Any way you cut it, the government gave you $5600 last year. That is the amount you would have received for four people 4 x $1400 = $5600. The IRS sent you letter 6475 showing that they gave you $5600. You are required to enter that when you are preparing your tax return. If you do not enter it, the software thinks you did not get $5600 last year and puts it on line 30. That would be as if you are trying to get the $5600 twice. You cannot get it twice.
If you put it on line 30, the IRS checks it. They see that you already got $5600 last year. Then they reduce your refund by $5600.
So...if you owe tax due this year, it is for some other reason such as not having enough tax withheld from your paychecks or the loss of some other credit that you are no longer receiving. Did you have any kids who turned 18? If so you lost the child tax credit.
If you have two dependents----are they under the age of 18? Have you entered the information for the child tax credit yet? You should also have letter 6419 if you received the advance child tax credit payments between July and December. That information also must be entered so that the software can reconcile the amount you received last year with the amount you can still receive as part of your 2021 refund. If your dependents were over the age of 17 at the end of 2021, none of this applies to you.
**Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to offer the most correct information possible. The poster disclaims any legal responsibility for the accuracy of the information that is contained in this post.**
