IRIS 1098-C CSV template and checker
Form 1098-C, Contributions of Motor Vehicles, Boats, and Airplanes, can be filed in the IRIS Taxpayer Portal with a CSV upload. Its template has 51 columns, 17 of them required, including 16 form box columns. Drop your file below to check it against every IRS rule, or read the column list further down.
Free. Checks every column against the IRS formatting guidelines.
2What the check found
3Download fixed files
Download the blank 1098-C header (CSV) All IRIS templates
Built from the IRS TY2025 Template Formatting Guidelines, the latest posted. IRIS checks the header row against the template you download inside the portal, so upload with that one. Columns marked required are starred in the IRS guidelines.
Upload limits for every IRIS CSV
- Up to 250 records per file, header not counted, and files of 100KB or less.
- One form type and one tax year per file.
- Save as CSV UTF-8, and do not reopen and re-save the file in Excel.
- Leave money cells empty instead of 0.00, and enter Y or N in every checkbox column.
All 51 columns
| Col. | Field | Required | Example | Formatting rules |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Form Type | 1098-C | ||
| B | Tax Year | 2023 | ||
| C | Donee TIN Type | Yes | SSN | Must be entered as "SSN" and "EIN" |
| D | Donee Taxpayer ID Number | Yes | 123-23-1234 | Digits and dashes only Business TINs (EIN) must be in XX-XXXXXXX format Individual TINs (SSN) must be in XXX-XX-XXXX format |
| E | Donee Name Type | Yes | B | Must be entered as "B" for Business Name or "I" for Individual |
| F | Donee Business or Entity Name Line 1 | John Finch Company | Required if Name Type = "B" Length: Max 40 characters May only contain alphabet letters, numbers, blank space (), and the following special characters: hyphen (-), pound (#), parentheses (), ampersand (&), and apostrophe (') May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | |
| G | Donee Business or Entity Name Line 2 | Length: Max 40 characters May only contain alphabet letters, numbers, blank space (), and the following special characters: hyphen (-), pound (#), parentheses (), ampersand (&), apostrophe ('), slash (/), and percent (%) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | ||
| H | Donee First Name | John | Required if Name Type = "I" Required if Last Name is filled out Length: Max 20 characters May only contain alphabet letters, blanks ( ) and hyphens (-) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | |
| I | Donee Middle Name | James | Length: Max 20 characters May only contain alphabet letters, blanks ( ) and hyphens (-) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | |
| J | Donee Last Name (Surname) | Finch | Required if Name Type = "I" Required if First Name is filled out Length: Max 20 characters May only contain alphabet letters, blanks ( ) and hyphens (-) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | |
| K | Donee Suffix | Length: Max 20 characters May only contain alphabet letters, blanks ( ) and hyphens (-) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | ||
| L | Donee Country | Yes | US | Must be entered according to their designated country abbreviation Link to country abbreviations: https://www.irs.gov/e-file- providers/foreign-country-code-listing-for-modernized-e-file |
| M | Donee Address Line 1 | Yes | 1234 Midway Rd | Length: Max 35 characters May only be alpha-numeric characters and the following special characters: hyphen ( - ) slash ( / ) space ( ) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces |
| N | Donee Address Line 2 | Length: Max 35 characters May only be alpha-numeric characters and the following special characters: hyphen ( - ) slash ( / ) space ( ) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | ||
| O | Donee City/Town | Yes | Dallas | Length: Max 40 characters May only be alphabet characters and the following special characters: space ( ) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces |
| P | Donee State/Province/Terri tory | Yes | Texas (TX) | [Domestic] Must be entered as their 2 letter abbreviation Link to 2 letter abbreviation: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs- utl/zip code and state abbreviations.pdf _ _ _ _ [Foreign] Length: Max 17 characters Alpha-numeric characters (A-Z, 0-9) and spaces only May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces |
| Q | Donee ZIP/Postal Code | Yes | 12309 | [Domestic] Length: Exactly 5, 9 or 12 characters Digits only [Foreign] Length: Max 9 characters Alpha-numeric characters only (A-Z, 0-9) |
| R | Donee Phone Type | D | Must be entered as "D" for Domestic or "I" for International | |
| S | Donee Phone | 2145555555 | Domestic Phone must be in one of the following formats: 1231231234, 123-123-1234, (123) 123-1234 International Phone must be 15 digits or less and may only include the "+" symbol at the beginning | |
| T | Donor TIN Type | SSN | Required if Taxpayer ID Number is entered. Must be entered as "SSN", "EIN", "ATIN", "ITIN", "QI-EIN", or "UND" | |
| U | Donor Taxpayer ID Number | 123-23-1234 | Business TINs (EIN, QI-EIN) must be in XX-XXXXXXX format Individual TINs (SSN, ITIN, ATIN) must be in XXX-XX-XXXX format Undeterminable TINs (UND) must be in XXXXXXXXX format | |
| V | Donor Name Type | Yes | I | Must be entered as "B" for Business Name or "I" for Individual |
| W | Donor Business or Entity Name Line 1 | ABC123 | Required if Name Type = "B" Length: Max 40 characters May only contain alphabet letters, numbers, blank space (), and the following special characters: hyphen (-), pound (#), parentheses (), ampersand (&), and apostrophe (') May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | |
| X | Donor Business or Entity Name Line 2 | Length: Max 40 characters May only contain alphabet letters, numbers, blank space (), and the following special characters: hyphen (-), pound (#), parentheses (), ampersand (&), apostrophe ('), slash (/), and percent (%) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | ||
| Y | Donor First Name | Sarah | Required if Name Type = "I" Required if Last Name is filled out Length: Max 20 characters May only contain alphabet letters, blanks ( ) and hyphens (-) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | |
| Z | Donor Middle Name | Jasmin | Length: Max 20 characters May only contain alphabet letters, blanks ( ) and hyphens (-) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | |
| AA | Donor Last Name (Surname) | Finch | Required if Name Type = "I" Required if First Name is filled out Length: Max 20 characters May only contain alphabet letters, blanks ( ) and hyphens (-) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | |
| AB | Donor Suffix | Length: Max 20 characters May only contain alphabet letters, blanks ( ) and hyphens (-) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | ||
| AC | Donor Country | Yes | US | Must be entered according to their designated country abbreviation Link to country abbreviations: https://www.irs.gov/e-file- providers/foreign-country-code-listing-for-modernized-e-file |
| AD | Donor Address Line 1 | Yes | 1234 Midway Rd | Length: Max 35 characters May only be alpha-numeric characters and the following special characters: hyphen ( - ) slash ( / ) space ( ) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces |
| AE | Donor Address Line 2 | Length: Max 35 characters May only be alpha-numeric characters and the following special characters: hyphen ( - ) slash ( / ) space ( ) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | ||
| AF | Donor City/Town | Yes | Dallas | Length: Max 40 characters May only be alphabet characters and the following special characters: space ( ) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces |
| AG | Donor State/Province/Terri tory | Yes | TX | [Domestic] Must be entered as their 2 letter abbreviation Link to 2 letter abbreviation: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs- utl/zip code and state abbreviations.pdf _ _ _ _ [Foreign] Length: Max 17 characters Alpha-numeric characters (A-Z, 0-9) and spaces only May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces |
| AH | Donor ZIP/Postal Code | Yes | 12309 | [Domestic] Length: Exactly 5, 9 or 12 characters Digits only [Foreign] Length: Max 9 characters Alpha-numeric characters only (A-Z, 0-9) |
| AI | Office Code | 1234 | Length: Exactly 4 digits | |
| AJ | Box 1 - Date of Contribution | Yes | 03/30/2022 | Length: Max 8 characters Digits only Date field must be in MM/DD/YYYY format |
| AK | Box 2a - Odometer mileage | 100500 | Length: Max 12 characters Only allows digits | |
| AL | Box 2b - Year | 2023 | Length: Max 4 characters Can only allow digits | |
| AM | Box 2c - Make | ABC123 | Length: Max 20 characters Should only include alphanumeric values and certain special characters and may not include leading or trailing spaces, or more than 1 space in a row. Allowed special characters include the following: ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / : ; < > = ? @ { | } ~ £ § Á É Í Ñ Ó × Ú Ü á é í ñ ó ú ü | |
| AN | Box 2d - Model | ABC123 | Length: Max 25 characters Should only include alphanumeric values and certain special characters and may not include leading or trailing spaces, or more than 1 space in a row. Allowed special characters include the following: ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / : ; < > = ? @ { | } ~ £ § Á É Í Ñ Ó × Ú Ü á é í ñ ó ú ü | |
| AO | Box 3 - Vehicle or other identification number | Yes | ABC12345 | Length: Must be 1-17 or 19 alphanumeric characters Lowercase letters are not allowed |
| AP | Box 4a - Arm's Length Transaction | Y | Length: Max 1 character Must be entered as "Y" for Yes or "N" for No | |
| AQ | Box 4b - Date of Sale | 05/23/2022 | Length: Max 8 characters Digits only Date field must be in MM/DD/YYYY format | |
| AR | Box 4c - Gross Proceeds From Sale | 1000 | $0 to $999,999,999,999,999 Cannot be negative Digits only except 1 decimal is allowed Must have no more than two digits after the decimal. Check for long numbers in money amount fields that may have been formatted in scientific notation. For example: 1.045E+5. | |
| AS | Box 5a - Donee Certification 1 | Y | Length: Max 1 character Must be entered as "Y" for Yes or "N" for No | |
| AT | Box 5b - Donee Certification 2 | N | Length: Max 1 character Must be entered as "Y" for Yes or "N" for No | |
| AU | Box 5c - Donee Certification 3 | ABC123 | Length: Max 1000 characters Should only include alphanumeric values and certain special characters and may not include leading or trailing spaces, or more than 1 space in a row. Allowed special characters include the following: ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / : ; < > = ? @ { | } ~ £ § Á É Í Ñ Ó × Ú Ü á é í ñ ó ú ü | |
| AV | Box 6a - Goods and Services | Yes | Y | Length: Max 1 character Must be entered as "Y" for Yes or "N" for No |
| AW | Box 6b - Value of Goods and Services | 1000 | $0 to $999,999,999,999,999 Cannot be negative Digits only except 1 decimal is allowed Must have no more than two digits after the decimal. Check for long numbers in money amount fields that may have been formatted in scientific notation. For example: 1.045E+5. | |
| AX | Box 6c - Description | ABC123 | Length: Max 1000 characters Should only include alphanumeric values and certain special characters and may not include leading or trailing spaces, or more than 1 space in a row. Allowed special characters include the following: ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / : ; < > = ? @ { | } ~ £ § Á É Í Ñ Ó × Ú Ü á é í ñ ó ú ü | |
| AY | Box 6c - Checkbox | Y | Length: Max 1 character Must be entered as "Y" for Yes or "N" for No |
What the checker does
- Header: reports missing, extra or reordered columns compared with the 1098-C template.
- Safe fixes: trims stray spaces, writes amounts as plain numbers, leaves $0 cells empty, fills empty Y/N boxes with N, adds dashes to TINs from the TIN type, restores ZIP leading zeros, converts state names to codes and rewrites dates.
- Errors to fix yourself: required columns left empty, values over the length limit, codes that are not in the allowed list, invalid TINs, ZIP codes and dates.
- Split: writes files of up to 250 records and under 100KB, keeping your header row.
Date columns: the IRS guidelines ask for MM/DD/YYYY but also say "Max 8 characters, Digits only". The checker accepts both MM/DD/YYYY and MMDDYYYY. If the portal rejects one, try the other.
For 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC, the main IRIS CSV tool goes further: it builds the template from QuickBooks, Excel or FIRE files.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I download the official 1098-C CSV template?
Sign in to the IRIS Taxpayer Portal, open Upload CSV with Form Data, choose 1098-C and the tax year, and select Download. The formatting guidelines are linked in the FAQ box on the same page.
How many 1098-C records can one CSV hold?
Up to 250 records per file, not counting the header, and the file must be 100KB or less. The portal then submits at most 100 forms at a time.
What does "required" mean here?
The IRS guidelines mark these columns with an asterisk. Other columns can still become required by a rule, for example a TIN type when a TIN is entered.
Sources
- IRS: TY2025 IRIS CSV Template Formatting Guidelines (ZIP)
- IRS Publication 5717, IRIS Taxpayer Portal User Guide (Rev. 9-2026)
Last reviewed November 1, 2026.