IRS-Direct 1099 and 1099-G Filing for Government Agencies
Direct IRIS A2A filing of 1099-G, 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC, and 1099-INT for state, county, city, and federal agencies, from the Pub 1220 file your ERP writes.
Morado is a fully certified IRIS A2A transmitter for government agencies that issue 1099s: state agencies, comptrollers and treasurers, counties, cities, special districts, school districts, IT consortia, and federal agencies. Morado files 1099-G, 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC, 1099-INT, and the rest of the information return series directly to the IRS through IRIS under its own production TCC. You file under Morado's TCC, your team keeps the process in-house, and average processing time is under 10 minutes for 50,000 forms.
Book a demo → Read the Form 1099-G guide →
Who files what in government
Government payers file a different mix of forms than a corporate AP department. The 1099-G is the form a state agency thinks about first, and nobody else files it.
| Filer | Forms each January | What drives the volume |
|---|---|---|
| State unemployment insurance agency | 1099-G (Box 1 unemployment, Box 4 withholding, Box 5 RTAA) | Every claimant paid $10 or more during the year |
| State revenue department or local income tax administrator | 1099-G (Box 2 refunds, credits, and offsets), 1099-INT on refund interest | Refund recipients, one form per tax year refunded |
| State paid family and medical leave program | 1099-G (new Box 10, family leave benefits) | Every family leave recipient at $2,000 or more |
| Comptroller, controller, or statewide accounting office | 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC, 1099-INT, often for many agency EINs at once | Vendors, contractors, attorneys, and medical providers paid from the central ledger |
| Agencies paying grants | 1099-G (Box 6 taxable grants) | Grant recipients at $2,000 or more, and every energy or tribal-government grant |
| Counties and cities | 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC, 1099-INT, 1099-S, 1099-G | Vendor payments, condemnation awards and land acquisitions, grants |
| School districts and county offices of education | 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC | Vendor payments, often filed by a county office or IT center for every district |
| State lotteries | W-2G, 1099-NEC for sales-agent commissions | Prize winners and licensed retailers |
| Federal agencies | 1099-NEC (including payments to corporations), 1099-MISC, 1099-C, 1099-G | Vendor payments, canceled debts, USDA agricultural payments |
Retirement systems file 1099-R at membership scale and have their own page: public pension and retirement systems →.
Two threshold facts shape tax year 2026 volume. Form 1099-G stays at $10 for unemployment compensation and tax refunds, because those thresholds are set by statute. The threshold for most 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC payments, and for RTAA, taxable grants, and family leave on Form 1099-G, rises to $2,000 under P.L. 119-21 (IRS Publication 1099, 2026).
The IRS projects about 84.7 million Forms 1099-G for calendar year 2027, up from 80.6 million actually filed in 2024 (IRS Publication 6961). A small state's unemployment agency issues tens of thousands of 1099-Gs in a normal year, and a mid-size state issues 100,000 to 250,000. In a crisis year the number multiplies: Ohio's unemployment agency reported about 1.7 million Forms 1099-G in 2021, up from about 200,000 the year before.
Form 1099-G, at a glance
| Box | What it reports | TY2026 threshold |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unemployment compensation | $10 |
| 2 | State or local income tax refunds, credits, or offsets | $10 |
| 3 | Tax year the Box 2 amount is for | n/a |
| 4 | Federal income tax withheld | Any amount |
| 5 | RTAA payments | $2,000 |
| 6 | Taxable grants | $2,000, or always for energy and tribal-government grants |
| 7 | Agriculture payments | See IRS instructions |
| 8 | Trade or business income checkbox | n/a |
| 9 | Market gain on CCC loans | See IRS instructions |
| 10 | Family leave benefits (new for TY2026) | $2,000 |
| 11a, 11b, 12 | State, state ID, state income tax withheld | Optional |
The full box-by-box rules, the Box 2 furnishing exception, family leave under Rev. Rul. 2025-4, and the 2027 deadlines are in our Form 1099-G guide →.
Your year-end job was built for FIRE
For decades the routine has not changed. The statewide accounting system, the county ERP, or the benefits system runs its year-end job. The job writes an IRS Publication 1220 file. Someone signs into the FIRE portal, uploads it, and saves the receipt.
That routine is ending. FIRE's last filing day is November 19, 2026, at 3 p.m. ET, and after January 1, 2027 IRIS will be the only IRS e-file system for information returns, including corrections and prior-year filings (IRS FIRE page).
Publication 1220 itself is frozen. The IRS says it becomes obsolete when FIRE retires, and the last edition covers tax year 2025. Your system can keep writing that file. What changes is the system that accepts it: IRIS takes XML and validates every record at intake.
What filing through IRIS yourself would take
IRIS is not FIRE with a new login. To file directly, an agency builds and maintains:
- An IRIS TCC. FIRE TCCs do not carry over. An IRIS TCC takes up to 45 days.
- ID.me identity proofing for each Responsible Official and each user. ID.me accounts are personal; there is no organizational account.
- The right TCC role. An Issuer TCC files only for the EIN on its application. A central office that files for many agencies needs the Transmitter role, or IRIS rejects the submission (business rule S1H048).
- X.509 certificates and JWKS key hosting for A2A authentication, plus OAuth2 and mTLS connectivity to the IRS endpoint.
- The IRIS XML schema. Fixed-width Pub 1220 records become nested XML, and the IRS publishes a new schema version every year.
- ATS testing. The IRS assurance testing cycle, repeated annually before production filing.
Here is what that looks like in practice. One state controller's office directed every agency to apply for its own IRIS TCC under the agency's EIN: Issuer role, Portal transmission, at least two Responsible Officials and two Contacts, an individual ID.me account for every user, and up to 45 days for IRS approval, all due by September 30, 2026.
The Portal route those agencies were pointed to has hard limits. CSV uploads cap at 250 records per file and 100 forms per submission (IRS Publication 5717), corrections are keyed by hand, and many ERP "IRIS exports" are exactly that CSV. One common government ERP splits its IRIS export into separate files of 100 records each. At 100,000 1099-Gs, that is at least 400 uploads every January.
Morado is the third path. You file under Morado's production transmitter TCC. You skip: the TCC application · ID.me proofing · X.509/JWKS cert setup · annual ATS testing. Nobody in your agency proofs their identity through ID.me, hosts a certificate, or sits an IRS testing cycle.
One file, many payers
A lot of government filing is really transmitting for other people. A comptroller files for every agency on the statewide ledger. A county office of education or a school IT center files for every district. A shared-service center files for its client agencies.
FIRE allowed that: one Pub 1220 file could carry several issuers, each in its own A and C record block. IRIS does not, unless the TCC holds the Transmitter role. The IRS states it plainly in business rule S1H048: "Transmitter TCC must be used to submit for more than one business."
Morado holds that role in production. One Morado season carries every payer you file for:
- Each agency, district, or member files as its own issuer, under its own EIN, with its own payer configuration.
- Shared-EIN states work too. The IRS has said entities sharing one state TIN do not each need their own TCC. Each issuer's TIN and name must still match IRS records, so the agency names on your file need to line up with the name the IRS holds for that EIN.
- Every batch keeps its own audit artifacts, so each member's auditor sees only its own trail.
Find your system: what it exports and what Morado does with it
Your year-end job is not wasted work. Morado ingests what your system already produces and transmits it through IRIS A2A. Systems are listed as file sources only.
| Your system | What it writes for 1099s | What Morado does with it |
|---|---|---|
| Oracle PeopleSoft Financials | Payables 1099 FIRE (Pub 1220) text file, or CSV | Ingested directly, validated, transmitted through IRIS A2A |
| Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP | US 1099 Electronic Media Report: a Pub 1220 file with CF/SF records | Same pipeline |
| Oracle E-Business Suite | Payables 1099 electronic media file | Same pipeline |
| Workday Financial Management | FIRE-format .txt file, or an IRIS Portal CSV | Either file, same pipeline |
| SAP ECC and S/4HANA | Withholding tax reporting extract for Form 1099 | Mapped with your team's review, then the same pipeline |
| CGI Advantage (statewide financial systems) | Pub 1220 data files, including CF/SF records | Ingested directly |
| Tyler Enterprise ERP (Munis) | 1099 export, including an IRIS CSV | Ingested directly |
| Tyler New World ERP | FIRE file, or IRIS CSV split into files of 100 records | One upload instead of one per 100 records |
| Tyler ERP Pro (Incode) | Electronic 1099 file | Ingested directly |
| Infor Lawson and CloudSuite | 1099 reportable income file (AP146), fixed-length Pub 1220 records | Ingested directly |
| Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central | IRS 1099 FIRE export; its built-in IRIS submission needs a per-user IRIS sign-in | Export ingested; no per-user IRS credentials |
| Caselle, Springbrook | Electronic 1099 file built for FIRE upload | Ingested directly |
| MIP Fund Accounting, Sage Intacct | 1099 data export (filing usually runs through a bundled e-file partner) | Ingested from the export |
| K-12 finance systems (Skyward, PowerSchool BusinessPlus and eFinancePLUS, state school-district systems) | 1099 reports and export files; some state systems write a Pub 1220 file for the county office or IT center | Ingested per district, filed together |
| Statewide accounting system, homegrown or mainframe | Year-end IRS reportable data file in Pub 1220 format | Ingested directly |
| Unemployment insurance benefits system, or its print vendor | Year-end 1099-G extract, usually Pub 1220 | Ingested directly |
| Tax and revenue system | Refund 1099-G extract | Ingested directly, or mapped with your team's review |
| CentralSquare, BS&A, Edmunds GovTech, Harris, or anything else | Pub 1220 file, CSV, or XLSX | Same pipeline; spreadsheet mappings reviewed and confirmed by your team |
If your system writes a Publication 1220 file, Morado ingests it. No re-keying, no vendor template, no rebuild of the year-end job your team already trusts. One tax year 2026 gap is worth knowing about: the frozen Pub 1220 layout has no position for the new Box 10, family leave benefits. Paid leave programs bring those amounts in from a spreadsheet column, mapped and confirmed by your team.
Replacing what you file with today
Government filers reach January in one of four postures:
- A desktop package driving a FIRE upload. That path is closing at the vendor end as well. 1099 Pro states that starting with tax year 2026, federal e-filing from 1099 Pro Enterprise goes through the Sovos Service Bureau, and self-filing to the IRS is no longer possible (1099 Pro, October 2026).
- A service bureau or filing service that takes your file and transmits it under its own credentials.
- The ERP vendor's filing add-on, or the Portal CSV export described above.
- A homegrown FIRE upload on the agency's own TCC, which does not carry over to IRIS.
Morado replaces all four head-on, end to end: ingestion, validation, IRS transmission, corrections, recipient copies, and the audit trail, in one pipeline your team operates.
Count the hands your recipient file passes through
A 1099-G file is a roster of names, Social Security numbers, addresses, and benefit amounts for every claimant your agency paid. In a service bureau model, that file leaves your agency, lands on a platform the bureau runs for all of its clients, and often moves on to a print-and-mail subcontractor. Each handoff is another system, another set of staff with access, and another vendor your security review has to cover.
Public records show where that path breaks. In 2021, a state agency disclosed that a breach at its file-transfer vendor had exposed personal information of more than 1 million people who filed unemployment claims, including bank account numbers. In April 2025, a government-services contractor disclosed in an SEC filing that attackers had taken files containing personal information of its government clients' end users.
Morado shortens the path:
- Your team operates it. Your staff upload, review, and approve, and every upload, approval, and transmission is attributed to a named user.
- A dedicated, isolated environment for your agency, not a pool shared with other clients' filings. Data is stored and processed in the United States.
- Direct to the IRS. Morado transmits under its own production TCC, with no reseller or second bureau in the path.
- Recipient copies come out of the same pipeline, under the same audit trail as the IRS side.
Validation before anything transmits
FIRE checked file format. IRIS checks the contents of every record and rejects at intake.
Morado runs the same rules first, before the IRS sees anything. Every batch is validated against the IRS schema (TIN formatting, address character classes, dollar amount precision) and the IRIS business rules (recipient account uniqueness, payee name controls, transmitter and issuer separation). Issues surface in a report your team can open in Excel, fix at the source, and re-run. No record reaches the IRS without passing preflight.
Government files carry their own failure modes:
- Grants filed as refunds. The IRS instructions say grants and incentive payments belong in Box 6, not Box 2.
- Several refund years on one form. Each tax year refunded needs its own 1099-G, with the year in Box 3.
- One form per program. Unemployment agencies that run more than one contributory program file a separate 1099-G for each.
- Payer name or TIN errors. These cannot be fixed with an IRIS correction; the issuer writes to the IRS instead. Catch them before the first transmission.
Corrections, including identity theft claims
Unemployment agencies know this calendar. Benefits paid to an identity thief in someone else's name should not be reported to that person, and the IRS says the fix is a corrected Form 1099-G showing $0, filed as soon as the error is discovered (IRS guidance). In IRIS that is a one-step correction.
Morado files corrections through the same IRIS A2A pipeline as originals, with the same validation and the same audit artifacts. That includes corrections to returns you originally filed through FIRE: after January 1, 2027, those go through IRIS too, flagged as FIRE originals. No separate portal, no manual re-keying.
An audit trail your auditors can walk
Two layers, both retained.
Per batch, six artifacts: the original workbook, canonical JSON, payer configuration, transmitted XML, the IRS submission acknowledgment, and the IRS status response, retained at a stable path.
Per action, a user-level trail: who uploaded, who approved, who transmitted, and when, with self-serve export. Role-based access separates who can prepare, who can approve, and who can transmit.
State auditor ready, IRS exam ready, claimant dispute ready.
What your security review will ask
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Where does the data live? | A dedicated, isolated environment operated by Morado, with data stored and processed in the United States. Agencies with a cloud team can deploy BYOC, so data never leaves their cloud. |
| Who can touch it? | Your staff, by role. Storage is per-project, per-user, with row-level security at the database layer. Logs are scrubbed at the boundary. Every action is attributed. |
| What is your SOC 2 status? | SOC 2 Type 2 in progress. Live status is on the Morado Trust Center. |
| What documents can you send? | Completed CAIQ and HECVAT questionnaires, a VPAT, a certificate of insurance that includes cyber coverage, and a sole-source justification letter if your purchasing path needs one. |
| Will you sign our data-protection terms? | Yes. Morado signs state data-protection addenda. |
| Is our 1099-G file Federal Tax Information? | Check its lineage. IRS Publication 1075 defines FTI as return information received from the IRS or an authorized secondary source such as the Social Security Administration. Benefit and refund records your agency generated sit outside that definition; an extract that mixes in IRS- or SSA-sourced fields does not. Unemployment agencies that receive FTI under IRC 6103(l)(7) may not disclose it to contractors for any purpose (Publication 1075, Exhibit 6). Your safeguards officer makes the call. |
| What does unemployment confidentiality require? | 20 CFR 603.9 lists the safeguards required of recipients of confidential unemployment compensation data: authorized use only, secure storage, restricted access, staff confidentiality acknowledgments, disposal when the purpose is served, and a system that allows an audit of compliance. |
Recipient copies, delivered
Every filing generates recipient Copy B PDFs. Morado prints and mails, or delivers through a secure portal, or both. Same pipeline, same audit trail as the IRS side. For tax year 2026, recipient copies are due February 1, 2027, because January 31 falls on a Sunday. Electronic delivery of Form 1099-G requires each recipient's affirmative consent under the IRS rules.
State filing pass-through
Form 1099-G is part of the Combined Federal/State Filing program, and IRIS supports it: 31 states plus the District of Columbia participate for tax year 2026 (IRS Publication 5717). Morado files through CF/SF, so eligible forms reach participating states with your federal filing.
For states and forms outside CF/SF, Morado exports Publication 1220 files where the state still accepts that format. States are moving at different speeds: Indiana will accept Pub 1220 files for tax year 2026 until September 2027, while Montana has said it will accept only IRIS XML. One upload covers both.
Proof: production volume, zero rejections
Morado has filed 94,000+ information returns in production in a single tax year with a 0% IRS rejection rate, and delivered ~188,000 recipient PDFs through a secure cloud portal.
(Different sector, same pipeline. Volume and rigor translate.)
How pricing works
Seasonal pricing by volume tier, quoted up front. You know the season's cost before you file, which is the number a budget request needs.
Who Morado works for
- State unemployment insurance agencies filing 1099-G for every claimant, plus RTAA and withholding
- State revenue departments and local income tax administrators filing refund 1099-Gs and 1099-INT
- Paid family and medical leave programs filing their first Box 10 1099-Gs in an IRIS-only season
- Comptrollers, controllers, and statewide accounting offices filing vendor 1099s for many agency EINs
- Counties, cities, and special districts, including utilities, housing authorities, and transit agencies
- School districts, county offices of education, and IT consortia filing for every member district
- Federal agencies and shared-service centers filing vendor 1099s, 1099-C, and USDA 1099-Gs
- Agencies with their own FIRE TCC today whose credential does not carry over to IRIS
Retirement systems: see public pensions →. Public universities: see universities →.
How it works
- Upload your data. The Pub 1220 file from your ERP, statewide accounting system, or benefits system, or XLSX and CSV exports.
- Confirm the mappings. Morado proposes the mapping; your team reviews, confirms, or overrides before anything moves.
- Review the preflight report. Every schema and business rule issue, fixable in Excel, before transmission.
- Morado transmits under its production TCC. Directly to the IRS through IRIS A2A over mTLS, for every issuer you file for.
- Artifacts land in your audit trail. Acknowledgments, status responses, and recipient copies, retained at a stable path.
See Morado against your January volume
30 minutes with a Morado engineer. Walk through the pipeline against a sample of your real 1099-G or vendor data, anonymized if you prefer.
Frequently asked questions
Do government agencies have to file 1099s? Yes. Payments by federal, state, and local government agencies are reportable on information returns like any other payer's, per the IRS Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC. Agencies also file Form 1099-G for unemployment compensation, state and local income tax refunds, taxable grants, family leave benefits, and agricultural payments. After January 1, 2027, every one of those returns files through IRIS.
Does a business need to send a 1099 to a government agency? Generally no. Payments to the United States, a state, the District of Columbia, a U.S. territory, or a foreign government are exempt from 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC reporting. This page covers the other direction: agencies that issue 1099s.
Which information returns does a state or local government file? Most file Form 1099-G (unemployment compensation, tax refunds, taxable grants, family leave benefits), 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC for vendors and contractors, and 1099-INT for interest on tax refunds and condemnation awards. Many also file 1099-S on land acquired under threat of condemnation, W-2G from state lotteries, and 1099-R from plans they administer. Federal agencies add 1099-C. Morado supports the full information return series. Form W-2 goes to the Social Security Administration, not IRIS.
Does each agency need its own IRIS TCC? Not when you file through Morado. Each agency stays the issuer under its own EIN, and Morado transmits under its production transmitter TCC. You skip: the TCC application · ID.me proofing · X.509/JWKS cert setup · annual ATS testing. Filing yourself is different: an IRIS TCC with the Issuer role files only for the EIN on its application, and IRIS rejects a submission for more than one business unless the TCC has the Transmitter role (IRS business rule S1H048).
Our agencies share one state EIN. How does that work in IRIS? The IRS has said that entities sharing one state TIN do not each need their own TCC (IRIS Working Group Q&A, July 2025). What IRIS does check is that each issuer's TIN and name match IRS records, so the agency names on your file need to line up with the name the IRS holds for that EIN. Through Morado, one season carries every issuer you file for, each with its own payer configuration and audit artifacts.
Can a comptroller, county office, or IT consortium file for many agencies or districts? Yes. A central office that transmits for many EINs needs the Transmitter role in IRIS, because an Issuer TCC files only for its own EIN. Morado is that transmitter. One filing season covers every member payer, each under its own EIN, with per-payer configuration and per-batch audit artifacts.
Can we keep using the Pub 1220 file our ERP produces? Yes. Morado ingests the Publication 1220 file your ERP, statewide accounting system, or benefits system already writes, validates it against the IRIS rules, and transmits it through IRIS A2A. Your year-end job does not change. XLSX and CSV exports work too, with mappings your team reviews and confirms.
Is the free IRIS Taxpayer Portal enough for an agency? Only at low volume. The Portal takes CSV uploads of up to 250 records per file and 100 forms per submission (IRS Publication 5717), corrections are keyed by hand, and every user signs in through ID.me. At 100,000 Forms 1099-G, that is at least 400 uploads and 1,000 submissions.
When does FIRE close, and is there an exception for government filers? There is no exception. FIRE's last filing day is November 19, 2026, at 3 p.m. ET, and after January 1, 2027 IRIS will be the only IRS e-file system for information returns, including corrections and prior-year filings. Government agencies follow the same schedule as every other filer.
How do we correct a 1099-G issued for a fraudulent unemployment claim? IRS guidance says to issue a corrected Form 1099-G showing $0 to the identity theft victim and file it with the IRS as soon as the error is discovered. In IRIS that is a one-step correction. Morado files corrections through the same IRIS A2A pipeline as originals, with the same validation and audit artifacts, including corrections to returns originally filed through FIRE.
Does IRIS forward our 1099-G and 1099-NEC to the state? For participating states, yes. Morado files through the Combined Federal/State Filing (CF/SF) program, which covers Form 1099-G and runs in 31 states plus the District of Columbia for tax year 2026 (IRS Publication 5717). For states and forms outside CF/SF, Morado exports Publication 1220 files where the state still accepts that format.
How does Morado protect claimant and taxpayer data? Morado runs as a dedicated, isolated environment for your agency, with data stored and processed in the United States. Storage is per-project, per-user, with row-level security enforced at the database layer. Logs are scrubbed at the boundary, and every action is attributed: who uploaded, who approved, who transmitted, and when. Agencies with their own cloud team can also deploy BYOC, so data never leaves their cloud.
What will our procurement and security review need from Morado? Morado provides completed CAIQ and HECVAT questionnaires, a VPAT, a certificate of insurance that includes cyber coverage, a signed state data-protection addendum, and a sole-source justification letter if your purchasing path needs one. Data stays in the United States. SOC 2 Type 2 is in progress, with live status on the Morado Trust Center.
Can Morado replace 1099 Pro, Sovos, or our ERP vendor's filing service? Yes, head-on. Morado covers the full cycle those tools and services cover: ingestion, validation, direct IRS transmission through IRIS A2A, corrections, recipient copies, and the audit trail, operated by your own team. White-glove migration is included when you file with Morado.
Read the Form 1099-G guide → · Read the full FIRE to IRIS transition guide → · What is IRS IRIS? →
See Morado against your own data.
A 30-minute call with a Morado engineer. Walk through the pipeline against a sample of your real records.
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