The IRS announced on August 24, 2026 that the Filing Information Returns Electronically system is being retired and that filers must move to the Information Returns Intake System before the 2027 filing season. After the November maintenance window, filers can no longer submit information returns through FIRE. Any firm that currently transmits 1099s, W-2Gs, or other information returns through FIRE has to complete an IRIS Application for a Transmitter Control Code and file tax year 2026 information returns through IRIS instead.

The three dates that matter

The Nov. 9 date is the one that bites. A TCC application change made after that date does not go through, and the TCC is what authorizes transmission. A firm that discovers a stale contact or a responsible-official change in December has no FIRE path left to correct it.

What IRIS is and how filing works

IRIS receives information returns through two channels: the IRIS Taxpayer Portal and IRIS Application to Application. It became available in 2023 as part of a phased transition of forms from FIRE, and beginning in 2027 all forms previously supported by FIRE will be available through IRIS.

The Taxpayer Portal is a free, web-based filing system that handles up to 100 returns at a time. Filers enter information manually or upload it with a CSV file, and can download payee copies and keep records of completed and filed forms. Firms running third-party software, or their own software, use IRIS Application to Application for larger volumes.

What the IRS says to do now

The release lists four preparation steps:

• Complete an IRIS Application for TCC.

• Review the IRS guidance on e-filing information returns with IRIS.

• Subscribe to IRIS QuickAlerts for updates about system changes, maintenance, and working group meetings.

• Register for IRIS Working Group meetings and review the meeting materials.

Working Group meetings run on the second Wednesday of each month, and participants have to register each month to get the link. Meeting notifications go to QuickAlerts subscribers.

Where this lands in a firm's workflow

This is a January problem that has to be solved in October.

• The TCC is per-system, not portable. A FIRE TCC does not carry over. The IRIS Application for TCC is its own application, and firms that wait until the 1099 crunch will be applying during the busiest three weeks of the information-return calendar.

• Volume decides the channel. A firm filing a few hundred returns can live in the Taxpayer Portal at 100 per submission. Above that, the answer is Application to Application, which means confirming now that the payroll or filing software already speaks to IRIS rather than assuming the vendor handled it.

• Test before the test system closes. The FIRE Trading Partner Test System closes Nov. 1, and testing a tax year 2026 file is an IRIS exercise from here on.

Any firm mapping vendor data into information returns this fall is doing a data-format review anyway. That is the moment to check where the source data is coming from and whether the extraction into the filing format is something a person is still doing by hand.