The IRS Is Retiring FIRE. Your Data Needs to Be Ready.
Tax year 2025 was the last filing season through FIRE (Filing Information Returns Electronically). After December 31, 2026, IRIS (Information Returns Intake System) becomes the only path for electronic information reporting — and it enforces real-time data validation. That means dirty data no longer fails quietly. It fails immediately, on submission.
TINCheck helps organizations verify and clean their taxpayer data before the deadline, so the transition to IRIS doesn’t surface the errors you didn’t know you had.
Based on millions of TIN checks processed in 2024, 1 in 5 TIN checks — 20% — do not match IRS records. The time to fix that is before IRIS catches it for you.
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The Problem: FIRE Is Ending and IRIS Changes Everything
The IRS is permanently retiring FIRE. Beginning with tax year 2026, all electronic information returns — Forms 1099, 1098, 1042-S, and 5498 — must be filed through IRIS. This is not a format update. It is a structural change to how information reporting works, with consequences for every organization that files at scale.
| The transition creates immediate challenges: | What makes this harder than it looks: |
| A firm, non-negotiable deadline — December 31, 2026. No extensions, no fallback. | IRIS validates recipient data in real time. Errors that slipped through FIRE will surface as immediate rejections.⊗ IRIS validates recipient data in real time. Errors that slipped through FIRE will surface as immediate rejections. |
| New XML schema requirements and API-based submission that never existed under FIRE. | TIN and name mismatches that have sat undetected in your vendor and recipient records will block filings from going through. |
| Real-time validation rules that expose data quality issues your current process never flagged. | Based on TINCheck customer data across millions of checks in 2024, 20% of TIN checks do not match IRS records — meaning data problems are more widespread than most organizations expect. |
| IRS B-Notices and penalties for incorrect TIN/name combinations filed with returns. | Cleaning data after a rejection costs far more in time and penalties than correcting it before submission. |
The Solution: Clean Data, Confident IRIS Filing
IRIS does not forgive bad data. TINCheck ensures yours is accurate before you file.
By verifying and correcting TIN and name combinations against IRS records now — before the December 2026 deadline — your organization enters the IRIS environment with clean, validated data. No rejection surprises. No last-minute scramble to fix records under deadline pressure.
What TINCheck Delivers
Real-Time TIN Matching
Verify TIN and name combinations against IRS records instantly. Each check returns a match result so your team knows immediately whether a recipient’s data is accurate — before it enters a filing.
Bulk Match
Upload your full vendor or recipient dataset and catch mismatches at scale. Results are returned within 24 hours, giving your team a complete picture of where data cleanup is needed before 1099 season begins.
API Integration
Embed TIN validation directly into your onboarding or vendor management workflow. Clean data enters your system from day one — no manual checks, no batch corrections after the fact.
Proactive Error Detection
IRIS flags errors on submission. TINCheck flags them before you submit. Identifying mismatches during pre-filing cleanup eliminates the rework, delays, and penalty exposure that come with rejected returns.
Ongoing Compliance
TIN data changes. Vendors update legal names. Recipients change their tax status. TINCheck supports continuous verification so your records stay accurate across filing cycles, not just at year-end.
Why Organizations Choose TINCheck for IRIS
Resolve errors
before IRIS does
IRIS enforces real-time validation. Organizations that arrive at the deadline with unverified data will face immediate rejections. TINCheck surfaces those mismatches now, while there is still time to correct them.
Verified against
IRS records
Every TIN check runs against the IRS TIN Matching database — the same source IRIS uses to validate submissions. There is no ambiguity about what will pass and what will not.
Built for the volume
you file at
Whether your team manages hundreds of recipients or hundreds of thousands, TINCheck scales to match. Real-time checks, bulk upload, and API integration give your workflow the flexibility it needs without adding operational complexity.
Affordable, predictable
pricing
Plans start at $19.95/month, with volume discounts available for growing teams. TINCheck is built to fit small and mid-sized organization budgets — no enterprise contract required to access enterprise-grade verification. All data is processed in SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certified environments.
Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs
Why does data quality matter more for IRIS than it did for FIRE?
FIRE accepted files based primarily on structure. IRIS validates the actual content — including TIN and name combinations — in real time at submission. A file that would have been accepted under FIRE may be rejected under IRIS if the underlying recipient data contains mismatches. Cleaning your data before the transition removes that risk.
What types of errors does TINCheck catch?
TINCheck identifies TIN and name mismatches against IRS records — the most common cause of IRS B-Notices and rejected filings. This includes incorrect Social Security Numbers (SSNs), mismatched Employer Identification Numbers (EINs), and name discrepancies that do not align with IRS records for a given TIN.
How much of our data is likely to have errors?
Based on TINCheck customer data across millions of checks processed in 2024, approximately 20% of TIN checks — 1 in 5 — do not match IRS records. For an organization filing 1,000 returns, that could mean 200 rejected filings, 200 potential B-Notices, and the associated rework and penalty costs that follow.
When should we start verifying our data?
Now. The December 31, 2026 deadline is firm, and correcting TIN mismatches takes time — especially for large vendor lists where outreach to recipients may be required. Organizations that begin verification early have the most room to resolve issues before they become filing problems.
Clean Your Data Before Time Runs Out
The FIRE-to-IRIS transition is a compliance deadline. It is also a data quality deadline. Organizations with clean, verified taxpayer records will file through IRIS without interruption. Those that wait will find out about their errors the hard way.
TINCheck gives your team the tools to verify, correct, and maintain accurate TIN data — before the deadline forces the issue.