As both ee-ae and xmasbaby0 mentioned, many factors may reduce your refund. Some of those include:
- Starting an additional job (especially self-employment).
- Getting a significant raise, but your W-4 staying the same.
- Adjusting your withholding to maximize your take-home pay.
- Selling stock, crypto, or other investments.
- A change in filing status.
- Receiving unemployment benefits, but not having taxes withheld.
- Taking an early withdrawal from your retirement account.
- Having a child turn 17 in 2023, now receiving the Credit for Other Dependents instead of the Child Tax Credit.
- Started receiving Social Security benefits or Roth IRA distributions.
- Paying off your mortgage, so you can no longer deduct mortgage interest.
- Paying off your student loan, so you can no longer deduct the interest.
- Finishing school, so no longer eligible for certain education credits.
- Earning little or no income and not qualifying for the Earned Income Credit.
You can access your personalized refund information in TurboTax:
- Open or continue your return.
- Select Federal in the left menu.
- Choose Federal Review.
- Under the Explain Why section of the Federal Review screen, select Why am I getting a refund of $? to see more details on your refund and how it was calculated.
If your refund seems extremely off, double-check the amounts you entered. A typo of just one dollar can have a big impact on your refund.
