The PTIN renewal asks if you have a WISP. Here is the email half of the answer.
Since 2023 the IRS asks every preparer renewing a PTIN to confirm a written information security plan, and the FTC Safeguards Rule applies to you regardless of size. You don’t need an IT department. You need W-2s and 1099s to be encrypted without thinking about it, and a one-page record that says so.
Solo preparers: a flat $29/month plan is planned so the $49 minimum doesn’t price you out.
| Written Information Security Plan | Signed Jan 5 |
| Messages with SSN / W-2 encrypted | 1,204 / 1,204 |
| MFA on every account | 4 / 4 |
| Seven-year archive | On |
| Quarterly report for the Safeguards file | Ready |
Overview
Nothing to set up for clients
Clients keep emailing you from their phones. When a document comes back encrypted, they open it with a code — no portal account they will forget.
Seasonal volume, flat price
January through April you may send ten times more. The price is per seat, not per message.
The WISP template
Design partners get a WISP template with the email section completed, plus the annual letter from us for the binder.
Moments that matter
- Client texts a photo of a W-2, then emails it — detected as a tax document, reply encrypted.
- A phishing email pretending to be the IRS or your software vendor — filtered inbound; your staff never sees it.
- A laptop is stolen in March — mail lives in the archive and the mailbox, not on the laptop; the audit trail shows what was sent.
- A client asks “did you send my return to my ex?” — the audit trail answers exactly.
Works beside
Drake, TaxSlayer Pro, TaxAct Professional, ProSeries, Lacerte, TaxDome, Canopy, Gmail and Microsoft 365. Accounting overview →