preparer error is made on the return, covering taxes, penalties, and interest. This does not cover fraud, negligence, or taxpayer errors.

• Identity Theft Restoration - Protection Plus members are provided with a full year of complete ID Theft Restoration services. This benefit covers the entire family (spouse and dependents under 18) for identity theft incidents across all areas of their life. All work done on member’s behalf is performed by qualified Privacy Advocates and includes the following services:

  • Daily credit monitoring for 6 months following an incident,

  • Notification of local authorities, financial institutions, and credit bureaus.

Watch the video How to use Audit Protection Plus for a demonstration and additional information on signing up to offer Protection Plus.

Register

Per-Return (Standard)

To enroll in the Per-Return level program: 

1. Go to the Drake Software Support website.

2. Navigate to Products > Tax Protection.

3. Click Activate Per-Return.

4. Complete the required fields.

5. You cannot click the check box I wish to enroll in Protection Plus and I agree to the User Agreement until you open the User Agreement (blue link). This opens in a new tab so you can review it. Close the tab to return to the enrollment page.

6. Click Submit.

Fee and other information is available on the enrollment screen. More information is available on the Protection Plus website.

A bank product is not necessary if using Protection Plus Standard (Per-Return). The product cost, $59.95, and any markups are deducted from the bank product in a return, if there is one. Otherwise, you recover it as part of your bill and, under your agreement with Protection Plus, you are responsible for paying them for the product. You can view the clients who have enrolled in Tax Protection Plus by logging into your account at www.taxprotectionplus.com.

Firm-Level

To enroll in the Firm-Level program: 

1. Go to the Drake Software Support website.

2. Navigate to Products > Tax Protection.

3. Click Activate Firm-Level.

4. The registration form opens in a new window. Complete the required fields to submit your enrollment.

Programs

Protection Plus has two programs for an ERO to choose from. Both programs include the entire suite of Protection Plus Benefits.

Per-Return (Standard)

With this Protection Plus program, there is no cost or obligation for the tax professional to offer the program to their clients. To enroll, select the Protection Plus option on the AP screen.

• No cost for you as a tax professional and no minimum number of enrollments.

• The per-return program can be offered to your clients for as little as $59.95 per return.

• You can add a markup fee of up to $65 to the regular enrollment rate.

• This program is offered on a client by client basis, and the fee is billed to the taxpayer.

• You can only add Protection Plus to individual (1040 and 1040-SR only) returns when using the per-return program. See below for a new option when using the Firm-Level program.

• For returns attached to a bank product, the fees may be deducted from their refund. For returns filed without a bank product, any fee charged to your client should be collected with your tax preparation fee and you will remit the $59.95 to Protection Plus.

• The Per-Return (Standard) level program cannot be used for prior-year returns (EF Message 5980 generates).

Firm-Level

The Protection Plus Firm-Level program allows an ERO to purchase Protection Plus for all clients at a discounted rate. Protection Plus bills the tax office every other week during tax season. After tax season, billing is done monthly. The amount drafted is based on the number of tax returns reported to Tax Protection Plus. Contact Protection Plus with questions.

• Provides a discounted rate of $10 per individual return and $75 per business entity return. You may choose to offer protection for 1040 returns only, or 1040s + business entities when you complete your application.

• This fee will be billed to the ERO for every tax return e-filed from January 1, 2026 - October 31, 2026 through Drake Tax 2025, 2024, or 2023.

  Note  If you are not seeing a copy of the member agreement in View/Print mode, return to Setup > Firms, Confirm your EFIN, and press Save.

• There is no line item that will display for Protection Plus when using this program, but a copy of the member agreement is produced in view of each tax return.

  • The agreement shows as PP Audit in an individual return.

  • PP Audit and PP Audit - Business are both produced in business/entity returns.

• There is no markup or other revenue opportunity offered with the Firm-Level program as the Protection Plus program will be included as part of your tax preparation fees.

Setup

After enrolling, complete the following setup:

1. From the Home window, go to Setup > Firms.

2. Select a firm and click Edit Firm from the toolbar.

3. Beside your EFIN, click Confirm.

4. Once your EFIN has been confirmed, the information from your account will be populated into your Firm Setup for Protection Plus.

5. Click Save.

Functionality

Per-Return (Standard)

With the Per-Return (Standard) program, you must select the box on the AP screen on the General tab. When this box is selected, the Protection Plus member agreement and a Form 7216 for disclosure are added to the tax documents. The Form 7216 should be signed by the taxpayer. There are also one or two line items added to the bill, depending on if there was a mark-up fee added. If a mark-up was added, the second line item will say “Protection Plus Document Prep Fee."

In View/Print mode, on the bill under "Miscellaneous Fees" you will see:

• The cost of the product appears as "Audit protection through Protection Plus."

• The ERO markup appears as "Audit protection document prep fee."

• The Network/Franchise markup appears as "Audit protection franchise/network fee."

Similar entries appear on the bank info sheet if there is a bank product in the return. If there is no bank product, you are responsible for collecting the fees.

ERO Markup

When an ERO uses the Per-Return (Standard) program, the office can add up to $65 to the base price of $59.95 (maximum total price $124.95). The markup can be changed on the Drake Software Support website (up until you have e-filed your first return), and must be in whole dollar increments.

Franchise/Network Fee Markup

If the office is part of a multi-site operation, they also have the option to add a franchise/network fee mark-up. Any amount entered into the franchise/network fee box is paid to the master EFIN, and any amount entered into the Protection Plus ERO mark-up is paid to the EFIN. In total, these two mark-ups can total no more than $65.

Rebates

In some cases, a tax office can earn a rebate by using the Protection Plus Per-Return (Standard) program. If an ERO is interested in Protection Plus rebates, they will need to call Protection Plus.

Bank Product

If the return is attached to a bank product, the Protection Plus fees will be paid out of the taxpayer’s refund. The mark-ups are paid out by Drake around the 20^th of each month during tax season for the units that were funded in the previous month.

No Bank Product

The tax professional should collect payment for the entire Protection Plus fee at the same time they collect payment for their tax prep fees. A tax professional can remit the $59.95 to Protection Plus in one of two ways:

1. Easy Pay - With this option, tax professionals are drafted by Protection Plus weekly for all enrollments from the previous week.

2. Manual Payment on https://taxprotectionplus.com - Each tax professional has a login to the Protection Plus website. On this site, they can manually pay for each Protection Plus return not attached to a bank product.

   • For help logging in, the ERO should contact Protection Plus.

Firm-Level

When you use the Firm-Level program, Protection Plus is automatically included on every applicable return. You do not need to make any entries in the return, and every applicable return will have a Protection Plus member agreement included with the tax documents.

There is no Protection Plus line item for the Firm-Level program. You may decide to increase your tax prep fees because of the additional services that are now included.

Billing

Protection Plus will bill the tax office every other week during tax season. After tax season, billing will be done monthly. The amount drafted will be based on the number of tax returns reported to Tax Protection Plus. Contact Protection Plus with questions.

Registration Cutoff

Registration for the firm level program can be completed until March 31^st. After this date, an ERO can no longer register for the Firm-Level program. If you have registered after you have already prepared tax returns, you will be billed for each of those filed returns.

Related Links

Drake Tax Online - Protection Plus

Frequently Asked Questions