When filing IRS Form 8027 (Employer’s Annual Information Return of Tip Income and Allocated Tips) electronically, it’s important to understand what characters the IRS system accepts — and what will cause a rejection.
According to IRS Publication 1239, allowable characters are:
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Letters (A–Z, upper or lower case)
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Numbers (0–9)
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Blanks (spaces)
Characters That Are Not Allowed
The IRS does not allow:
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Special characters:
! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) -
Punctuation: commas, periods, apostrophes, hyphens
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Accented letters: é, ñ, ü
If these appear in your establishment name or address, your submission will be rejected.
Examples
❌ Not Allowed:
Espresso Café, LLC
123 Main Street, #200
✅ Allowed:
Espresso Cafe LLC
123 Main Street Suite 200
❌ Not Allowed:
O’Reilly’s Bar & Grill
123 N. Wisconsin Avenue, #230
✅ Allowed:
OReillys Bar Grill
123 N Wisconsin Avenue Suite 230
Why Does the IRS Restrict Characters?
The IRS electronic filing system is designed to handle only basic alphanumeric input. This ensures:
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Consistency across all records
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Prevention of transmission errors
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Compatibility with government databases
Best Practices for Form 8027 E-Filing
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Remove all punctuation and symbols from names and addresses.
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Replace
#with the word Suite. -
Replace accented letters with plain equivalents (e → e, ñ → n).
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Use only A–Z, 0–9, and spaces.