Takeaways from IOFM Spring Conference 2026

Listen to or watch the related podcast episode: https://podcasts.dinesenmedia.com/show/information-return-intelligence-1/iofm-conference-takeaways-anxiety-complexity-and-ai/

Last week, I was at the IOFM spring conference in Orlando. I have always felt like this is a great event because IOFM is a high-quality organization, and IOFM members are high-quality professionals. 

I do all of the education on 1099s and other information-reporting issues at the conference. The sessions are always great, but what I find most valuable about the conference is listening to attendees talk about their problems and concerns. 

Information Reporting Anxiety

There was a lot of anxiety in the air as people asked questions or talked about what keeps them up at night. Some of this is because of “these uncertain times,” where it seems like there’s just a lot of tension in America in general. And a lot of it is because change is in the air.

The change isn’t just the political winds. In the world of information reporting, several changes are looming.

Reporting Thresholds

The reporting threshold is different (now $2,000 for most things). This is a good change, but a change nonetheless. And, the threshold has not necessarily changed for everything. For example, royalties remain $10, and gross proceeds paid to the attorney remain $600.

Goodbye to FIRE

The FIRE system is shutting down, and IRIS will be the only system available starting with next filing season. For some people, this is no big deal because they’ve either already started using IRIS or they use a third party for filing. But for those with direct logins to FIRE, it means an entirely new system to figure out. 

Difficulty Level Keeps Increasing

Just in general, “how hard it all is” came up a lot. The regulatory complexities. The uncertainty in what the right answer is. 

When we held our contractor vs. employee (worker classification) session, this came up a lot. The IRS has its standards — shades of gray everywhere. The DOL has its own set of standards. States have another set of standards. While there is overlap, there are plenty of differences. That’s just one example. 

And I always say, whenever someone thinks there’s no complexity to information reporting, just check out IOFM’s Ask the Expert feature (a sneak peek of which you get now and then here), and you’ll see just how mind-bending these things can be.

AI, AI Everywhere

AI and uncertainty about AI were common themes. There was frustration that so many software vendors are touting the latest, greatest AI solution, but it’s quite unclear what the software even does.

At times, when I try to talk to vendors who tout “AI,” I am still confused about what, exactly, they do or what the benefit of their software solution is – even after they explain it to me. I feel like I am not the only one who feels this way, especially after the roundtable I hosted, where AP professionals discussed their software and technology challenges.

There’s also backlash against the push for AI in so many organizations, where management mandates it but doesn’t really know what it wants from it.

Conclusion

If you are interested in these topics — which you must be if you’re reading this — keep following this blog and podcast. And consider joining IOFM, which offers great content on information returns and more. Check them out at www.iofm.com