If your business files 1099s, the system you use to send them to the IRS is being shut off for good. December 31, 2026 is the last day the IRS FIRE system will accept a submission. On January 1, 2027, it goes dark permanently — no grace period, no phased rollout, no exceptions for stragglers who meant to get around to it.
For a lot of small businesses and the bookkeepers who file on their behalf, this is easy to miss. FIRE has quietly processed information returns since the 1980s, and most filers only think about it once a year, in January, when 1099-NEC and W-2 deadlines loom. That's exactly the problem: if you wait until January 2027 to figure out the replacement system, you'll already be late.
What's actually changing
FIRE (Filing Information Returns Electronically) is the decades-old system businesses and transmitters have used to e-file 1099s, W-2s, and other information returns directly with the IRS. It works, but it shows its age — file-size limits are restrictive, and if a single record in a batch has an error, you often have to correct and resubmit the entire file rather than just the bad record.
IRIS (the Information Returns Intake System) is the IRS's modern replacement, already live and handling the full 1099 series. It's web-based, uses XML-formatted data, validates returns in real time as you submit them, supports files up to 250MB, and — critically — lets you correct individual records instead of resubmitting a whole batch.
The timeline, in plain terms:
- Tax year 2025 returns (filed in early 2026): last returns FIRE will process.
- December 31, 2026: FIRE is permanently decommissioned.
- Tax year 2026 returns (due in January 2027): must go through IRIS. There's no fallback.
Why this catches small businesses off guard
The mechanics of the switch are more disruptive than "log into a different website." A few specifics that trip people up:
Your FIRE credentials don't carry over. You need a new, IRIS-specific Transmitter Control Code (TCC) — the old FIRE TCC is not valid in the new system. Getting one means creating an IRS e-Services account, verifying your identity through ID.me, and submitting a TCC application. The IRS's own suitability review takes a minimum of 45 days, and when you add identity verification and account setup on top, the whole process can stretch to two or three months.
Do the math on that against the calendar: if you wait until October or November 2026 to start, you may not have an approved TCC in hand by the time January 31, 2027 — the 1099-NEC and W-2 deadline — arrives. At that point you're not choosing between FIRE and IRIS; you're choosing between filing late and filing on paper, both of which carry their own penalties.
Name fields have to be split. IRIS wants first and last names in distinct fields rather than a single combined name string. If your accounting software or spreadsheet template has always exported "John Smith" as one field, that mismatch can trigger rejected submissions or penalty notices — not because the data is wrong, but because it's not shaped the way the new system expects.
States are a separate problem. Many states still rely on the FIRE format for their own information-return filing programs. If you file with a state as well as the IRS, you may need to run two different processes in parallel for a while — IRIS federally, FIRE-format state-by-state — until states catch up to whatever comes next on their end.
The electronic-filing threshold is already low. Since January 1, 2024, the threshold for mandatory e-filing has been just 10 information returns per year, counted in aggregate across all form types — 1099s, W-2s, and others combined, not per form. A lot of small businesses that assumed e-filing was optional because they only issue "a few 1099s" are actually well past the threshold once every return type is added up. If you're required to e-file and instead file on paper without an approved waiver, the failure-to-e-file penalty is up to $340 per return, applied to the number of returns over the 10-return threshold.
What to actually do, and when
You have roughly six months before this becomes urgent. Here's a reasonable order of operations:
- Confirm whether you're required to e-file. Add up every information return your business issues in a year — 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC, 1099-K, W-2s, everything. If the aggregate is 10 or more, e-filing isn't optional, and IRIS is where that filing has to happen once FIRE shuts down.
- Start the TCC application now, not in the fall. Given the 45-day-minimum review window (and realistically 2–3 months once ID.me verification is factored in), starting in the third quarter of 2026 is the latest safe window if you want to be filing-ready well before the January 2027 deadline.
- Check how your bookkeeping or payroll software exports names and data. If you use accounting software, payroll providers, or a filing service, ask directly whether they've built IRIS support and whether your records already separate first and last names cleanly. This is a good moment to clean up vendor and employee records generally — inconsistent name formatting is a common source of rejected filings even outside of this transition.
- If you file in any state that still uses a FIRE-based format, plan for dual filing during the transition period rather than assuming one system will satisfy both federal and state requirements.
- If you use a third-party filing service or your accountant handles this, don't assume it's automatically handled — confirm explicitly that they're aware of the shutdown and have a plan for your account.
Why clean records make this easier
Whatever system the IRS uses, information-return filing is only as painless as your underlying bookkeeping. If vendor and contractor records are scattered across invoices, spreadsheets, and email threads, splitting a name field or reconciling a payment total against a 1099 becomes a scramble every January. If they're already tracked consistently through the year — vendor names, taxpayer ID numbers, and total payments captured as transactions happen — generating accurate information returns for whatever platform the IRS requires is mostly a matter of exporting what you already have.
Keep Your Records Ready for Whatever the IRS Changes Next
Filing-system overhauls like FIRE-to-IRIS are exactly the kind of change that punishes businesses with messy books and rewards businesses with clean ones. Beancount.io gives you plain-text, version-controlled accounting, so every vendor payment and contractor record is structured and auditable well before filing season — no scrambling to reformat data when the IRS moves the goalposts. Get started for free and keep your records ready for whatever comes next.