After you file

As I said, the 1040 line 16 is the tax on the line 15 income.  If line 16 is zero then you owed, and paid no tax, so there is nothing to refund.     You can only get a refund of taxes paid and if you paid nothing then there is nothing to refund.

**Disclaimer: This post is for discussion purposes only and is NOT tax advice. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in this post.**