Last January, I watched firms hit the same wall. They went to file their 1099s and found out the code they had used for years did not work in the new system. People were confused then. A lot are still confused now, so here it is plainly.
FIRE and IRIS are two different IRS systems, and each takes its own Transmitter Control Code, its own TCC. The codes are not interchangeable. The IRS says so in plain words. Your FIRE TCC cannot be used in IRIS. Filing through IRIS takes its own application and its own approved code, even if you have held a FIRE code for a decade.
FIRE is also ending. Its last filing day is November 19, 2026, at 3 PM Eastern. Tax year 2026 returns, the ones filed in January 2027, go through IRIS, and after January 1, 2027, IRIS is the only door.
Now the date that matters. The IRS recommends the IRIS TCC application be in by November 1, 2026, and processing can take up to 45 days. Apply November 1 and your code might land mid December. Wait until December and you are asking the IRS to hurry. It does not hurry. November 1 is a recommendation, not a hard cutoff, but January 31 is a hard deadline, and it does not move because a code was late.
For Rentvine users, the workflow is the same as always. Rentvine generates your 1099 file, and the filing step through IRIS belongs to your firm. That is how the job is divided. What changed is the door, and the code you need to open it.
Do three things this week. One, ask out loud in your office: do we hold an approved IRIS TCC, not a FIRE one? Two, if the answer is no, or nobody knows, get the application in before November 1. Three, while it processes, get your owners' electronic delivery consent forms moving. That form is the owner's signed approval to receive their 1099 electronically through the portal. It is the permission slip, not the 1099 itself, and the IRS requires it before you deliver a single form that way. With those approvals on file, January is filing month and not paperwork month.
New system, new code, same deadline. Sort the code out now and January takes care of itself.
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