Reject Rescue

Acknowledgments from IRIS come back one at a time: Accepted, Accepted with Errors, Partially Accepted, Rejected. Pick the move that fixes each one before the due dates bite, and watch a careless resend or an ignored reject come back to haunt your ledger.

You will learn what each IRIS acknowledgment status and rule severity asks you to do nextPrivacy runs in your browser; scores stay on your device

How to play

Each card is an IRIS acknowledgment for a transmission: the receipt ID, the submissions in it (one issuer and one form type each) and any business rule codes, with their severity and a plain-English meaning. Pick one of five moves (keys 1 to 5):

No action: file the ack away.
Wait and check: still processing: do not resend.
Correct the records: one correction per flagged record.
Verify payee TIN, then correct: tIN Matching and a new W-9.
Fix and replace: resend what was rejected.

Level 1 shows one acknowledgment at a time with its status. Level 2 hides the status line: work it out from the severities. Level 3 is the season queue, against a timer, and the mistakes you made earlier come back as ledger cards. Streaks multiply your points; duplicates, unfiled returns and later problems are deducted at the end.

The real rules behind the game

IRIS answers every transmission with an acknowledgment. In the IRIS Taxpayer Portal it carries one of five statuses, and each has its own next step (IRS Publication 5717, summarized in our portal walkthrough):

Received by IRS: processing not finished. What to do: allow seven days.
Accepted: processed, no errors. What to do: nothing.
Accepted with Errors: processed, errors found; the returns count as filed. What to do: file a correction for each flagged record.
Partially Accepted: at least one submission in the transmission was rejected. What to do: replace the rejected submission.
Rejected: every submission was rejected. What to do: fix and replace the whole submission.

Severity decides the status

A Reject rule stops the submission it applies to (one issuer and one form type); other submissions in the transmission can still be accepted, which makes the transmission Partially Accepted. A report error leaves the return accepted with errors, and it counts as filed. Many report errors reject over threshold: once the share of records failing one rule passes an unpublished threshold, the threshold rule rejects the whole submission. Every code in the game is active for tax year 2026; look any of them up in the IRIS error code lookup or the rules index.

Corrections versus replacements

A correction fixes a record the IRS has accepted; a replacement resends a submission the IRS rejected. The IRS ATS examples for tax year 2026 agree: "In IRIS Production, an 'Accepted with Errors' status requires a correction transmission, and a 'Rejected' status requires a replacement transmission." Replace within 60 days of the rejection and the returns keep their original filing date; after 60 days they are treated as filed on the replacement date, and if the due date has passed the late-filing penalty runs from there. Nothing accepted can be deleted: a duplicate transmission is taken back with a correction that sets every amount to zero (our corrections guide has the details).

Payee name and TIN mismatches are not rejects

A payee name/TIN mismatch (SHAREDIRFORM014, 015) or missing payee TIN (023) is a report error: the return is filed. Do not correct it with a guessed spelling: check the pair with IRS TIN Matching, ask the payee for a new Form W-9, then file a one-step correction. Left alone, it reappears on a CP2100 listing. An issuer name/TIN mismatch (SMF018) rejects the submission.

The clock

For 2026 returns, Form 1099-NEC is due February 1, 2027 (January 31 is a Sunday), Form 1042-S March 15, 2027, and e-filed 1099-MISC, INT, DIV and K March 31, 2027 (filing calendar). A late return costs $60 per return if filed within 30 days of the due date, $130 after that through August 1, 2027, and $340 after August 1 or if never filed (Rev. Proc. 2025-32, on our 2026 figures page).

What the game simplifies

Names and counts are made up. Each card has one best move; when payee TIN flags sit beside other record errors, the game asks for the TIN route, which ends in the same corrections. Ledger penalties use the per-return amounts only, without annual caps, and count the 60-day window from the acknowledgment date shown. The statuses are the portal's. An A2A acknowledgment gives a transmission status (Processing where the portal shows Received by IRS) and a status per submission, where Partially Accepted does not exist; the card shows the elements each rule reads and our plain-English meaning in place of the IRS error text.

Sources

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