Schema Surgeon

Each IRIS A2A transmission arrives as an element tree with one to three defects hidden in it. Find them, pick the fix, then Submit to ATS and read an acknowledgment that names the real business rule.

You will learn the IRIS business rules that reject A2A files, and how an ATS test file must lookPrivacy runs in your browser; scores stay on your device

How to play

Each file is an IRIS A2A test transmission for tax year 2026: one submission with two records, drawn as an element tree. Tap a group to open it, or use Expand all.
Tap a node to inspect it. The sheet says what the element must hold and offers fixes (keys 1 to 4). Leave it as it is (Esc) costs nothing.
A right fix scores 100. A wrong fix on a broken node costs 30; changing a healthy node costs 50. Both are undone.
Press Submit to ATS (key S). The acknowledgment names every business rule your file still breaks. Accepted on the first try scores 200 plus a speed bonus; you get one resend.
Levels: one defect per file, then two or three, then a mixed batch where some files are already clean and the repair count is hidden. Get all ten Accepted for the production stamp.

The real rules behind the game

IRIS Application to Application (A2A) is the channel where your software posts an XML transmission to the IRS and pulls back an acknowledgment. Before a transmitter or software developer can file in production, it has to pass the IRS Assurance Testing System (ATS). The game plays that test: every file is a tax year 2026 test transmission, and every error it reports is a real IRIS business rule that is active for tax year 2026. The IRIS A2A developer guide covers the registrations, endpoints and ATS in full.

What a passing ATS file looks like

A test transmission sets TestCd to T. Every issuer and recipient TIN is a made-up number that begins with three zeros (for example 000-11-1111 or 00-0111111, sent as nine digits); the IRS says testing live TINs "will result in a rejection", and business rules SMF027 and SHAREDIRFORM021 reject a test file whose issuer or payee TIN does not start with 000. The transmitter group is the exception: it carries the EIN on your TCC application. A transmitter's communication test is one transmission with one submission of two records. A software developer sends five submissions of two records each, plus a correction submission if the software supports corrections. Each submission must come back Accepted. In ATS you fix a file and resend it as a new original, with a new UTID, until it does; in production, Accepted with Errors calls for a correction and Rejected for a replacement. When everything is Accepted, the Help Desk reviews it and moves the TCC or Software ID to production.

The checks the game teaches

Identity. The UTID has the form UUID:IRIS:TCC::A, and the TCC inside it must equal TransmitterControlCd (TMFST039), which must match IRS records for you (TMFST002_001). The Software ID starts with the last two digits of the tax year (TMFST020).
Type and year. An original transmission (O) carries no OriginalReceiptId (TMFST041), no record marked corrected (FTMFST001_001) and no previously submitted payee group (FTMFST013, SHAREDIRFORM007_002). For tax year 2026, PriorYearDataInd is 0 (TMFST038). The tax year must agree from manifest to submission to form (SMF007, SHAREDIRFORM002_001).
Counts and IDs. The manifest and header counts must equal the forms and issuers inside (FTMFST009, FS1H003, TMFST026). Record IDs are unique in a submission (FS1H002). Two records with the same payee TIN each need a different account number (FS1H001).
Required pieces. A submission carries the totals group for its form type, such as Form1099NECTotalAmtGrp for 1099NEC (S1H017 and its siblings). The contact group with phone and email is optional in the schema but flagged when missing (SMF020 to SMF022), and so is a missing payee TIN (SHAREDIRFORM023).
Form logic. Taxable amount and capital gain cannot exceed the gross distribution on a 1099-R; total ordinary dividends cannot be less than qualified dividends; foreign tax paid needs a country code; exactly one 1099-SA account type is checked; a 1099-DA sale date falls in the tax year and not before the date acquired.

Severity matters. A Reject rule rejects the submission. A report error lets it through as Accepted with Errors, and some report errors turn into a reject when too many records fail them, under a threshold the IRS does not publish. The IRIS error codes page explains the rules every filer meets, and the IRIS error code lookup finds any rule number on an acknowledgment.

What the game simplifies

The element names are the real tax year 2026 names, but the tree is shallower than the schema: names, the totals group and the UniqueRecordId are shown as single lines, and many required elements (addresses, indicators, vendor data) are left out. Each file has one issuer and two records, so a submission reject and a transmission reject look the same. Errors that the schema itself would catch, such as a TIN with dashes, appear only as wrong fixes, because they have no business rule number. The acknowledgment is a simplified picture of the real one.

Sources

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