Leading, trailing and double spaces
A space you cannot see at the start, the end, or doubled in the middle of a cell is enough to fail the upload.
Each dot above is one space that will be kept.
| Kind | What it is (Publication 5717) |
|---|---|
| Leading space | You press the spacebar and the cursor does not start at the beginning of the cell |
| Double space | You press the spacebar twice between two pieces of data |
| Trailing space | A space between the final piece of data and the cursor |
| Space in an unused cell | An empty-looking cell that holds a space. Cells with no data must be completely empty |
They come from copy and paste, from exports that pad names, and from typing. Excel's TRIM function removes them, but only in a helper column you then paste back as values.
Perfrow strips them from every cell, including non-breaking spaces and tabs that TRIM misses.
Fix the whole file at once
Drop in your blank IRIS template and your spreadsheet. Perfrow cleans every row, tells you which ones need you, and writes CSVs of at most 250 records. It runs in your browser, so names and TINs stay on your computer.
Open the 1099-NEC CSV fixerQuestions
- Do spaces really cause an IRIS CSV rejection?
- Yes. Publication 5717 lists leading, trailing or double spaces as a common reason, and the formatting guidelines repeat it for every name and address field.
Other answers: All 54 columns · Required fields · Character limits · State codes · 250-record limit · Why files get rejected · Scientific notation · ZIP code format · Date format · Line breaks · Periods and # · $0.00 cells · Y/N check boxes · Tax year · Error types · Headers do not match · From QuickBooks · TIN format · Key dates