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1042-S Formatting Errors and Solutions


1042-S errors Electronic filing specifications of IRS Form 1042-S are published in Publication 1187 which is titled "Specifications for Electronic Filing of Form 1042-S, Foreign Person's US Source Income Subject to Withholding". Here we list common problems (with solutions) encountered when electronically filing Form 1042-S to the IRS. These problems may result in IRS/ECC-MTB requesting replacement files.

Invalid Characters

  • 'Q' record(s), positions 294 through 333, Recipient’s City, is blank or contains invalid characters.
  • 'Q’ record(s), positions 334 through 335, Recipient’s State, is blank or contains invalid characters and/or positions 254 through 293, Recipient’s Street Line-2, contains invalid characters.


The only valid characters for electronic filing are alpha, numeric, blank, ampersand (&), hyphen (-), comma (,), apostrophe (’), forward slash (/), pound sign (#), period (.), and the percent (%). Only the percent [% (used as “in care of”)] is valid in the first position. Do not use special characters that are unique to a language other than English. Inclusion of any characters other than those identified as valid in the instructions will result in a “Bad File” status.

State, Province, Country Code

  • ‘Q’ record(s), positions 334 through 335, Recipient’s State, contains a code that is invalid.
  • ‘Q’ record(s), positions 336 through 337, Recipient’s Province Code, contains a code that is invalid.
  • ‘Q’ record(s), positions 48 through 49, Recipient’s Country of Residence Code for Tax Purposes, is blank or contains an invalid code.
  • ‘Q’ record(s), positions 338 through 339, Recipient’s Country Code, contains a valid code. However, the State Code, positions 334 through 335 and the Province Code, positions 336 through 337, must be blank. Or, if the country code equals ‘CA’ the Province Code, positions 336 through 337, must contain a valid code.


Only enter a two character state code if they have a US address. Otherwise, leave the state field blank. Only enter a two character province code if they are from Canada and have CA in the country code field. Only enter a two character country code if they do not have a US address; blank means US.

Shifting Data

  • ‘Q’ record(s), position 358, Recipient’s U.S. TIN Type, is blank or contains an invalid entry. The entry must equal ‘0’, ‘1’, ‘2’, ‘3’ or ‘4’.
  • 'Q' record(s), positions 359 through 370, U.S. Federal Tax Withheld, is blank or is not all numeric.
  • 'Q' record(s), positions 371 through 382, Withholding by Other Agents, is blank or is not all numeric.
  • 'Q' record(s), positions 383 through 394, Total Withholding Credit, is blank or is not all numeric.
  • ‘C’ Record(s) has a discrepancy between the IRS accumulated totals of the ‘Total Withholding Credit’ and the Reconciliation ‘C’ record amounts in positions 31 through 45.
  • The Record Sequence number, positions 811 through 818, is missing or invalid.

All of the above errors tend to arise together when the data is shifted. If your missing data or have too long of a recipient name or address, then data from one field moves into another and these errors arise.

Record Sequence Number is an 8 digit number. The T record would appear as "00000001" and the first W-record will appear as "00000002" and so on until you reach the final record of the file. Each record is 820 characters in length and record sequence number is the very end of each record, positions 811 through 818. To see if a file is ready for e-filing, I check the record sequence number first. That column must be perfectly lined up with no shifting whatsoever. If that column is not lined up perfectly, you want to double check to the left those records that are shifted. Save. Then create a new fire.txt file.

Exemption Code, Recipient Code

  • ‘Q’ record(s), positions 46 through 47, Exemption Code, contains a code that is invalid.
  • ‘Q’ record(s), positions 92 through 93, Recipient Code, contains a code that is invalid.


Exemption code is taken from Box 6 on the 1042-S form. If the tax rate entered in box 5 is 0%, enter the exemption code 01 through 09 from the above table. If the tax rate entered is 1% through 30%, enter "00" as the exemption code. If the tax rate entered is greater than 30%, blank fill.

Recipient code is Box 13b. The most common error is completely omitting the recipient code or just using one digit. If the type of recipient is an individual, use 01 and not just 1 as the recipient code.

Please e-mail technical support at support@1099fire.com with any questions related to IRS Form 8027.

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