Bank
The full Republic Bank product line — free refund transfers, taxpayer advances, and funding for your office.
Unity partners with Republic Bank, a 30-year veteran of the e-file industry that processes millions of taxpayer refunds across thousands of tax offices every year. Free refund transfers for your clients, advances when they need cash sooner, and receivables programs that fund your office before the season even starts — all included in Unity's flat $20 per accepted return.
For your taxpayers
What you offer clients.
Refund Transfer — free to your client
The refund transfer lets your client pay nothing out of pocket: your prep fee comes out of their refund when the IRS funds it. With Unity, the refund transfer fee to the customer is $0.00, and the subsequent state funding fee is $0.00. No hidden charges pulled from the refund.
Easy Advance Plus
Offer in-season loans secured by the taxpayer's tax refund.
- Loan amounts from $500 to $6,000, depending on net refund
- Shared cost between taxpayer and ERO
- Available to new and returning EROs
preACK Easy Advance
Offer loans before tax season even starts.
- Same $500 to $6,000 range, based on net refund
- Add-on to any Easy Advance program
Netspend® Visa® Prepaid Card
A disbursement option that gets your clients their refund faster and takes check-printing off your plate.
- Clients receive their refund up to 2 days faster
- Saves time and money on in-office check printing
- Improves operational efficiency around issuing checks
- Reduces call volume from clients checking refund status
Easy Advance details: EROs must enroll to offer. Easy Advance is available through February. preACK Easy Advance runs January 2nd to the start of tax season.
For your office
Republic funds you — before a single return comes in.
The Receivables Assistance Program advances against your coming tax-prep fees so you can cover expenses, advertise, pay staff, and upgrade equipment before the season starts.
Receivables Assistance Program (RAP)
- Get up to $250,000
- Receive 50% of your tax prep fees when filing season begins
- Repay your balance plus a 3% origination fee once funding begins
- Open to new and existing EROs
Preseason RAP
- Republic provides an advance payment in early October to approved EROs — earlier than any other bank's preseason program
- Once funding begins, 50% of your prep fees are withheld to repay the balance
- Sign-up begins in late fall
- Available to EROs with prior Republic Bank experience
Preseason RAP carries its own origination fee, set by Republic Bank and disclosed in your program agreement.
If enrolled in both: in-season RAP advances begin once your submitted tax-prep fees are twice the preseason RAP amount advanced.
Use RAP or Preseason RAP to: cover office expenses · advertise to new and existing customers · pay employees · update computers or software · run a pre-season loyalty program that puts cash in your clients' hands.
The economics
Where the fees actually go — everywhere else.
At another provider, a single bank-product return carries a stack layered on top of your prep fee — all of it pulled from the refund before your client sees a dollar:
Transmission / technology fee
Charged on the return — goes to the software company.
Bank product fee
The refund-transfer charge, about $40 — goes to the bank.
State refund transfer fee
Another ~$14 per state refund — also goes to the bank.
Service-bureau markup
If you go through a bureau, $25–$100+ on top — goes to the service bureau.
Add it up and a single funded return can carry $82 to $150+ in fees on top of your prep fee. Across a season, that's real money — money your clients feel, and money that makes you less competitive.
The Unity structure
One flat $20. The stack is gone.
The refund transfer is free to your client — no transmission fee, no bank-product markup, no state fee, no bureau cut. The only fee on your client's return is your prep fee. You decide what to charge, and none of it disappears into a fee stack.
Run your numbers
See it on your own volume.
Unity Savings Estimator
See how much you'll save
Enter your numbers and compare your current per-return fee stack against Unity's flat $20 per accepted return.
Why Unity can do this and others can't
Opposite business models.
Every other provider makes money on the stack — the transmission fee, the bank markup, the bureau cut are their revenue. They can't remove the fees because the fees are the business. Unity makes its money one way: the flat $20 per accepted return. That's why the refund transfer can be free to your client — there's no hidden margin to protect.