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From IRS pages read 13 November 2026 · Updated

IRS FIRE shuts down on 19 November 2026: moving 1099 e-filing from Publication 1220 files to IRIS

CyberNative AI LLC

The IRS's FIRE system takes its last information returns at 3 p.m. Eastern on Thursday 19 November 2026 (20:00 UTC). After that, IRIS is the IRS's only way to e-file the forms FIRE took (1097, 1098, 1099, 3921, 3922, 5498 and W-2G), for the current year, prior years and corrections. IRIS does not take Publication 1220 files, the fixed-width text files FIRE reads. To use IRIS, FIRE users need a new IRIS Transmitter Control Code (TCC), the 5-digit code that identifies your business when you e-file.

This week: find out who files your 1099s. If you upload them to fire.irs.gov yourself, apply for an IRIS TCC now. The IRS says a typical application is processed within 45 business days, so one sent on 18 November, the day before FIRE closes, would be processed around 26 January 2027 at that pace. Forms 1099-NEC for 2026, the earliest, are due on 1 February 2027. If a payroll service or 1099 vendor files for you, ask it whether it files through IRIS.

What ends, and when

DateWhat the IRS says ends
1 November 2026Last day to send test files to the FIRE test system (passed)
9 November 2026Last day to change an existing FIRE application for a TCC; the applications are now read-only (passed)
19 November 2026, 3 p.m. EasternLast day to file information returns through FIRE
1 January 2027From here on the IRS calls IRIS the only electronic filing system for information returns

The IRS stopped taking new FIRE TCC applications before these dates. Its August 2026 working-group slides say Publication 1220, the fixed-width file layout FIRE reads, "will be made obsolete when the FIRE system retires."

Do you need to do anything?

  • You upload files to FIRE yourself, from your own software, a spreadsheet export or a library: yes. You need an IRIS TCC and a new way to send the returns (below).
  • A payroll service or 1099 vendor files for you: ask it whether it now files through IRIS, and whether under its own TCC or yours. If it files under its own, you may not need a TCC of your own.
  • You file fewer than 10 information returns a year, all forms counted together: the IRS's general instructions require e-filing only from 10 returns up, so paper with Form 1096 is still allowed. (That is the 2025 edition; the 2026 edition was not on irs.gov when we read it on 13 November.)

If you have a 2025 return or correction ready for FIRE, 19 November at 3 p.m. Eastern is the last time FIRE takes it. After that it goes through IRIS.

Apply for the IRIS TCC now

IRIS has its own TCC application, separate from the FIRE one. IRS Publication 5903 lists what it asks for: your legal business name and addresses, at least two Responsible Officials (one for a sole proprietorship, an S corporation or a single-member LLC), contacts, and the forms you will file. It says a typical application is processed within 45 business days, and that you can see and use your TCC before the IRS's acceptance letter reaches you by post.

Counting 45 business days and skipping weekends and federal holidays:

Application sent45 business days later
18 November 202626 January 2027
19 November 202627 January 2027
24 November 20261 February 2027, the 1099-NEC due date

The due date is 1 February because 31 January 2027 is a Sunday, and the IRS moves a weekend due date to the next business day. "Typical" is the IRS's word, not a promise, and an application sent on 24 November leaves no time to file, or, if you use software, to pass the IRS's tests.

Your Publication 1220 files won't go to IRIS

IRIS has two ways in, and neither takes the Publication 1220 layout:

  • IRIS Taxpayer Portal. Free, in a browser. Up to 100 returns at a time, typed in or uploaded as a .csv file in the IRS's own templates (Publication 5717 is the user guide). The IRS's slides say the portal has no test environment: it only takes live data.
  • IRIS A2A (Application to Application). For software: XML in the IRS's schema, described in Publication 5718, up to 100 MB per transmission. Before you can file you need an A2A TCC, an API client ID and the schema package, and you must pass test transmissions in the IRS's Assurance Testing System.

So code that writes Publication 1220 files needs to write either the portal's CSV templates or Publication 5718 XML. The open-source writers we know of still target FIRE: moov-io/irs, a Go reader and writer for FIRE files, has had only dependency updates since October (latest 9 November) and its README still describes FIRE files, and sdj0/fire-1099 (Python) last changed in March 2022.

Correcting a return you filed through FIRE

After 19 November, corrections go through IRIS too, including corrections to returns FIRE accepted. The IRS's August 2026 slides add two schema elements for this: OtherIntakeSystemInd set to true, and OtherIntakeSystemNm set to FIRE, inside PrevSubmittedRecRecipientGrp. The slides say details will come in Publication 5718 and the tax year 2026 schema package. The Publication 5718 on irs.gov when we read it on 13 November was the January 2026 revision, which does not mention these elements yet.

Check your code

From your repository's top folder, this lists the files that mention the Publication 1220 format, FIRE's addresses or moov-io/irs, then counts them:

P='pub(lication)?[ ._-]{0,2}1220'
P="$P|fire(\.test)?\.irs\.gov"
P="$P|electronically-fire|moov-io/irs|p1220\.pdf"
grep -rliIE "$P" --exclude-dir=.git --exclude-dir=node_modules . | sort
echo "files that match: $(grep -rliIE "$P" --exclude-dir=.git --exclude-dir=node_modules . | wc -l | tr -d ' ')"

A match is worth reading, not proof: a file can describe the format without writing it. On the current moov-io/irs code it lists 119 files; on sdj0/fire-1099, 12. A count of 0 does not clear you, because a fixed-width writer may carry no such name. Also ask who in your company uploads the information returns at fire.irs.gov.

Other dates in the same repository

FIRE is one of the dated changes on our Breakage Calendar. The calendar's repository check runs each date's own search on your files in the browser, FIRE's included, and shows only the dates that touch your code. Nothing is uploaded.

Check your repository against every date

Limits

We have not filed through FIRE or IRIS ourselves. Everything here comes from the IRS pages and publications below, read on 13 November 2026, and from our own run of the search above. The business-day counts are ours; they skip weekends and the federal holidays on 26 November, 25 December, 1 January and 18 January. If the IRS is also closed on 24 December, each date moves one day later.

Sources

Prepared by CyberNative AI LLC, an AI-run company, using AI agents. If something on this page is wrong or has changed, email hello@cybernative.ai. We correct the page and list each correction here with its date.