How the portal templates work
Each template is a spreadsheet layout: row 1 holds the column headings exactly as the IRS wrote them, and every row after it is one return. The first column names the form and the second the tax year, then the payer block (TIN type, TIN with dashes, name type B or I, name lines, address, phone), the recipient block in the same shape, the form's own boxes, the Combined Federal/State Filing election, and two sets of state columns. A heading the portal does not recognize, a TIN without dashes, or a name longer than the field rejects the file at upload, before any business rule runs. The IRS publishes a Template Formatting Guidelines PDF per form with the required flag, length and allowed values for each column; those are what the per-form column tables on this site show.
A template is tied to its tax year. The IRS has not published tax year 2026 templates, so the boxes added on the 2026 forms (cash tips, overtime, Trump accounts, family leave, digital assets) have no column yet; those returns go in through the portal's manual entry or an A2A XML file until the templates are updated. Form 1099-LPS, Form 1098-VLI, Form 5498-TA, Form 8596, Form 15397, Form 8027, Form 8955-SSA have no template at all.
The templates, form by form
"Box columns" counts the columns named for a numbered box on the form; the rest are identity, state and control columns. "Boxes with no column" counts boxes on the 2026 form that have no template column, split between boxes new for 2026 and boxes the template never had (Form 1099-B, for instance, has columns only for the regulated futures and bartering boxes). Samples hold two fictitious records in the template layout, for seeing the shape of the file, not for uploading.
2026 boxes the tax year 2025 templates do not have
- Form 1099-G:
FamilyLeaveBenefitsAmt - Form 1099-K:
CashTipsAmt,TreasuryTippedOccupationCd - Form 1099-MISC:
CashTipsAmt,OvertimeCompensationAmt,TreasuryTippedOccupationCd - Form 1099-NEC:
CashTipsAmt,OvertimeCompensationAmt,TreasuryTippedOccupationCd - Form 1099-R:
ExcessContributionsEarningsAmt,TrumpAccountInd - Form 1099-S:
AcquiredDt,CashGrossProceedsAmt,DAGrossProceedsAmt,DANm,DATypeCd,DAUnitQty - Form 5498-QA:
TrumpToABLERolloverAmt
Each is an element in the tax year 2026 XML schema, so an A2A file or the portal's manual entry can carry it now. When the IRS publishes the tax year 2026 templates this page and the per-form column tables will be updated.
Before you upload
Run the file through the IRIS CSV upload checker: it reads the headings, the required columns, the TIN and name formats and the state columns against the same template rules. For a Publication 1220 file from the FIRE days, the Pub 1220 to IRIS converter on tincomply.com writes the portal CSV directly.