Why did my federal return go from $1700 to 84 when I entered my second w2?

haleymiller14 — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 06:00:59 GMT

Re: Why did my federal return go from $1700 to 84 when I entered my second w2?

JillS56 — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 03:43:58 GMT

Your return(refund) when from $1,700 to $84 when you entered your second W-2 is because the amount of your withholding on your two W-2s is not enough to cover the tax on the combined income.

Until you complete the full TurboTax interview this number will go up and down depending on your answers.

Re: Why did my federal return go from $1700 to 84 when I entered my second w2?

VolvoGirl — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 03:47:20 GMT

Because we have a progressive tax system. The more total income you make you pay a higher percent for tax.

You only get one refund or tax due for all your income combined. The Refund Monitors won't be right until you have entered all your income. So don't look at it until you are done.

That's common. It just looks that way because you put them in as separate W2s and saw the tax due change in between them. If it all was on one W2 you would get the same answer. And each job was withholding like it was your only job.

Because you only get one standard deduction no matter how many W2s you put in. Turbo Tax starts out by giving you the Standard Deduction. You entered more income when you entered the second W2 but you didn't enter more deductions. And each job only withheld taxes like it was your only job for the year. You might want to adjust your withholding. Also as you add more income you might not be getting as many credits as before like the EIC credit. And it was probably giving you the EIC credit until you went over.

See, https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/refunds/help/why-did-my-refund-drop-when-i-entered-a-second-w-2/00/26275

topic Why did my federal return go from $1700 to 84 when I entered my second w2? in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

Why did my federal return go from $1700 to 84 when I entered my second w2?

Re: Why did my federal return go from $1700 to 84 when I entered my second w2?

Re: Why did my federal return go from $1700 to 84 when I entered my second w2?