Refunds are a function of many things, but one of the most important is how much you had withheld during the year compared to how much you owe. This year, many people are receiving much smaller refunds for the Federal, or even owing, because employers used new tax tables published by the IRS as a result of the new tax laws. Those tables caused many taxpayers to not have enough withheld from their paychecks, so now their refunds are much lower than expected. This change did not affect the states..
