Tax Year 2015 ACA Assurance Testing System (AATS) will open for testing in early November for Information Returns that will be processed in 2016, the IRS announced.
The testing is intended to assist developers of software for processing forms 1094B and 1095B and forms 1094C and 1095C, according to the IRS.
The AATS testing will be in two phases. The November tests will evaluate responses to “test scenarios” submitted by software developers on a character-by-character basis, comparing the information submitted with IRS requirements.
A more robust test will be available in January, to examine the functionality of software to follow business rules.
A “test scenario” must include all of the information required to complete each of the four IRS forms. In all, eight scenarios must be submitted.
The character-by-character test simply determines if the data submitted is in precisely the right format, including capitalization, punctuation, leading and trailing spaces, date formats and other details.
The “business rules functionality” test in January will apply more extensive criteria, evaluating whether the information submitted in the forms is logically coherent and matches IRS requirements.