IRS Cycle Code and What Posting Cycles Date Mean

A cycle code is an 8 digit number that can be found on an IRS Account Transcript. The cycle code indicates when your tax return posted to the IRS Master File.

Your cycle code can be found on your “Account Transcript”.

It indicates when your account posts to the master file. It is NOT a calendar date, but can be translated to a date (see below).

Use the IRS cycle posting chart or the calendar below.

You really don’t. But, you can use the last 2 digits of your cycle code to see if your account is Weekly or Daily.

Your IRS Account is identified as either being updated weekly or daily.  Cycle codes ending in 01, 02, 03, 04 are daily accounts.  Cycle codes ending in 05 are weekly accounts, but in some cases, they may be daily.

It doesn’t really. However, people use it to check what day they should expect updates on Transcripts or WMR.

Look at the last 2 digits of your Cycle Code?  If it ends in 01, 02, 03, 04 transactions post to our IMF account daily except weekends.  If it ends in 05, you probably have an account that updates weekly. Some, but few, that end in 05 could be daily. For weekly accounts, transactions are posted to the IMF account only once weekly.