You have to compare this year with last year’s return LINE BY LINE and see what changed. Maybe you’ll spot something you left out or entered wrong. Common things are leaving the decimal point out or typing a comma for a decimal point, or typing an extra digit. Getting the wrong taxable amount on a 1099R entry or entering the 1099R wrong and getting hit with a penalty. Missing the qualified dividends in 1099-DIV box 2a. I could go on and on.
Why did your refund go down this year?
https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/tax-refund/refund-go-compared-last-year/L97JmhUbi_US_en_US?uid=ld9ijm41
And.....if your income was lower for 2024, that could affect your additional child tax credit or earned income credit. Those credits are based on how much you earned from working.
The maximum amount of the child tax credit is now $2000 per child; the refundable “additional child tax credit” amount is $1700. In order to get that credit, you have to have income from working.
Take the amount you earned from working. Subtract $2500. Multiply the rest by 15%. That is the additional child tax credit per child that you can get—- up to the maximum of $1700 per child. If the amount you earned from working was low, you will not get the full $1700 per child.
And for the Earned Income Credit—-
https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/earned-income-tax-credit/use-the-eitc-assistant
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p596.pdf
Look at your 2024 Form 1040 to see the child-related credits you received
PREVIEW 1040
Child Tax Credit line 19
Credit for Other Dependents line 19
Earned Income Credit line 27
Additional Child Tax Credit line 28