IRIS 1098-T CSV template and checker
Form 1098-T, Tuition Statement, can be filed in the IRIS Taxpayer Portal with a CSV upload. Its template has 38 columns, 14 of them required, including 8 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-T 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 38 columns
| Col. | Field | Required | Example | Formatting rules |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Form Type | 1098-T | ||
| B | Tax Year | 2025 | ||
| C | Filer TIN Type | Yes | EIN | Must be entered as "EIN" |
| D | Filer Taxpayer ID Number | Yes | 12-2312312 | Digits and dashes only Business TINs (EIN) must be in XX-XXXXXXX format |
| E | Filer Name Type | Yes | B | Must be entered as "B" for Business Name |
| F | Filer Business or Entity Name Line 1 | Yes | John Finch Company | 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 | Filer 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 | Filer 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 |
| I | Filer 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 |
| J | Filer 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 | ||
| K | Filer 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 |
| L | Filer State/Province/Territory | 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 |
| M | Filer 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) |
| N | Filer Phone Type | D | Must be entered as "D" for Domestic or "I" for International | |
| O | Filer 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 | |
| P | Student TIN Type | SSN | Required if Taxpayer ID Number is entered. Must be entered as "SSN", "ATIN", "ITIN", or "UND" | |
| Q | Student Taxpayer ID Number | 123-23-1234 | Individual TINs (SSN, ITIN, ATIN) must be in XXX-XX-XXXX format Undeterminable TINs (UND) must be in XXXXXXXXX format | |
| R | Student First Name | Sarah | 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 | |
| S | Student Middle Name | Jasmin | Length: Max 20 characters May only contain alphabet letters, blanks ( ) and hyphens (-) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | |
| T | Student Last Name (Surname) | Finch | 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 | |
| U | Student Suffix | Length: Max 20 characters May only contain alphabet letters, blanks ( ) and hyphens (-) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | ||
| V | Student 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 |
| W | Student 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 |
| X | Student 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 | ||
| Y | Student 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 |
| Z | Student State/Province/Territory | 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 |
| AA | Student 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) |
| AB | Office Code | 1234 | Length: Exactly 4 digits | |
| AC | Form Account Number | ABC12345 | Length: Max 20 characters May not be the same as the Payer or Recipient Taxpayer ID Number | |
| AD | Student TIN was solicited | Y | Length: Max 1 character Must be entered as "Y" for Yes or "N" for No | |
| AE | Box 1 - Payments Received for Qualified Tuition and Related Expenses | 1000.00 | $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. | |
| AF | Box 4 - Adjustments Made for a Prior Year | 2000 | $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. | |
| AG | Box 5 - Scholarships or Grants | 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. | |
| AH | Box 6 - Adjustments to Scholarships or Grants for a Prior Year | 500.50 | $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. | |
| AI | Box 7 - Check if the amount in Box 1 includes amounts for an academic period beginning January – March 2026. | Y | Length: Max 1 character Must be entered as "Y" for Yes or "N" for No | |
| AJ | Box 8 - Check if at least half- time student. | Y | Length: Max 1 character Must be entered as "Y" for Yes or "N" for No | |
| AK | Box 9 - Check if a graduate student. | Y | Length: Max 1 character Must be entered as "Y" for Yes or "N" for No | |
| AL | Box 10 - Insurance Contract Reimbursements or Refund | 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. |
What the checker does
- Header: reports missing, extra or reordered columns compared with the 1098-T 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-T CSV template?
Sign in to the IRIS Taxpayer Portal, open Upload CSV with Form Data, choose 1098-T and the tax year, and select Download. The formatting guidelines are linked in the FAQ box on the same page.
How many 1098-T 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.