Has your friend received any letters from the unemployment office about the overpayment? And how long ago did she file the protest? I'm wondering if there's a specific timeframe when these things typically get resolved? I'm asking because my sister had something similar happen last year, and even though she was in the middle of appealing, they still put a hold on her refund initially.

OMG this EXACT thing happened to me in January! I had a $3,200 "overpayment" from unemployment that was completely bogus. I filed my protest on Jan 15th and filed my taxes on Feb 1st. I was so worried about my refund! 😬 I called that offset number literally every week. My refund came through perfectly normal on Feb 21st, and then in March, my protest was approved and the overpayment was removed. The key is that they can't certify a debt for offset while it's under active protest! I'm still SO RELIEVED it worked out! 🙌

Last year I was in the same boat. Checked daily for weeks - nothing changed. Then tried calling IRS but couldn't get through after 3 hours on hold. Finally used Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) and got connected to an agent in 20 minutes. They explained my transcript was stuck in a verification hold that wouldn't show online. The agent fixed it while I was on the phone and my transcript updated the next day. Sometimes you need to talk to a human to get real answers about why your transcript isn't updating.

So I've been tracking transcript updates for three tax seasons now, and I've noticed they definitely follow patterns. My transcript always updates between 3-6am on Friday mornings. Last year, I set an alarm for 5am every Friday during tax season just to check! I'd wake up, grab my phone, and refresh the transcript page. It sounds crazy, but it saved me from checking 20 times a day. The cycle codes on your transcript can also tell you which weekly cycle you're in - mine always ends in 05, which means Friday updates.

Fun fact: the IRS batch processes refunds in cycles, and banks have their own processing schedules too. So there's actually a complex dance happening between when the IRS says "we sent it" and when your bank says "we got it." 😂 Sometimes your bank won't even show a pending deposit until the night before it posts. This is completely normal and doesn't mean anything is wrong with your refund!

CYCLE DATES are critical to understand here. The IRS processes refunds in specific batches based on your cycle code on your transcript. If you have an 05 cycle code, your refund information updates on Thursday nights/Friday mornings. If you have a DDD of 02/28, the ACH transfer was initiated 1-2 business days prior. Financial institutions then have until EOD on the DDD to make funds available. I NEED my refund by Friday for rent, so I've been tracking this process obsessively.

I experienced the same delay and found that using taxr.ai helped me understand what was happening. According to Internal Revenue Manual 21.4.1.3, returns filed in early February often encounter systemic processing delays even when accepted. The taxr.ai tool analyzed my transcript once it appeared and explained that the 570 code I was seeing was actually part of normal processing, not an audit as I feared. It predicted my direct deposit date within 48 hours of actual deposit.

Has anyone who filed on 2/11 received any updates yet? It's like our returns are stuck in a traffic jam while later filers zoom past us on the express lane. I'm wondering if there's something specific about that filing date that's causing issues - like how sometimes a specific batch of mail gets misrouted and arrives later than mail sent days afterward?

I had a somewhat similar situation last year. I moved in January but filed in February with my new address. However, they still sent the verification letter to my old address (which was weird since I hadn't used it on my return). When I finally got the letter forwarded and verified, it still took about 3 weeks for my transcript to show anything. I'm not 100% sure, but I think they might have your new address already in the system from when you verified in person, even if they didn't explicitly ask for it.

My brother had exactly this issue in 2022! He moved on January 15th, filed on the 30th with his old address, and then had to verify his identity. The IRS sent all his mail to his old address even though he told them he moved during verification. His transcript stayed blank for almost a month after verification! He ended up having to call them twice - once to update his address officially and again two weeks later when they still sent something to his old place. The second call finally fixed it and his transcript updated about a week after that.