Losing your daughter as a dependent could make a big difference in your taxes, especially if you had credits that you lost and were unable to file as Head of Household (because of no dependents).
We can not examine your return or look at your transcripts. You may want to consider upgrading to turbotaxlive. In the mean time, check your return against last years and see if any of the following might have made your refund change.
- Your child turned 17 in 2017, causing you to lose the $1,000 Child Tax Credit;
- Your child turned 19 in 2017 (or 24, if a full-time student) and no longer qualifies as a dependent;
- You paid off your mortgage and can no longer deduct mortgage interest;
- You took the itemized deduction last year (for example because of high medical bills) but got the standard deduction this year;
- You didn't qualify for the Earned Income Credit this year;
- You paid off your student loan and can no longer deduct the interest;
- You're no longer eligible for certain education credits (or you took a different credit this year)
- You didn't contribute to a Traditional IRA (or couldn't take the full deduction because your income was too high).
