Form 1095-B, 1095-C Spaces, Prohibited and Constrained Special Characters
E-Filing 1095-B and/or 1095-C data involves creating and sending an XML files to the IRS.
The IRS will reject a transmission that contains
— Double Dash
# Hash Key
Both are consider prohibited characters. If you have the address:
7 North Pinckney Street #240
7 North Pinckney Street — Suite 240
The transmission must not include the hash key or double dash and instead would appear as:
7 North Pinckney Street 240
The following special characters must be escaped before they are included in the data fields that allow escaped characters of either Forms 1094/1095-B or Forms 1094/1095-C transmissions:
& Ampersand
‘ Apostrophe
” Quotation Mark
< Less Than
> Greater Than
The escaped characters are:
& Ampersand
' Apostrophe
" Quotation Mark
< Less Than
> Greater Than
*Caution: “PersonFirstNm”, “PersonMiddleNm”, and “PersonLastNm” cannot contain any special characters. For example, if a record has a last name data field containing an apostrophe, such as “O’Malley”, the transmission cannot include the apostrophe or the escaped apostrophe characters. The apostrophe must be stripped and the last name data must be entered as “OMALLEY”. The transmission will be rejected if the apostrophe is used. As a rule the schema definitions must be followed. 26 However, the escaped apostrophe will be allowed in the “BusinessNameLine1Txt” and “BusinessNameLine2Txt” schema elements. Any special characters that are not listed in the Table 4-3 or Table 4-4 will be allowed as-is. For example, a hyphen is allowed in the “PersonFirstNm”, “PersonMiddleNm”, “PersonLastNm”, “BusinessNameLine1Txt” and “BusinessNameLine2Txt”.
Our 1095 software checks for each of these special characters and will warn the users of these characters prior to creating the XML file for transmission.
Common examples are as follows:
Example 1: If the employee’s last name is O’Brien, then the apostrophe must be removed and you should instead use OBrien.
Example 2: If the employer name is A&B Corporation, then the ampersand should be removed and you should instead use AB Corporation.
Example 3: If the address field is ‘Shepard’s Road, #240’, then the apostrophe and hash key should be removed and you should instead use ‘Shepards Road, Suite 240’.
by 
Erich J. Ruth
Erich J. Ruth provides technical support for National Software which is the parent company for 1099FIRE. 1099FIRE develops and markets a comprehensive range of products that enables any size of business or institution to effectively manage and comply with year-end filing requirements. 1099FIRE is an employee-owned company located in Phoenix, Arizona.
If you have any questions or comments about our software, feel free to contact us at any time.
I trying to interface to 1095b/c and would like to filter out unacceptable characters. You mention above,.
Any special characters that are not listed in the Table 4-3 or Table 4-4 will be allowed as-is.
For example, a hyphen is allowed in the “PersonFirstNm”, “PersonMiddleNm”, “PersonLastNm”, “BusinessNameLine1Txt” and “BusinessNameLine2Txt”.
Evidently that’s true for names but not addresses??
Can you point me to these tables?
Thanks,
LaVerne
These tables are in the various IRS publications. Im not sure which one exactly. Publication 5223 will
probably have them.
Try viewing the schema
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-schema/ty2017_1095c_crosswalk.pdf