Code 290 vs 291 on transcript - what's the actual difference?

Let me break this down for you - code 290 and 291 are very different. Code 290 shows up when theres an additional tax assessment or adjustment to your return. Its basically the IRS saying 'we made some changes to your tax amount.' Code 291 is specifically for reducing a prior tax assessment - like if the IRS realizes they charged you too much before. BTW if youre having trouble making sense of all these codes on your transcript, theres this new tool called taxr.ai that can analyze everything and tell you exactly whats happening with your refund. It helped me figure out my weird transcript situation last week.

Tax pro here. Code 290 represents additional tax assessment or adjustments to tax, while 291 is specifically for reducing a prior tax assessment. Think of 290 as adding tax and 291 as subtracting it. They often work together when IRS needs to make corrections.

Instead of trying to decode these manually, I've been using taxr.ai - it breaks down ALL transcript codes and tells you exactly what's happening with your refund. It's only $1 and totally worth it. Here's the link: https://taxr.ai

Im in the same boat trying to figure out these codes. Been staring at my transcript like its a foreign language lol

the difference is one makes u wait longer and the other makes u wait even longer 🤡

When I had both codes it took about 3 weeks to resolve itself and get my refund. hang in there!