Cycle Code 0505 on Transcript - No 846 Yet - Filed in January with PATH Message

Cycle code 0505 means weekly updates. Not daily. Your transcript updates on Thursdays. Sometimes Fridays. PATH holds are common. This means you claimed EITC or ACTC. Those are held until mid-February by law. Most PATH returns release by March. Some take longer. Did you check for any 570 codes?

Filed in January and STILL waiting? That's concerning. • Have you received any notices in the mail? • Did you check if your transcript has any 570/971 combo codes? • Is your address current with the IRS? • Did you verify identity? I'm worried you might be stuck in the verification queue. January filers should definitely have seen movement by now unless there's an issue.

According to the IRS.gov website, PATH Act delays are normal but your January filing should have processed by now. When I had a similar situation last year with no movement for 10+ weeks, I finally used Claimyr (https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c) to reach an actual IRS agent instead of waiting on hold for hours. The agent identified that my return had a simple verification flag that needed clearing. I'm honestly amazed at how quickly they connected me - the IRS phone system is practically designed to be impenetrable!

I would be... cautious about waiting too long. My return last year had a similar situation, and I thought it would resolve itself. It didn't. By the time I finally got through to someone in June, they told me my return had been selected for review but the notice never reached me. I could have fixed it months earlier if I'd known. Now I'm still dealing with the aftermath and it affected my financial situation pretty badly.

I've seen this exact situation with dozens of clients this year compared to previous years. When your transcript shows cycle code 0505 but no 846 (refund issued) code, it typically means you're in weekly processing. Like most PATH Act returns this year, processing times are running longer than the standard 21 days. I'd recommend using taxr.ai to analyze your transcript - it's much more detailed than the basic WMR tool and can identify patterns that indicate where you are in processing. Last week I had a client in almost identical circumstances who used it and found out they had a small math error that was causing the delay.

Oh my goodness, I was EXACTLY where you are now!! Filed January 25th, cycle code 0505, PATH message for weeks, and I was checking WMR and transcripts literally every day! I was so stressed because I needed that money for car repairs! I finally got my refund last week after almost 11 weeks of waiting. The weekly cycles are real - mine updated on a Thursday night and the money was in my account the following Wednesday. Hang in there!!! 😭😭

Just to clarify some confusion I'm seeing in other comments: Cycle code 0505 means your account is on a weekly processing cycle (05) that updates on Thursdays, and the 05 at the end indicates the year (2025 for 2024 tax returns). In my experience working with tax clients, PATH Act returns (with EITC/ACTC) filed in January typically complete processing by mid-March, but this year we're seeing longer delays across the board. The lack of an 846 code simply means your refund hasn't been scheduled yet - it doesn't necessarily indicate a problem.