IRIS 5498 CSV template and checker
Form 5498, IRA Contribution Information, can be filed in the IRIS Taxpayer Portal with a CSV upload. Its template has 64 columns, 16 of them required, including 21 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 5498 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 64 columns
| Col. | Field | Required | Example | Formatting rules |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Form Type | 5498 | ||
| B | Tax Year | 2025 | ||
| C | Issuer TIN Type | Yes | SSN | Must be entered as "SSN" and "EIN" |
| D | Issuer 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 | Issuer Name Type | Yes | B | Must be entered as "B" for Business Name or "I" for Individual |
| F | Issuer Business or Entity Name Line 1 | Yes | John Finch Company | Required if Name Type = "B" Length: Max 40 characters May only contain alphabet letetrs, numbers, blank space (), and the following special characters: hyphen (-), pound (#), parentheses (), ampersand (&), and apostrophe (') May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces |
| G | Issuer Business or Entity Name Line 2 | Length: Max 40 characters May only contain alphabet letetrs, 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 | Issuer First Name | John | Required if Name Type = "I" Required if Last Name is fliled out Length: Max 20 characters May only contain alphabet letetrs, blanks ( ) and hyphens (-) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | |
| I | Issuer Middle Name | James | Length: Max 20 characters May only contain alphabet letetrs, blanks ( ) and hyphens (-) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | |
| J | Issuer Last Name (Surname) | Finch | Required if Name Type = "I" Required if First Name is fliled out Length: Max 20 characters May only contain alphabet letetrs, blanks ( ) and hyphens (-) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | |
| K | Issuer Suffix | Length: Max 20 characters May only contain alphabet letetrs, blanks ( ) and hyphens (-) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | ||
| L | Issuer Country | Yes | US | Must be entered according to their designated country abbreviation Link to country abbreviations: https://www.irs.gov/e- flieproviders/foreign-country-code-listing-for-modernized-e-flie |
| M | Issuer 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 | Issuer 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 | Issuer 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 | Issuer State/Province/Territory | Yes | Texas (TX) | [Domestic] Must be entered as their 2 letetr abbreviation Link to 2 letetr abbreviation: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irsutl/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 | Issuer 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 | Issuer Phone Type | D | Must be entered as "D" for Domestci or "I" for Internatoi nal | |
| S | Issuer 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 | Participant TIN Type | SSN | Required if Taxpayer ID Number is entered. Must be entered as "SSN", "EIN", "ATIN", "ITIN", "QI-EIN", or "UND" | |
| U | Participant 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 | Participant Name Type | Yes | B | Must be entered as "B" for Business Name or "I" for Individual |
| W | Participant Business or Entity Name Line 1 | ABC123 | Required if Name Type = "B" Length: Max 40 characters May only contain alphabet letetrs, numbers, blank space (), and the following special characters: hyphen (-), pound (#), parentheses (), ampersand (&), and apostrophe (') May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | |
| X | Participant Business or Entity Name Line 2 | Length: Max 40 characters May only contain alphabet letetrs, 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 | Participant First Name | Sarah | Required if Name Type = "I" Required if Last Name is fliled out Length: Max 20 characters May only contain alphabet letetrs, blanks ( ) and hyphens (-) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | |
| Z | Participant Middle Name | Jasmin | Length: Max 20 characters May only contain alphabet letetrs, blanks ( ) and hyphens (-) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | |
| AA | Participant Last Name (Surname) | Finch | Required if Name Type = "I" Required if First Name is fliled out Length: Max 20 characters May only contain alphabet letetrs, blanks ( ) and hyphens (-) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | |
| AB | Participant Suffix | Length: Max 20 characters May only contain alphabet letetrs, blanks ( ) and hyphens (-) May not contain leading, trailing, and adjacent spaces | ||
| AC | Participant Country | Yes | US | Must be entered according to their designated country abbreviation Link to country abbreviations: https://www.irs.gov/e- flieproviders/foreign-country-code-listing-for-modernized-e-flie |
| AD | Participant 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 | Participant 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 | Participant 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 | Participant State/Province/Territory | Yes | TX | [Domestic] Must be entered as their 2 letetr abbreviation Link to 2 letetr abbreviation: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irsutl/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 | Participant 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 | Form Account Number | ABC12345 | Length: Max 20 characters May not be the same as the Payer or Recipient Taxpayer ID Number | |
| AK | Box 1 - IRA Contribution | 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 feilds that may have been formatetd in scientifci notation. For example: 1.045E+5. | |
| AL | Box 2 - Rollover Contributions | 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 feilds that may have been formatetd in scientifci notation. For example: 1.045E+5. | |
| AM | Box 3 - Roth IRA Conversion Amount | 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 feilds that may have been formatetd in scientifci notation. For example: 1.045E+5. | |
| AN | Box 4 - Recharacterized Contributions | 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 feilds that may have been formatetd in scientifci notation. For example: 1.045E+5. | |
| AO | Box 5 - FMV of Account | 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 feilds that may have been formatetd in scientifci notation. For example: 1.045E+5. | |
| AP | Box 6 - Life Insurance Cost | 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 feilds that may have been formatetd in scientifci notation. For example: 1.045E+5. | |
| AQ | Box 7 - Distribution Code(s) | Yes | IRA | Must be entered as "IRA", "SIMPLE", "SEP" or "Roth IRA" |
| AR | Box 8 - SEP Contributions | 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 feilds that may have been formatetd in scientifci notation. For example: 1.045E+5. | |
| AS | Box 9 - SIMPLE Contributions | 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 feilds that may have been formatetd in scientifci notation. For example: 1.045E+5. | |
| AT | Box 10 - ROTH IRA Contributions | 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 feilds that may have been formatetd in scientifci notation. For example: 1.045E+5. | |
| AU | Box 11 - Check if RMD for 2026 | Y | Length: Max 1 character Must be entered as "Y" for Yes or "N" for No | |
| AV | Box 12a - RMD Date | 03/30/2022 | Length: Max 8 characters Digits only Date feild must be in MM/DD/YYYY format | |
| AW | Box 12b - RMD Amount | 1000 | Currency values should be between $0 and $999,999,999,999,999. Currency values should have no more than two digits after the decimal. Check for long numbers in money amount feilds that may have been formatetd in scientifci notation. For example: 1.045E+5. Currency values should be in currency format. | |
| AX | Box 13a - Postponed/Late Contribution | 1000 | Currency values should be between $0 and $999,999,999,999,999. Currency values should have no more than two digits after the decimal. Check for long numbers in money amount feilds that may have been formatetd in scientifci notation. For example: 1.045E+5. Currency values should be in currency format. | |
| AY | Box 13b - Year | 2022 | Length: Max 4 characters Can only allow digits | |
| AZ | Box 13c - Code | FD | Length: Max 2 characters Must be entered as "FD" for Federally Designated Disaster Area, "PL" for Public Law, "EO" for Executive Order, "PO" for Rollover of a qualifeid plan loan offset amount, "SC" for One or more circumstances listed in section 3.02(2) of Rev. Proc. 202046. | |
| BA | Box 13c - Postponed or Late Contribution Reason | ABC123 | Length: Max 10 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 | |
| BB | Box 14a - Repayments | 1000 | Currency values should be between $0 and $999,999,999,999,999. Currency values should have no more than two digits after the decimal. Check for long numbers in money amount feilds that may have been formatetd in scientifci notation. For example: 1.045E+5. Currency values should be in currency format. | |
| BC | Box 14b - Code | QR | Length: Max 2 characters Must be entered as "QR" for repayment of a qualifeid reservist, "DD" for repayment of a qualifeid disaster, "BA" for repayment of a qualifeid birth or adoption, "EP" for repayment of a qualifeid emergency personal expense, "DA" for repayment of a qualifeid domestic abuse victim, or "TI" for repayment of a qualifeid terminally ill individual. | |
| BD | Box 15a - FMV of Certain Specifeid Assets | 1000 | Currency values should be between $0 and $999,999,999,999,999. Currency values should have no more than two digits after the decimal. Check for long numbers in money amount feilds that may have been formatetd in scientifci notation. For example: 1.045E+5. Currency values should be in currency format. | |
| BE | Box 15b - Code(s) | AB | Length: Max 2 characters Must be entered as "A" for Stock or other ownership interest in a corporation that is not readily tradable on an established securities market. "B" for Short- or long-term debt obligation that is not traded on an established securities market. "C" for Ownership interest in a limited liability company or similar entity (unless the interest is traded on an established securities market). "D" for Real estate. "E" for Ownership interest in a partnership, trust, or similar entity (unless the interest is traded on an established securities market). "F" for Option contract or similar product that is not ofefred for trade on an established option exchange. "G" for Other asset that does not have a readily available FMV. "H" for More than two types of assets (listed in A through G) are held in this IRA. | |
| BF | Combined Federal/State Filing (CF/SF) | VA | Abbreviation must match a two-digit state abbreviation on the available state list. Duplicate state abbreviations cannot be present in the same feild. State abbreviation list must be separated by commas and surrounded by quotation marks (","). State abbreviation list is not case sensitive. State abbreviations can be in any order. Any number of spaces are allowed, spaces will be removed before reading the array. | |
| BG | State 1 | AL | State 1 is required if one or more feilds in that section are fliled in. State 1's state, territory, province, and military equivalents should be entered as their 2 letetr abbreviation. Link to 2 letetr abbreviation: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irsutl/zip code and state abbreviations.pdf _ _ _ _ | |
| BH | State tax withheld | 100 | Should be between $0 and $999,999,999,999,999. Cannot be negative One or more payment amounts must be entered if State 1 is selected. Must have no more than two digits after the decimal. Check for long numbers in money amount feilds that may have been formatetd in scientifci notation. For example: 1.045E+5. | |
| BI | State/Payer's state number | AL100200300 | State 1 Box 16 should be a maximum of 24 characters. State 1 Box 16 - State/Payer's state number may not include spaces() or special characters (such as @, %, ^, etc.). State 1 Box 16 must be alpha-numeric characters. | |
| BJ | State income | 1200 | Should be between $0 and $999,999,999,999,999. Cannot be negative Must have no more than two digits after the decimal. Check for long numbers in money amount feilds that may have been formatetd in scientifci notation. For example: 1.045E+5. | |
| BK | Local income tax withheld | 250 | Should be between $0 and $999,999,999,999,999. Cannot be negative Must have no more than two digits after the decimal. Check for long numbers in money amount feilds that may have been formatetd in scientifci notation. For example: 1.045E+5. | |
| BL | Special Data Entries (?) | Example Comment | Length: Max 60 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 |
5498 is part of the Combined Federal/State Filing program. Fill the CF/SF and state columns only if your TCC is enrolled.
What the checker does
- Header: reports missing, extra or reordered columns compared with the 5498 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 5498 CSV template?
Sign in to the IRIS Taxpayer Portal, open Upload CSV with Form Data, choose 5498 and the tax year, and select Download. The formatting guidelines are linked in the FAQ box on the same page.
How many 5498 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.