Why would i owe money when i didn't even make $40000. I claim single, 0 dependents

melani2406 — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 10:53:26 GMT

Re: Why would i owe money when i didn't even make $40000. I claim single, 0 dependents

xmasbaby0 — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 19:04:12 GMT

We cannot see your tax return. If you have no dependents and cannot get any child-related credits then the usual reason for owing is that you did not have enough tax withheld from your paychecks during the year. Maybe you need to change the W-4 you give to your employer to have more witheld.

We cannot see your screen, your return or your account. Have you entered ALL of your 2022 information? All your income, etc.? Many tax documents that you need do not arrive until late January or even February, so maybe you do not have it all there yet.

There are a lot of variables that affect your refund or tax due including how much you earned, how much tax you had withheld, your filing status, the number of dependents you claim, your deductions and credits, etc. You may have lost Earned Income Credit or the Child Tax Credit— did a child turn 17? If you received the EIC last year, remember that changes in the amount you earn have a big effect on the amount of EIC you can get. (Sometimes earning more money means less EIC) Are you 65 or older ? If so, your standard deduction is higher. Everyone has a higher standard deduction now so it is harder to use itemized deductions.

And…..the child tax credit is very different for 2022 For 2021 you could get $3600 for a child under 6 or $3000 for a child between 6 and 17 even if you had no income/did not work. That is NOT the way it will work for your 2022 tax return. The “old” rules are back. The maximum amount of the child tax credit is now $2000; the refundable “additional child tax credit” amount is $1500. In order to get that credit, you have to have income from working. The credit is calculated based on the amount you earned above $2500 multiplied by 15%, up to the full $1500. If your child is older than 16 at the end of 2022, you do not get the CTC. But you may still get the non-refundable $500 credit for other dependents instead.

And of course, always check your own data entries, looking for errors such as misplaced decimals or extra zeros.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1901008-why-did-my-refund-go-down-compared-to-last-year-s

Print out 2021 and 2022 and compare them side by side to see what is different.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/tax-withholding-estimator

Re: Why would i owe money when i didn't even make $40000. I claim single, 0 dependents

SteamTrain — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 21:13:31 GMT

ANNNDD, yoru post indicates you are using Self Employed.

IF you are self-employed and have a net gain from your SE income, then you owe ~15.3% in Self Employment taxes (SS and Medicare) all before considering any income tax you might owe in the personal section of your tax file.

The SE taxes are applied to your net gain SE income, before any regular income tax deductions are considered in the personal section of the tax file. And if you are using the Standard Deduction in the personal tax area...none of that eliminates the SE tax.

topic Why would i owe money when i didn't even make $40000. I claim single, 0 dependents in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

Why would i owe money when i didn't even make $40000. I claim single, 0 dependents

Re: Why would i owe money when i didn't even make $40000. I claim single, 0 dependents

Re: Why would i owe money when i didn't even make $40000. I claim single, 0 dependents