A cycle code is an eight-digit code found on your account transcripts. The cycle code indicates the day your account was posted to the IRS Master File. This date indicates the four digits of the current cycle year, two-digit IRS cycle week, and two-digit processing day of the week.
When you look at your IRS Tax Transcript, you’ll see a cycle code — it looks something like this:
Example: 20190704
| Part | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 2019 | The IRS processing year (not always the same as the tax year you filed). |
| 07 | 07 | The IRS processing week of that year. (Each year has up to 52–53 processing weeks.) |
| 04 | 04 | The day of the week your return was processed. |
That’s called your IRS processing cycle code, and it tells you when your tax return was processed (not the day your refund was sent).
Let’s break it down into simple parts:
The last two digits of the cycle code represent the day of the week the IRS processed your return:
| Cycle Day | Day of the Week |
|---|---|
| 01 | Friday |
| 02 | Monday |
| 03 | Tuesday |
| 04 | Wednesday |
| 05 | Thursday |
(Note: the IRS week starts on Friday, not Sunday, because of their internal batch schedule.)
We’ve streamlined the IRS Processing Cycles for easier understanding. Simply locate your cycle code on your account transcript and refer to the charts below to identify the day when the IRS initiated the processing of your tax return.
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