IRS Tax Return Status Codes: Refunds, Holds, and Freezes

IRS tax return status codes are the three-digit transaction codes stamped on your IRS account transcript, and each one records a specific action the agency took on your account: a return posted, a credit applied, a hold placed, a refund released, a notice mailed, or an examination opened. Read in order, they tell you where your return stands with more precision than the “Where’s My Refund?” tracker. This guide walks through the codes you’re most likely to see and what each one means for your money.

Where To Find the Codes

The codes appear on your account transcript, not your return transcript. The return transcript is a copy of what you filed. The account transcript works like a bank statement for your tax year, showing every credit, payment, adjustment, and refund posted to your account.¹

The fastest way to get it is through your IRS Online Account at irs.gov, where you can view, print, or download transcripts for any available year.² You can also order transcripts by calling 800-908-9946 or mailing Form 4506-T.¹

Each row on the transcript shows a three-digit code, a short description, a dollar amount, and a date. Read from top to bottom to follow the timeline of what happened to your return.³

The Anchor Code: TC 150

The first meaningful entry is Transaction Code 150: return filed and tax liability assessed. Everything else on the transcript builds on it. If TC 150 hasn’t posted, the IRS hasn’t finished processing your return into its system, and no other codes will make sense until it does.⁴

Credit and Withholding Codes

Shortly after TC 150, you’ll usually see the credits that reduced or eliminated what you owed:

TC 806: Total federal income tax withheld from your wages and other income, as reported on your W-2s and 1099s.⁴
TC 766: A refundable credit applied to your account, such as the Additional Child Tax Credit.³
TC 768: The Earned Income Tax Credit specifically. If you claimed the EITC, it appears as its own line rather than being folded into TC 766.
TC 767: A reversal of a TC 766 credit. It looks nearly identical to TC 766 but is the opposite: the IRS determined a credit was posted in error and pulled it back.³

Payment Codes

If you owed money or made estimated payments, two codes track what came in:

TC 610: A payment submitted with your return, whether attached to a paper filing or paid electronically at the time of e-file.³
TC 670: Any payment made after the return was filed, including estimated tax payments and installment agreement payments.³

Check these lines if you think a payment went missing. The dollar amount should match what you actually sent; a mismatch can produce a surprise balance due.

The Refund Code Everyone Watches For

TC 846 is the code that means your refund has been approved and released. The date beside it is the date the IRS sends the money to your bank or issues a check, and a direct deposit typically hits your account within one to two business days after that.³

Sometimes TC 846 shows up next to TC 776, “interest credited to your account.” Federal law requires the IRS to pay interest on any refund not issued within 45 days of the filing deadline or the date you filed, whichever is later.⁵ That interest appears as its own credit and rolls into the total in TC 846.

Holds and Freezes

TC 570: The Refund Is Paused

TC 570 means “additional liability pending or credit hold.” Translated: the IRS has paused your refund while it looks at something.³ Common triggers include a mismatch between your reported income and what employers reported, a return flagged by identity filters, or extra scrutiny on refundable credits like the EITC. Sometimes the IRS just needs internal verification time and no response from you is required. The date next to TC 570 is when the hold took effect, not a projected refund date.

The reversal is TC 571. Once it posts and no other holds remain, TC 846 usually follows within a week or two.³

Calling the IRS rarely speeds things up, because phone agents can generally only confirm what your transcript already shows. Reaching out makes sense in a few situations: more than 30 days have passed since TC 570 posted and no notice has arrived, your transcript shows TC 971 (notice sent) but you never got the letter, or the delay is causing genuine financial hardship. In hardship cases, the Taxpayer Advocate Service can sometimes intervene.

What tends to make delays worse: filing a duplicate return because you assume the IRS didn’t get the first one, amending prematurely without instructions to do so, and sending documents the IRS didn’t ask for. Wait for the notice, then respond precisely and on time.

TC 810: The Refund Is Frozen

TC 810 is more serious than TC 570. It freezes your refund entirely, blocking the IRS from releasing money, applying offsets, or crediting an overpayment to next year. A sub-code identifies the reason: Code 1 is a prefiling notification issue, Code 2 involves abusive tax shelter detection, Code 3 flags Earned Income Credit verification, and Code 4 indicates the return was identified under the Frivolous Return Program.³ Identity verification can also trigger TC 810 while the IRS waits for you to confirm you filed the return.

The freeze holds until the underlying issue is resolved. TC 811 reverses it. A TC 811 posted with a zero amount releases the freeze completely if no other holds remain.³

When Your Refund Is Smaller Than Expected

A refund that shrinks between what you calculated and what arrives has usually been redirected to a debt. Two mechanisms handle this, and they show up differently on the transcript.

Applied to Another Tax Year

TC 826 means the IRS moved part or all of your overpayment to another tax year within your account. If you owed a prior-year balance, your current refund paid it down. TC 826 appears as a debit reducing your refund, and a matching TC 706 credit appears on the year that received the money.³ Expect a CP49 notice explaining the transfer.⁶

Applied to Non-Tax Debts

Federal law requires agencies to refer overdue debts to the Treasury Offset Program once they’re 120 days past due. The program can reduce your refund to cover delinquent student loans, past-due child support, and other federal or state obligations. The referring agency must send a letter at least 60 days before the offset, explaining the debt and your rights to dispute it or set up a payment plan.⁷

If you filed jointly and the offset covers a debt that belongs only to your spouse, you can file Form 8379 (Injured Spouse Allocation) to reclaim your share. You have three years from the date the return was filed or two years from the date the tax was paid, whichever is later. Processing runs up to eight weeks when filed separately, longer when attached to the original return.⁸

Notices and Correspondence

TC 971 means the IRS has generated a notice or letter and mailed it to the address on file. It frequently appears alongside TC 570, because a pause usually comes with an explanation.⁴ The letter could be anything from a CP05 asking for more time to verify income⁹ to a CP12 announcing that a math error changed your refund amount.¹⁰ TC 971 alone doesn’t tell you the content; you need the actual notice or its number.

TC 971 also appears when the IRS flags a return for identity verification. If you get a Letter 4883C or 5071C, the agency is asking you to confirm you filed the return. Until you complete verification, your return sits and no refund goes out. After successful verification, expect up to nine weeks before the money arrives.¹¹

TC 972 is the counterpart. It means the IRS processed your response to a notice or finished the review that the notice triggered.

TC 977 indicates an amended return has posted. If you filed Form 1040-X, TC 977 replaces the original TC 150 on that module. Any dollar amount attached to TC 977 is a payment submitted with the amendment, not a change to your liability; actual adjustments show up separately.³

Examination Codes

TC 420 means your return has been referred to the IRS Examination Division. It doesn’t guarantee an audit. The return is “under examination consideration,” meaning the IRS is evaluating whether to audit and may close the matter without one.⁴ Before TC 420, you may see TC 424, showing that an internal department requested the examination.

An examination can stretch for months, not weeks. When the case closes, TC 421 posts.¹² Without TC 421, the examination is technically still open.

TC 290 reflects additional tax assessed, typically after an audit or other adjustment. The dollar amount is the extra tax you owe. But TC 290 also posts with a zero amount, which usually means the IRS completed its review and made no changes, or is releasing a processing freeze without assessing more tax.³ A TC 290 for $0.00 after a TC 420 is good news: the IRS looked and found nothing to change.

Quick Reference

TC 150: Return filed, tax liability assessed
TC 290: Additional tax assessed (zero amount means no change)
TC 420: Return referred for examination
TC 421: Examination closed
TC 424: Examination requested
TC 570: Refund hold, additional action pending
TC 571: Hold released
TC 610: Payment submitted with return
TC 670: Payment made after filing
TC 766: Refundable credit applied
TC 767: Refundable credit reversed
TC 768: Earned Income Tax Credit
TC 776: Interest owed to you by the IRS
TC 806: Federal income tax withheld
TC 810: Refund frozen
TC 811: Refund freeze released
TC 826: Refund transferred to another tax year you owe
TC 846: Refund issued
TC 971: Notice or letter sent to you
TC 972: Response to notice processed
TC 977: Amended return posted

1
Internal Revenue Service. Transcript Types for Individuals and Ways to Order Them
2
Internal Revenue Service. Get Your Tax Records and Transcripts
3
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Document 6209 Section 8A – Master File Codes
4
Taxpayer Advocate Service. Decoding IRS Transcripts and the New Transcript Format Part II
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6611 – Interest on Overpayments
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Taxpayer Advocate Service. Notice CP49 Overpayment Adjustment
7
Bureau of the Fiscal Service. What Is the Treasury Offset Program
8
Internal Revenue Service. Injured Spouse Relief
9
Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Your CP05 Notice
10
Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Your CP12 Notice
11
Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Your Letter 4883C
12
Internal Revenue Service. Transcripts in Lieu of Estate Tax Closing Letters