I should be getting more back on my taxes

[Vanessa A]

Why do you believe you should be getting more back?  What is your filing status?  Married, Single, Dependents?  Are you a dependent on someone's return?  How much money did you make?  How much money did you have withheld from your pay?  More or less than last year?  Any side gigs? Did you have Overtime or Tips?  Do you qualify for any credits or deductions?  Did you have a child that turned 17 during 2025?  Did you have more than one job?

All of the questions above are factors in how much you get back or even how much you owe, so there is not a standard answer that tells everyone why they are getting what they are getting back without looking at their specific numbers.  

Here are the basics of how taxes work.

1. During the year you receive income.  (W-2's, Side Gigs, Self-Employment, Retirement, etc.)
2. The employer withholds taxes based on what they pay the employee and what the employee entered on the W-4 they filled out when they were hired.  If you have a side gig, you should be making quarterly payments for self-employment taxes, although many people do not do that which can create a penalty at tax filing time.
3. You fill out your taxes at the beginning of the next year to see what your actual tax liability is on what you earned throughout the year
4. You consider any type of deductions you may have to lower your taxable income to hopefully pay less taxes
   • Some of these deductions include Tips, Overtime, Car loan interest, student loan interest, IRA contributions, one half of self-employment taxes, and HSA contributions
5. The number after all the deduction is your taxable income, then a table is generally used to determine the amount you are actually liable for (there can be other situations that will cause this to be more complicated, I am simply going over the basics)
6. Then any credits you may qualify for are subtracted from your tax liability.  Some credits are non refundable, which means they will lower your tax liability down to $0 but will not be refunded to you.  Others are refundable which means if your tax liability falls to $0, it can add to your refund.
7.  You then match your tax liability to what your employer withheld and payments you made to the IRS
8. If the withholdings and payments are more than your tax liability, you will then get a refund of the difference.
9. If the withholdings and payments are less than your tax liability, you will then have to pay the difference when you file your taxes.

Note. This is the basics, situations can be more complicated, but it all comes down to your tax liability versus what you paid in and refundable credits. 

So if you are 25, single and have no dependents, and earn $40,000 a year, your employer likely would have withheld around $2,671 for your federal taxes.  If they did and you file your return with no adjustments, then your tax liability would be $2,671 and you would have no refund and would not need to pay in anything either.  You would basically break even.

Now in the same scenario above add in that you do Door Dash on the side and earn an extra $5,000 doing Door Dash.  They do not withhold taxes so if you did not make payments throughout the year, you would now have to pay in self employment taxes of 15.3% ($765) and about an extra $600 for federal taxes.  In this case you would then owe $1,365 when you file your taxes.

Now if you have a 2 year old child and don't do Door Dash, but the employer withheld the exact same amount you would be getting a refund of $2,200 because your tax liability would have been lowered by $2,200 so you would get that amount back and the IRS would only be keeping $471.