Does Your Document Prep Site Look Like a Government Agency?

A document preparation business sells help with paperwork a government office will accept in the end: an EIN application, a business formation filing, an annual report, a passport or immigration form. Many of those filings can be made directly with the agency, sometimes for free. The legitimate business charges for convenience, review and support. The problem is the operator next door that charges the same fee by letting customers believe they are paying the agency.

Since April 1, 2024, that has been a violation of a specific federal rule, not just a general deception claim. The FTC's Rule on Impersonation of Government and Businesses carries civil penalties, and the agency has already sent warning letters to filing-service websites. This guide is for document preparation, filing and form-assistance businesses that take card payments. It covers what the rule prohibits, how the FTC has applied it to filing services, where these businesses sit in the card network rules, and what an underwriter will look at on your website. Rules are cited as in force in October 2026.

What the Impersonation Rule prohibits

The rule is 16 CFR part 461. Section 461.2 makes it an unfair or deceptive practice to materially and falsely pose as a government entity or officer, directly or by implication, and to materially misrepresent affiliation with a government entity, including endorsement or sponsorship by one. Section 461.3 applies the same two prohibitions to impersonating businesses. The rule defines government to include federal, state, local and tribal governments and their agencies, and defines materially as likely to affect a person's choice of, or conduct regarding, goods or services.

The words that matter for a document preparation site are "by implication". A site does not have to claim to be the IRS or the State Department to break the rule. In the statement published with the final rule, the Commission listed examples of covered conduct and said the list was illustrative, not exhaustive. For government impersonation they include:

• Creating a website or other electronic service that uses a government's name, seal or identifying insignia, or uses ".gov" or any lookalike, such as "govusa.com".
• Placing advertisements that pose as a government or officer against search queries for government services.
• Using a government seal on a building, letterhead, website, email or vehicle.
• Sending physical mail that uses government addresses, seals or lookalikes.

One point is easy to miss. The final rule does not prescribe a disclaimer. A commenter asked the FTC not to require third-party providers of government filing services to carry extensive disclosures, and the Commission answered that the final rule imposes no such disclosure requirements. The test is whether the site, read as a whole, falsely poses as or implies affiliation with the agency. A small "not affiliated with any government agency" line in a footer does not cure a page whose seal, colors and domain say the opposite.

Penalties and refunds

The FTC called its ability to obtain monetary relief the rule's most significant anticipated benefit. The Supreme Court held in AMG Capital Management v. FTC that equitable monetary relief, including consumer redress, is not available under section 13(b) of the FTC Act. For a rule violation, section 19(b) lets the FTC seek redress far faster than the two-step route it otherwise has to take. A knowing violation of a trade regulation rule also carries civil penalties under 15 U.S.C. 45(m)(1)(A), currently up to $53,088 per violation; the FTC said in September 2026 that its penalty amounts stay at the 2025 levels for 2026.

How the FTC has applied it to filing services

The clearest example is EIN filing. On April 1, 2025, the FTC announced that it had sent warning letters to operators of websites that sell EIN filing and delivery services. The agency said such sites charge up to $300 for an EIN that anyone can get free from the IRS, and listed the practices consumers complained about:

• Seals, logos, imagery, layouts, formatting, colors and fonts similar to the IRS's.
• "IRS" in domain names.
• Prominent use of terms such as "IRS" or "EIN Assistant".
• Failing to clearly disclose that the site is not a government website.

The letters warned of civil penalties and refunds, and told operators to review all of their marketing, including paid online ads, website claims and social media. The FTC's business guidance on the letters put the rule in two sentences: do not suggest you are associated with the IRS if you are not, and do not say or imply that people must pay to get an EIN. The IRS's own EIN page says you never have to pay a fee for an EIN and tells people to beware of websites that charge for one.

Nothing in the letters says that charging for EIN assistance is unlawful. What they target is the impression that the fee is the government's fee, or that paying a private company is the only way to get the number. The same reasoning reaches any filing a customer could make directly with an agency.

Enforcement so far

In April 2025 the FTC said it had brought five cases alleging violations of the rule in its first year, including Superior Servicing, which it said pretended to be affiliated with the U.S. Department of Education and falsely promised student loan forgiveness. Later complaints target search advertising: the FTC's October 2025 complaint against MediaAlpha alleges search text ads shown when consumers searched for government health care terms, and its April 2026 complaint against Innovative Partners alleges government-related URLs and names in online ads. These are allegations, and none of the cases is about document preparation, but they show what the agency looks for: official-sounding domains, ads placed against searches for a government service, and copy that borrows an agency's name.

The pressure is not easing. The FTC reported in September 2026 that consumers lost nearly $3.5 billion to impersonation scams in 2025. On October 1, 2026 it published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking, with comments due November 30, 2026, asking whether to extend the rule to the ad-optimization services of search engines, social media and other platforms. The notice is aimed at platforms, not merchants, but it means the ads that drive traffic to filing-service sites are getting more scrutiny.

The rule as it stands does not reach businesses that merely supply services to an impersonator: the FTC proposed a means-and-instrumentalities provision in 2022 and 2024, then decided in December 2024 not to proceed with it. Acquirers still screen the category closely, because the disputes and refunds that follow an impersonation complaint land on the merchant account.

If you send solicitations by mail

Filing services that market by mail, for example annual-report notices to newly registered businesses, also face postal law. Under 39 U.S.C. 3001(h), a solicitation from a nongovernmental entity that could reasonably be read as implying a federal government connection or endorsement is nonmailable unless it carries a conspicuous notice that the product or service has not been approved or endorsed by the federal government and the offer is not being made by a federal agency, and the envelope says "THIS IS NOT A GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT". Section 3001(j) separately bars solicitations for a product or service the federal government provides free unless they clearly and conspicuously say so. States have their own rules for mailings that resemble state filings.

Where document preparation sits in the card rules

Visa's Merchant Data Standards Manual (October 2026) has no merchant category code that names document preparation. Two nearby codes are not available to most of these businesses. MCC 9399, Government Services (Not Elsewhere Classified), is described as covering merchants that are government entities. MCC 8111, Legal Services and Attorneys, covers merchants headed by members of the bar. A non-lawyer filing service that is not a government office will usually be placed under a broader code such as MCC 7399, Business Services (Not Elsewhere Classified), or a more specific one where it exists, such as MCC 7276 for tax preparation. Ask your acquirer which code your account will carry.

The Visa rules also show how the networks treat deceptive marketing. Visa's glossary describes the Visa Integrity Risk Program as monitoring acquirers, merchants and others to make sure they do not process illegal transactions, engage in potentially deceptive marketing practices as specified in the program guide, or process transactions that may harm the goodwill of the Visa system. A filing site that a regulator considers an impersonator is the kind of merchant an acquirer has to answer to Visa for.

How disputes arrive

A customer who discovers they paid a private company for something the agency does free often calls their card issuer. Under the Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules of 18 April 2026, the dispute condition named for this complaint, 13.5 Misrepresentation, is available only for listed merchant types: among others, card-absent sellers of debt consolidation, credit repair and mortgage modification services, timeshare resellers, tech support sold through inaccurate online ads, business opportunities, outbound telemarketers and investment platforms that refuse withdrawals. Document preparation is not on the list.

That does not leave the merchant protected. Condition 13.3, Not as Described or Defective Merchandise/Services, lets an issuer dispute a sale where the services did not match what was described on the receipt or other record presented at the time of purchase. For a US domestic card-absent transaction, it also covers a merchant's verbal description or other documentation at the time of purchase that did not match the services received. A checkout page that showed an agency-style seal and a single "filing fee" is the record the customer's issuer will rely on. Your best evidence is the opposite: a checkout that names your company, separates your fee from any government fee, and says the customer could file directly.

What an underwriter will look at

Because the risk sits in how the business presents itself, a document preparation application is usually reviewed on the website as much as on the statements. Expect questions or checks on:

• Your domain name, and whether it includes an agency name, an agency acronym or "gov" in any form.
• Your logo, colors and imagery, and whether any of them resemble a government seal or agency site.
• Whether the page states, near the price and at checkout, that you are a private company not affiliated with the agency, that the customer can file directly, and what the agency charges, if anything.
• How your price is broken down: your service fee and any government fee you pass through, shown as separate lines on the checkout page and the receipt.
• Your search and social ads, including the headlines and display URLs, and the searches you bid on.
• What you actually deliver, how fast, and your refund policy if the agency rejects the filing or the customer finds they did not need you.
• Your billing descriptor, which should show your company name rather than anything that reads as an agency.

Keeping a filing service on the right side of the line

• Choose a domain and brand that could not be mistaken for an agency. Rebranding is cheaper than a warning letter.
• Never say or imply that paying you is required to get the document or number.
• Keep ads to your company name and your service, with no agency names, seals or "official" language in headlines or display URLs.
• Keep a dated copy of each checkout page and the customer's acceptance of your terms. It is your response to a 13.3 dispute.
• Refund quickly when a customer says they thought they were paying the agency. A refund costs less than a dispute and a complaint to the FTC.

Document preparation is high risk because the worst operators in it make money from confusion. A filing service that is obviously a private company, prices its help separately from any government fee and tells customers they can file for themselves gives an underwriter an easy way to tell it apart from them. PayKings works with document preparation, filing and form-assistance businesses and can help you present that picture to an acquiring bank. We do not give legal advice; how the Impersonation Rule or a state law applies to your marketing is a question for your counsel.