Filing As A Dependent

[tax8_10]

I'm a 22 year old student and my parents are claiming me as a dependent. Throughout the year, I had my federal and state taxes withheld on my paychecks. However, once I started filing and updated my parents' information, instead of getting a federal return like I expected, I suddenly owed ~$1500. I've filed in previous years and nothing like this has ever happened before. The only difference is that this year, I had some unearned income (where I also had the max amount of taxes withheld). Is it normal to get taxed ~20% on my taxable income, and at a certain point, does me getting claimed by my parents stop being beneficial for me, my parents, or for all of us?

[Bsch4477]

I suspect that you ran into the Kiddie tax which means that if your unearned income was greater than $2,200 it’s taxed at your parent’s tax rate. This would happen whether they claimed you or not.