Has the Head of Household deduction been updated in turbotax? It nearly doubled from last year but my refund has not! thanks

[BMcCalpin · Accepted solution]

TurboTax has updated the Standard Deduction for all filing statuses; however, your question is not so simple.

The Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 reduced the tax bill for many taxpayers in 2018 (but not all), but at the same time, because of the Act, the IRS issued new withholding tables that employers would use to withhold federal income tax on an employee's income.

Because it was expected that taxes owed in 2018 would be less, the withholding amounts were reduced. However, based on other factors (such as not having children under 17), it might have happened that the withholding was reduced for you personally by too much. This is why the IRS repeatedly asked taxpayers over this last year to review their withholding and to file a new W-4 if necessary. See https://www.irs.gov/paycheck-checkup

What you should do is (1) check to see if your tax assessed was reduced, and (2) if your withholding for 2018 was reduced even more compared to 2017. This is one possible cause of your refund not being as large as you expected or even shrinking despite the tax law changes.