IRS transcript codes 570, 971 and 846, explained
What an account transcript is, what the common transaction codes on it actually say, what a hold next to a notice means, and where the refund date shows up.
Quick answers
- What does code 570 mean on my transcript?
- The IRS calls it an additional liability pending or credit hold. Something is stopping the account from releasing money while the IRS looks at it. The code itself does not say what, and a letter usually follows.
- Does code 846 mean the money is in my account?
- No. It means the refund was issued, and the date next to it is the date it left the IRS. Direct deposit usually shows up a few days later, and a mailed check takes longer than that.
- Is there an official list of IRS transcript codes?
- Yes, but it is an internal processing document rather than a taxpayer guide. It gives each code a short title and does not explain what any particular posting on your account was about.
Your account transcript is a ledger, and the three-digit numbers on it are the IRS's internal transaction codes. A few of them appear on nearly every account, and knowing which mean a hold and which means the money has left is most of what a taxpayer needs.
What an account transcript is
The tax account transcript is the summary version of a year. It carries the status you filed under, the income the IRS ended up taxing, the kinds of payment it received against the year, and every adjustment made to the account since the return went in. That last part is what makes it useful when a refund is late, because a change the IRS makes to your account appears there as a dated line before any letter about it reaches your post box.
You get it by signing in to your IRS online account, where the current year and nine prior years are available to view, print or download, a route how to get your IRS transcripts walks through end to end. A transcript ordered by mail instead arrives in five to ten calendar days at the address the IRS already has for you.
The codes almost every transcript has
Two codes turn up on almost every account with a filed return, and both mean nothing more than that the machinery worked. Code 150 is titled Return Filed and Tax Liability Assessed: your return posted and the tax was recorded. Code 806 is Credit for Withheld Taxes and Excess FICA, which is the withholding from your W-2 and 1099 forms arriving as a credit.
Two more appear only if you claimed a refundable credit. Code 766 is a Generated Refundable Credit Allowance, and code 768 is the Earned Income Credit. Both are credits landing on the account, so their absence from a return that claimed neither is normal rather than a sign that something is missing.
570: a hold
The IRS titles code 570 Additional Liability Pending and/or Credit Hold. What it does is stop the account from releasing money while something is pending.
What it does not do is say why. The code is one line in an internal ledger, not an explanation, and it is posted for a wide range of reasons that have nothing in common except that they pause the account. Its reversal is code 571, which the IRS describes as releasing the freeze the 570 put on.
971: a miscellaneous transaction
Code 971 is titled Miscellaneous Transaction, and the IRS's own list says it performs different actions depending on an action code recorded with it. The action codes are held separately, so the visible number by itself does not tell you what happened.
In practice a 971 on a personal account is usually the account's record that something was issued in writing. The letter is the document that explains it. The code is not.
570 and 971 together
This is the pairing that sends people looking for a decoder, and on its face it says two things: something is holding the account, and something was issued. No IRS page assigns the combination a further meaning, and any chart that does is guessing.
The right move is unglamorous. Wait for the letter, then read it against the return with You got a letter from the IRS, and if it proposes a change to income you reported, What a CP2000 actually is covers that specific notice.
810: a refund freeze
Code 810 is titled Refund Freeze, and the IRS's list says it exists to stop the year's account paying out in any form. That is broader than a 570, because it blocks the money from leaving as a refund, from being applied against another debt, and from being carried forward to next year's estimated tax.
Its reversal is code 811, which the IRS says lifts an 810 either wholly or in part. An 810 is a heavier signal than a 570 and generally means the year is going to take a while.
846: the refund
Code 846 is titled Refund of Overpayment, and it is the line you are looking for. It takes the tax you overpaid, with any interest the IRS owes on it, off the year's account so that it can be sent back to you.
The date beside it is the date the refund is issued, not the date it lands. Direct deposit generally takes a few more days to appear in the account, and a mailed check takes longer than that.
Cycle codes, in one paragraph
The eight-digit cycle field on a transcript is an internal posting cycle. Its format is published in Document 6209, the same internal list the code titles come from, and what it describes is the week and the day on which a transaction posted in the IRS's processing schedule. What it does not describe is your refund. Nothing in the field says when money will be sent, so a cycle read on its own tells you when the machinery moved and nothing more.
Where the code list actually comes from
Every title above comes from Document 6209, Section 8A, the IRS's Master File code list. It is genuinely public and worth looking at once, but it is an internal processing reference: short titles, terse remarks, and no explanation of what a particular posting on a particular account was about.
That is the honest ceiling on transcript reading. The codes tell you what kind of event happened and when. Why it happened lives in the letter, and no third-party code chart is authoritative about your account.