I made double the income as last year but im getting less back in taxes this year?

[keviin1234]

So last year I made $12,000 in income from my job and this year i am working at the same job and have made $24,000 in income so why is it that when I went to do my taxes this year I'm getting back less then I did last year by a few hundred? Also is this normal to be getting back less when you make more?

Nothing in my taxes has changed from last year besides me making more money everything else has stayed the same. I am a single filer by the way.

[Hal_Al]

More income equals more tax. In fact, at $12,000 income you had close to zero tax. so the next 12,000 is fully taxed.

That truth should be self evident, but the tax system has been made complicated by the Earned Income Credit, a government give away.

The basic EIC works on a "bell curve," rising as a worker's wages rise reaching a maximum when annual earnings are between $14,000 and $18,350 (Single with 2 or 3 children 2018) and then declining gradually until it phases out altogether. If your income is on the up slope of the EIC curve more earned income will increase your EIC but if your income is on the down slope, more income (of any kind) will reduce you EIC. The “upslope" on the EIC curve is very steep; basically for every $3 you earn, the government gives you another dollar. See the curve (graph) at:

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/key-elements/family/eitc.cfm

The earned income credit is first calculated (actually looked up in a table) on your earned income then it is calculated on your total income (AGI). You get the lesser of the two calculated EIC numbers. See the 2018 EIC table at:

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p596.pdf