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Appendix B: AIR Transmission Checklist (UI) for TY2026

Section 11 Appendix B: AIR Transmission Checklist (UI) for TY2026

This checklist covers both AATS and Production Filing for Software Developers, Transmitters and Issuers

1. Preparation (Including Registration and Application)

• Did your company’s Responsible Officials and Contacts create an e-Services?

• Did your company apply for and receive a valid Transmitter Control Code (TCC)? Software ID(s)?

• Has a responsible official signed the application with the PIN created during the e-Services account

creation process, and for any subsequent application modifications?

• Have you reviewed Publications 5258, 5165 and 5164? (These documents can be found on the AIR

page under Resources.

2. Pre-Filing—AATS and Production

• Have you downloaded the latest versions of Schema and Business Rules? (Schemas and Business

Rules can be found at Affordable Care Act Information Returns Schemas and Business Rules )

• Have you ensured that required Manifest data elements are present per Schema?

  • Transmitters should use Manifest schema from current tax year (TY2026) schema package to generate TY2017, TY2018, TY2019, TY2020, TY2021, TY2022 TY2023,TY2024, TY2025 and TY2026 Manifest file

Example: 2015 Manifest will be checked and validated against TY2025 schema and business rules

• Have you ensured that required Business Header data elements are present per the Schema?

3. Transmitters sending returns through UI Channel (AATS and Production)

• AIR will accept Tax Years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 for

Processing Year 2027

• Transmitters should use latest TY2026 schema version to generate Forms 1094/1095-B or Forms

1094/1095-C Form Data (payload) for TY2026 returns

For prior year returns TY2017, TY2018, TY2019, TY2020, TY2022, TY2023, TY2024 and TY2025 use the latest year schema for that tax year.

Example: Transmitters should use latest TY2019 schema version to generate Forms 1094/1095-B or Forms 1094/1095-C Form Data (payload) for TY2019 return

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Appendix B: AIR Transmission Checklist (UI) for TY2026

4. Calculate AttachmentByteSizeNum for TY2017, TY2018, TY2019, TY2020, TY2021, TY2022, TY2023, TY2024, TY2025 and TY2026.

• Have you followed the following steps?

• Right click on Form data file,

• Click on “Properties”

• Copy the size in bytes (not “Size of disk”) and

• Paste on Manifest element - 000

• Have you ensured that required 1094/1095 B/Cs Form file data elements are present per Schema?

• Are your manifest and data files well-formed extensible Markup Language (XML)?

• Is the composition of your XML file in line with Publication 5258 ?

  • Have you run your manifest and form data files through an XML Schema validator? ⁴

  • Is your Transmission Form Data File uncompressed and sized under 100 MB?

  • Have you ensured that namespaces have been defined and referenced correctly (See Publication 5258 )

Section 4.2.1 sample)?

• Have you ensured the test file indicator is correct (See Publication 5258 3.4.1)?

• Have you ensured the UTID is set correctly per the schema and Publication 5258 specification (See

Publication 5258 Section 3.4.2)?

• Checks to avoid Data Element-driven Portal (TPE) Errors

• Have you followed the special characters guidance in Publication 5165 that prohibits use of Hash (#) and

Double-Dash (--) characters and specifies the use of HTML escape character equivalents, (e.g., “&” for Ampersand)?

• Are there commas or periods in the ‘BusinessNameLn1’ or ‘BusinessNameLn2’ or in ‘AddressLine1’ or

‘AddressLine2’? If so, have you removed them?

• Have you scanned your document for commented out element names,

e.g., ? Note that any occurrence of double dash will trigger a potential threat error and rejection

• If your Transmission has been rejected, have you updated your UTID? – Note that UTIDs are checked for

uniqueness.

• Are your Transmission form data file and Manifest file encoded as UTF-8 without the Byte Order Mark

(BOM)?

4 IRS recommends that external users validate their XML files against the schemas provided by the IRS prior to submitting them

to the IRS. Taking this step will help avoid discovering errors after the XML file is submitted. Performing this validation on the user

end makes it easier and faster to identify and locate schema types of errors. Any tool which allows the external user to validate their

XML files against the schemas, such as “Altova XML Spy” or “SoapUI” should be suitable.

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Appendix B: AIR Transmission Checklist (UI) for TY2026

5. Transmitting to IRS—AATS

• Did you use the correct TCC, Software Developer, for AATS testing and Transmitter and/or Issuer for

Communication Testing?

• Can you clearly link the manifest of each Transmission to the form data file? – for example, each

Transmission could be placed in a directory?

• Are you in the upload screen of AATS?

• Have you named the form data file per Publication 5258 section 3.3 guidance?

• Have you saved the ‘ReceiptId’ along with your copy of the Transmission as sent?

• Have you obtained a status?

• If the status for all your required test submissions is “Accepted,” did you contact the help desk for confir mation and update of the TCC and/or Form Status? (Telephone Number 1-866-937-4130, for domestic calls, or 470-769-5100 (not toll-free) for international calls.)

  • If the status is “Accepted with Errors,” Have you checked against the test Scenarios and Publication

5164 and resubmitted?

• If the status is “Rejected,” Have you checked against the test scenarios and Publication 5164 as well as

guidance above and resubmitted?

6. Transmitting to IRS—Production Environment

• Have you passed the AATS UI Communications Test?

• Is the software you are using approved through the AATS testing process?

• Can you clearly link the manifest of each Transmission to the form data file? – For example, each

Transmission could be placed in a directory.

• Are you in the upload screen of Production—UI?

• Have you named the form data file per Publication 5258 section 3.3 guidance?

• Have you saved the ‘ReceiptId’ along with your copy of the Transmission as sent?

• Have you obtained a status?

  • If the status is “Accepted,” No action required.

  • If the status is “Accepted with Errors,” Have you reviewed the Error Data File to identify and correct

errors?

• If the status is “Rejected,” Have you reviewed the Error Data File to identify and fix errors?

• Did you resubmit the Transmission using the Replacement Process?

• Have you provided the ‘OriginalReceiptId’ of the first-rejected Transmission?

• Was your Replacement Accepted? – If not, have you fixed and resubmitted?

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Appendix B: AIR Transmission Checklist (UI) for TY2026

• If the status is “Partially Accepted,” have you reviewed the Error Data File to identify and fix errors?

  • Did you resubmit the Rejected Submission(s) using the Replacement Process?

  • Have you provided the ‘OriginalUniqueSubmissionId’ of the first-rejected Submission?

  • Was your Replacement Accepted? – If not, have you fixed and resubmitted?

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