Enhancement Request - 1099K format

[youngcrv]

I have a need to generate the 1099K file format via the FIRE system.

I'm planning to try to follow the methodology that someone used a few years ago to add the "NEC" format to the "MISC" format so that I can add a "K" format.

This will be my first time forking an open source project on Github and then, if all goes well, submitting a pull request.

[memcorrupt]

note: i'm not the maintainer of this project

btw, it may be more beneficial for you to look into using the IRS' relatively new system named IRIS for filing information returns. (starting with tax year 2022)

https://www.irs.gov/filing/e-file-forms-1099-with-iris

They allow forms to be filled and submitted via their dashboard (one at a time), via CSV upload (100 at a time), and also have an API specification which I'm not completely familiar with.

Since the file format for FIRE is old and super volatile, it may be easier to work with this newer system instead.

[youngcrv]

Wow, this is a super helpful response. Thank you so much. I am so glad that you responded so promptly with your comment before I dived into this project. My first glance at the fire file ASCII output was that it was fairly hard to look at (the output is hard to display nicely due to the lack of standard new line characters).

It looks like IRIS was just unveiled in Jan 2023 (this year):

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-opens-free-portal-to-file-information-returns-new-electronic-option-can-reduce-millions-of-paper-forms-1099-estimated-to-be-filed-by-businesses-in-2023

Uploading CSV files (even if limited to 100 rows) will be much easier for my implementation (even if I need to do it a bunch of times). It looks like IRIS will eventually have an API, though from what I have read that is not quite ready yet.

Again much thanks!

[memcorrupt]

@youngcrv IRIS already has an XML based REST API; however, it's probably going to be a huge headache to build an application around it due to the general hard to obtain nature of information regarding it. You can check out IRS Publication 5718 for more information on it, but it seems like you'll still need to get in contact with the IRS helpdesk to obtain a schema package to interact with it.

If you're able to get this process working and nothing prevents you from disclosing your findings, I encourage you to open-source your work since the amount of information surrounding APIs for interacting with the IRS is very limited or non-existent, especially for new services like IRIS.

If anyone decides to embark on updating this project for the 2023 tax year or add additional forms, the required information for creating files to upload via FIRE is available in Publication 1220.

[youngcrv]

Thanks for the heads up on the XML based REST API. Sounds like it is not easy to understand.

For my company's needs, we are just going to use the IRIS portal and upload a bunch of CSV files. If we ever go down the route of the XML based REST API, I'll certainly share my findings ... but I can pretty much guarantee that won't be this year given the information you are sharing and other articles indicating that the XML process is not really ready for prime time yet (this recent blog post indicates that the 'large volume' interface won't be ready until at the earliest 2024).

Again, you've been a huge help in pointing me towards IRIS. I really didn't like the fixed character ASCII format of fire - and vanilla CSV, for all it's simplicity, is very easy to create and debug.

[memcorrupt]

@youngcrv sounds good! you're welcome for the information