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IRIS form rules

IRIS Form 8596: rules and XML elements

What IRIS checks on Form 8596, Information Return for Federal Contracts: the 2 business rules specific to this form for tax year 2026, with each rule's severity and what it checks, and the 18 elements of Form8596Detail in the tax year 2026 XML record.

Submission group 1XML element Form8596DetailElements 18, 12 required

These are errors and rejects every filer can get when sending information returns to IRIS, whether through the free IRIS Taxpayer Portal or through filing software. IRIS reports each one on the acknowledgment by rule number.

Form 8596 business rules

Besides the rules on this page, IRIS checks the rules every form shares, such as SHAREDIRFORM014 (payee name and TIN); those are on the cross-form error code pages.

In the tax year 2026 rule set: 2 reject. A reject stops the submission; a report error is accepted with errors and counts as filed; past an unpublished threshold, report errors reject the submission. The descriptions are our own summaries; your acknowledgment gives the rule number.

RuleSeverityWhat it checks
F8596001RejectThe quarter-ending date must fall within the tax year.
F8596003RejectIf a common parent's name is given, its EIN is required.

Elements of Form8596Detail

IRTransmission › IRSubmission1Grp › IRSubmission1Detail › Form8596Detail

Each Form 8596 return is one Form8596Detail record in a submission of group 1. The table lists its 18 elements in schema order for tax year 2026: whether each is required, and the format IRIS accepts. Element names are the ones the IRS uses in its IRIS ATS examples and Publication 5718; the IRS revises the schema each year.

ElementRequiredFormat
TaxYrRequiredFour-digit year
QuarterEndingDtRequiredDate, YYYY-MM-DD
RecordIdRequiredWhole number, up to 8 digits
IssuerOfficeCdOptionalExactly 4 characters
VoidIndRequired1 (yes) or 0 (no)
CorrectedIndRequired1 (yes) or 0 (no)
PrevSubmittedRecRecipientGrpOptionalGroup of elements
ContractorGrpRequiredGroup of elements
CommonParentNameOptionalGroup of elements
CommonParentEINOptional9 digits, no dashes
ContractActionDtRequiredDate, YYYY-MM-DD
ExpectedContractCompletionDtRequiredDate, YYYY-MM-DD
TotalContractObligatedAmtRequiredAmount, zero or more, up to 2 decimal places
ContractNumTxtRequiredText, up to 15 characters
ContractOfficeOrderNumTxtOptionalText, up to 15 characters
GovernmentAgencyTypeCdRequiredText, up to 15 characters
ContractOfficeNumTxtRequiredText, up to 5 characters
ContractModificationNumTxtOptionalText, up to 4 characters

Check a file before you send it. TIN Comply's free IRIS 1099 File Checker runs an IRIS XML or CSV file against the IRS business rules in your browser.