Get Your TCC

Roll your way from "we need to file in IRIS" to a working Transmitter Control Code for three companies, picking portal or A2A, the right role and the right people at every checkpoint. Setback cards, shortcut cards and the 45-day wait keep the calendar honest.

You will learn how to get an IRIS TCC: who needs one, roles, Responsible Officials, ID.me, the 45-day wait and A2A testingPrivacy runs in your browser; scores stay on your device

How to play

Press Start the race. You play three companies in a row, each on its own board with a start date and a due date for the 2027 season.
Press Roll the week (or Space). Each roll costs one week on the calendar and moves your token up to six squares, but the token always stops at the next checkpoint.
At a checkpoint, pick the right step (click, or press 1 to 4). A right call scores 100; a wrong one costs a week. Who files? and Portal or A2A set your road, and the wrong door sends you back to the fork.
Card squares (?) bring setbacks, shortcuts and quick calls worth 50. At Wait, roll the TCC review: anything up to 45 days.
Reach File before the due date for 500 points plus 5 per day to spare (up to 60 days). Miss it and that company is late.

The real rules behind the game

Get Your TCC follows the steps this site documents for getting an IRIS Transmitter Control Code, the credential a filer needs to transmit its own information returns once FIRE closes. FIRE stops accepting returns on November 19, 2026, and a FIRE TCC does not carry over (FIRE to IRIS).

Do you need one at all?

If a payroll provider or filing service transmits your returns under its own TCC, there is nothing to apply for: confirm it is IRIS-ready. A filer with fewer than 10 information returns in total may still file on paper. Everyone else who files its own returns applies, and the application takes weeks.

Portal or A2A, and the role

The free Taxpayer Portal suits filers with a few hundred returns and no filing software; A2A is for software that sends XML. They are separate TCC applications. An Issuer files only for the EIN on the application, a Transmitter files for itself and others under one TCC, and whoever writes the software adds the Software Developer role, which is not used with the portal (TCC lifecycle, IRIS for accountants).

The application and the wait

Everyone on the application needs an IRS online account verified through ID.me first. The application takes the firm's EIN (not an SSN or ITIN), the legal name and any DBA, a physical address, the role and the people: at least two Responsible Officials and two Contacts, or one of each for a sole proprietorship, S corporation or single-member LLC. Every Responsible Official signs with a five-digit PIN, and nothing is processed until all have signed. The IRS says to allow up to 45 days. The TCC appears on the application summary as soon as it is assigned and works immediately; the letter follows by mail (IRIS Taxpayer Portal, step by step). There is no deadline to apply; Pub. 1099 (2026) says a typical application is processed within 45 business days, so apply well before you plan to file.

A2A after the TCC

A2A adds a certificate from a public certificate authority (self-signed ones are not allowed), an API Client ID application with a JWK built from it, consent to TEST and PROD in the IRS Consent App, and the Assurance Testing System. Test files use made-up TINs that begin with three zeros. Transmitters and issuers pass a one-time communication test of one transmission, one submission and two records, then call the help desk to move the TCC to production; a software developer sends five submissions of two records each, and the help desk promotes the Software ID. The Software Developer TCC never sends production files (A2A developer guide).

Extensions

Form 8809 gives an automatic 30 days for most information returns if requested by the due date, but not for Form 1099-NEC or W-2, which get only a non-automatic 30 days on a paper Form 8809 for listed reasons (extensions in IRIS).

What the game simplifies

Each roll is one week of work on your side, and a wrong call costs a week. Those weeks belong to the game: the IRS publishes no timing for ID.me, gathering details or collecting signatures, and the game does not suggest one. The only IRS figure is the TCC review, which the game rolls at random up to the 45 days the IRS says to allow. Due dates are the 2027 ones: 1099-NEC February 1, 1042-S March 15, and March 31 for most other forms filed electronically. Companies and people are made up.

Sources

More knowledge games

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CSV Cleanup Crew: Turn a messy vendor export into an upload-ready IRIS portal CSV: map the headings, fix the bad cells, split the file.
Schema Surgeon: Operate on IRIS A2A transmissions: find the broken XML nodes, fix them, and get Accepted in ATS.
FIRE to IRIS: The Move: Sort FIRE-era filing habits into still true, changed or gone before the IRIS season starts.