Drake Refund Pay - Overview and FAQs

First, you must enroll in Drake Refund Pay. See Drake Pay and Drake Refund Pay – Application Process for details. You can conveniently enroll in Drake Pay™ credit & debit card processing and Drake Refund Pay in one application. After you are enrolled, you can utilize the Request Payment functionality built into Drake Tax, in which your client will receive a secure payment link where they can elect to pay outstanding preparation fees from their federal refund via Drake Refund Pay. For more information about sending convenient payment requests with numerous payment options within Drake products, see Drake Pay.

You can offer Drake Refund Pay to your clients when their tax return is completed and ready for e-filing, but has not yet been e-filed.

After sending a payment request from Drake Tax, the taxpayer will receive a link to your firm’s payment page. On the payment page, the taxpayer will be asked to consent to check eligibility for Drake Refund Pay. If the taxpayer is eligible and elects it as the method of payment, the taxpayer must also consent to share their data with the Drake Refund Pay processor and sign an agreement to allow the payment of your fees out of their refund.

The transaction then will be facilitated by our partner bank, Pathward. Once the taxpayer’s refund is received by Pathward from the IRS, the tax prep fees (less the transaction fee) will be deposited into the tax preparer’s bank account and the remaining refund will be deposited in the taxpayer’s bank account.

There are several factors that are used to determine if the client is eligible for Drake Refund Pay (e.g., refund amount must be greater than tax prep fees). In the payment workflow, after the taxpayer consents to check eligibility, Drake Pay automatically determines eligibility and presents Drake Refund Pay as a payment option alongside other payment options if the taxpayer is eligible. If the taxpayer declines consent or is not eligible, Drake Refund Pay will not be presented as a payment option.

There is no fee charged to the taxpayer. There is a $10 fee charged to the tax preparer, similar to a processing fee associated with a credit card payment. For Pay-by-Refund options where the fee is paid by the taxpayer, see our bank product offerings.

The remaining refund amount (less preparation fees) will be direct deposited into the bank account specified by the taxpayer.

No, you must either enroll in Drake Refund Pay or bank products through one of our partner banks. If you are interested in offering advances or other features to your customers, see our bank product offerings.

For additional information, please reach out to our team at (800) 890-9500 and a specialist can answer your questions.