Tax filers claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) or Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC) who file early in January or February may face unexpected delays or holds on their refunds due to the PATH Act
2025 PATH refunds now being processed
The good news is that PATH held refunds are now being processed and folks are seeing updates on their transcript per the screenshot below.
If you don’t see code 846 (refund released), you may be seeing code 570/971 – which means the IRS is taking additional action on your return for which you will get a notice. If no updates, just hang in there and wait until IRS processing is done.
PATH Act: Key Dates for 2025
The Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes (PATH) was enacted by Congress and specifies that the IRS must hold the entire refund — even the portion not associated with the the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC) — until at least three weeks after the IRS starts processing returns.
There are 2 different event dates to keep in mind with the IRS PATH refund freeze. First, is getting your WMR/IRS2Go refund status, which will update around Feb 22nd, 2025, per the IRS. Until then you could see the standard Topic 152 error message on the IRS refund tracker tool.
Your actual refund will be paid or direct deposited by March 3rd, 2025. In most cases refund payments will come a few days earlier, especially if your payment method is direct deposit.
After March 3rd, after the first batch of PATH act held refunds are released, payments will occur per the standard IRS refund schedule.
Transcript with Refund Release Dates
Several transcripts are now showing a 2/17 or later date for defunds subject to the PATH Hold. Per the example below (ignoring the 810 code) the 150 line shows that the next refund processing date of 02/17 – which is the official date the PATH Act lifts.
However this date only indicates the next processing date and does not mean the refund will be paid then. You need to see code 846 on the transcript (or updated status on WMR) for this to be the case.
Another update. Despite showing a refund of 25 February, the WMR is still showing the refund has not been sent and should be in the bank my March 2,
Update on my refund. Despite indicating deposit will occur February 25, no such deposit has occurred. At this point, I will assume it will happen by March 3 as the schedule shows.
Years before, I would always get the deposit when it said I would
Update on my refund. I filed extra early this year in January. The refund is showing a deposit date of February 25.
So I guess with those banks who get notification of a Treasury ACH deposit, they go ahead and give the money to you, that would mean people for March 3 PATH Act should start seeing deposits in their bank accounts either 28 February, or March 1?
It’s ironic they call this the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes, but yet the bureaucrats squander billions as recently proven by DOGE.
So can anyone please tell me, because i am slow, what a cycle code 20250505 processing date 02/17/2025 means
See the full cycle code calendar here. Your cycle code is Thursday, January 30, 2025 (weekly processing). You need to see the other items on your transcript, but sounds like you are under PATH processing.