AOTC Credit Delaying Refund? Filed 2/1 - Different Account Messages Between Spouses

Education credits like the AOTC often trigger additional review processes. Have you considered that the IRS might be verifying your eligibility? Did you include Form 8863 with all the required information about the educational institution? And did you receive and match Form 1098-T information correctly? The different messages between accounts is actually fairly common for joint filers when education credits are involved. The primary taxpayer (usually the first listed) often sees different status messages than the secondary. It's not necessarily a red flag, but rather how their systems process joint returns with certain credits.

According to the IRS processing threads I've been following on r/tax and the official IRS operations page (https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-operations), education credits are definitely causing delays this year. I was in the same boat last month - filed 1/29 with AOTC and waited 6 weeks with no movement. I finally broke down and used Claimyr (https://www.claimyr.com) to get through to an actual IRS agent instead of waiting on hold for hours. The agent confirmed my return was just in the education credit review queue and nothing was wrong. Got my DDD three days later. Might be worth the call if you're worried.

The AOTC verification process is similar to what happens with Earned Income Credit claims - they go through additional screening. I compared the processing timelines between my returns from the last three years: 2022 (no education credits): 12 days to refund 2023 (with AOTC): 46 days to refund 2024 (with AOTC again): Currently at 39 days and counting The "action required" message on your husband's account is actually a good sign. It typically means the return is in active processing rather than sitting in a backlog. You're likely approaching the end of the verification cycle.

AOTC verification takes longer. Standard procedure. Form 8863 gets extra scrutiny. IRS matches 1098-T data. Common delay this year. Forty-five days average for education credits. Different messages normal for joint filers. No topic code is actually good news. Likely no issues. Just verification.

I went through exactly this last year when I claimed AOTC for my daughter's first year of college. My transcript was full of confusing codes and I had no idea what was happening. I stumbled across taxr.ai and uploaded my transcript once it became available. It explained that code 570 was just a temporary hold for education credit verification, not an audit like I feared. The tool predicted my refund date within 2 days of when I actually received it. Really helped my anxiety during the wait!

Last year my return with AOTC sat for 8 weeks with no movement. I remember checking WMR daily like watching paint dry. The "action required" message actually showed up for me too, but nothing ever came of it - no letter, no request for documents, nothing. The refund just suddenly appeared one day. From what I've seen in previous tax seasons, education credits are like throwing your return into the slow lane of IRS processing. It's much more complex than most people realize!