Form 4419 for electronically filing with IRS is going away: What’s next?

To ensure your firm can continue electronically filing information returns, such as Form 1099-MISC, via the IRS Filing Information Returns Electronically (FIRE) system, there’s some actions your Finance team needs to take in the months ahead.

Beginning this September, all employers that submitted an application to IRS prior to Sept. 26, 2021, for FIRE system transmitter control codes (TCC) will need to submit and complete the new, online-only information returns application for transmitter control codes (IR-TCC).

If you’re just getting started with setting up an account on the FIRE system, new FIRE users that don’t already have a Secure Access username and password must authenticate their identities and create a new account to access the IR-TCC application.

The online application is supposed to make it easier to make application updates, including requesting additional TCCs, and provide more control over who has access to your five-digit TCC(s).

An important part of this transition is that Form 4419, Revise Existing TCC for FIRE, will officially be phased out Aug. 1, 2022.

Existing TCCs will only remain valid for electronically filing information returns until Aug. 1, 2023. But after that, any FIRE TCC that don’t have a corresponding completed IR-TCC application on file with IRS will be dropped and won’t be available for e-filing.

To-do list to continue electronically filing

Fortunately, you have almost a year-long window for filing the IR-TCC application to keep your existing TCCs active. It can be submitted any time between Sept. 1, 2022, and Aug. 1, 2023. You’ll need to:

1. validate your taxpayer identity using the latest IRS authentication process (if you haven’t already done so)
2. log into the IR application for TCC, and
3. complete the online application.

TCC(s) issued prior to Sept. 26, 2021, will then automatically be added to your completed application, IRS said.

In the meantime, your Finance team has until Aug. 1, 2022, to check that your current Form 4419 contains an up-to-date email address and phone number, and that your company’s legal name matches IRS records – including spelling, abbreviations, special characters and spacing.