Bank Products & Refund Transfer Operations — 2027 Filing Season Edition

About this course

Who this course is for

What you'll learn

• How refund-related financial products operate during the 2027 filing season.
• The difference between a refund transfer and a refund advance.
• The roles of the taxpayer, tax office, ERO, software provider, service bureau, financial institution, and IRS.
• How tax offices enroll in and obtain approval for bank-product programs.
• How tax preparation fees and authorized financial-product fees are handled through refund transfers.
• How taxpayer disclosures, consent, lender identification, and product communication should be handled.
• How bank products are configured inside professional tax software.
• How to monitor IRS return status separately from bank-product funding status.
• How to handle refund delays, offsets, rejected returns, failed deposits, holds, and failed disbursements.
• How to avoid misleading advertising, improper refund-based fee practices, unauthorized refund routing, and other compliance problems.
• How to reconcile preparation fees, provider settlements, bank deposits, advances, taxpayer disbursements, and outstanding balances.
• How to manage a professional bank-product program from preseason setup through peak filing season and season-end closeout.

Course details

Level

intermediate

Estimated duration

Approximately 3 hours

Prerequisites

A basic understanding of professional tax preparation and electronic filing is recommended. Students should understand the basic roles of tax preparers, PTIN holders, EROs, and EFINs. Students completely new to professional tax preparation should complete Tax Preparation Fundamentals before taking this course.

What's included

• 12 lessons
• Filing-season-specific 2027 guidance
• Tax Year 2026 operational examples
• Refund Transfer workflow examples
• Refund Advance workflow examples
• Taxpayer disclosure and communication examples
• Bank-product software configuration procedures
• Funding and exception-management scenarios
• Reconciliation and accounting examples
• Compliance and advertising examples
• Progress tracking
• Certificate of completion

Curriculum

1. 01

   Lesson 1: Understanding Bank Products in Professional Tax Preparation

   Learn what bank products are in professional tax preparation, why tax offices offer them, the roles of tax preparers, Electronic Return Originators, tax software providers, service bureaus, and financial institutions, and how refund transfers and refund advances fit into the filing process. This lesson also explains the operational and compliance boundaries tax professionals must understand before offering bank products to taxpayers.

   12m
2. 02

   Lesson 2: How Refund Transfers Work

   Learn how refund transfers operate during the 2027 filing season for Tax Year 2026 returns, including the flow of an IRS or state refund through a participating financial institution, deduction of authorized tax preparation and program fees, taxpayer disbursement, timing considerations, electronic refund delivery, and the responsibilities of the taxpayer, tax office, software provider, service bureau, and financial institution.

   12m
3. 03

   Lesson 3: Refund Advances, Eligibility, and Approval

   Learn how refund advance products operate during the 2027 filing season for Tax Year 2026 returns, including how advances differ from refund transfers, who provides and approves the advance, how eligibility and underwriting work, how applications are submitted through professional tax software, how approved funds are disbursed, and how tax professionals should communicate approval, amounts, fees, timing, and limitations accurately to taxpayers.

   12m
4. 04

   Lesson 4: Tax Office Enrollment and Bank-Product Approval

   Learn how tax offices enroll in bank-product programs for the 2027 filing season, what information and documentation providers may require, how EFIN and identity verification fit into the process, how tax software and bank enrollment connect, and why office approval must be confirmed before offering refund transfers or refund advances to taxpayers.

   12m
5. 05

   Lesson 5: Understanding Bank-Product Fees and Tax Preparation Fee Payments

   Learn how bank-product fees, tax preparation fees, service bureau fees, and other authorized charges are handled during the 2027 filing season, including how refund transfers allow tax preparation fees to be paid from a taxpayer’s refund, how different fees should be disclosed, how provider-specific charges vary, and why tax offices must avoid outdated pricing, improper fee practices, and refund-based preparation fees.

   12m
6. 06

   Lesson 6: Taxpayer Disclosures, Consent, and Product Communication

   Learn how to explain refund transfers and refund advances to taxpayers during the 2027 filing season, including required fee disclosures, taxpayer consent, disclosure and use of tax return information, advertising standards, lender identification, approval limitations, and the communication practices tax offices should use to avoid misleading or incomplete representations.

   12m
7. 07

   Lesson 7: Configuring Bank Products in Professional Tax Software

   Learn how tax professionals configure refund transfers and refund advances inside professional tax software for the 2027 filing season, including provider selection, bank enrollment linkage, EFIN and office setup, fee configuration, product activation, taxpayer disbursement options, user permissions, testing, status tracking, and the controls needed to prevent office-wide setup errors.

   12m
8. 08

   Lesson 8: Processing Refund Transfers and Monitoring Funding Status

   Learn how refund-transfer transactions move from tax return filing through IRS processing, bank receipt, fee deduction, and taxpayer disbursement during the 2027 filing season. This lesson explains how to monitor return acceptance, refund status, bank-product funding, preparation-fee collection, disbursement status, and unresolved transactions while keeping IRS status separate from financial-institution status.

   12m
9. 09

   Lesson 9: Handling Delays, Offsets, Rejections, and Failed Transactions

   Learn how to identify and respond to delayed refunds, IRS offsets, rejected returns, rejected bank deposits, bank-product holds, failed disbursements, and other funding problems during the 2027 filing season. This lesson teaches tax professionals how to separate IRS processing issues from bank-product issues, route problems correctly, document exceptions, communicate with taxpayers accurately, and avoid making unsupported promises about refund timing or recovery.

   12m
10. 10

    Lesson 10: Advertising, Compliance, and Avoiding Improper Bank-Product Practices

    Learn the advertising, compliance, and operational standards tax offices should follow when offering refund transfers and refund advances during the 2027 filing season. This lesson covers misleading marketing, refund-based fee practices, lender identification, required financial-product indicators, proper EFIN use, taxpayer refund handling, security, prohibited shortcuts, and the controls tax offices should use to reduce compliance risk.

    12m
11. 11

    Lesson 11: Bank-Product Reconciliation, Reporting, and Financial Controls

    Learn how to reconcile refund-transfer activity, tax preparation fees, provider deposits, taxpayer disbursements, advances, outstanding transactions, and service bureau-related revenue during the 2027 filing season. This lesson also covers provider reporting, daily settlement review, exception tracking, segregation of duties, deposit controls, check controls, and the accounting procedures needed to keep bank-product activity accurate and auditable.

    12m
12. 12

    Lesson 12: Managing a Professional Bank-Product Program Throughout Filing Season

    Learn how to manage a professional bank-product program from preseason setup through peak filing season and season closeout for the 2027 filing season. This lesson covers staffing, daily monitoring, provider communication, transaction exceptions, taxpayer support, fee reconciliation, compliance reviews, security, reporting, performance analysis, midseason updates, and the procedures tax offices should use to keep refund-transfer and refund-advance operations controlled and current.

    12m