You have the transcript. What is it telling you?

Four transcript types answer different questions — Account for what actually happened to a module, Return for what was originally filed, Record of Account for those two combined, and Wage & Income for what third parties reported to the IRS — so pulling the wrong one often sends a transcript read nowhere. Once you have the right one, a module reads left to right: date, transaction code, dollar amount, and the Document Locator Number that tells you where the entry came from. To get a transcript, a copy of a filed return or an IRS case file, the records request router shows whether you need a FOIA request at all.

Two codes get misread more than any others. TC 161 and TC 167 both reverse a penalty, but the axis that matters is WHO removed it — a systemic reversal reads differently from a manually-approved one. TC 971 is a marker code, not an action on its own; its meaning depends entirely on the Action Code that rides with it, and AC 995/996 (penalty relief) is the pair this hub cares about most.