Last year I got around 5k back in taxes including state. Married f/jointly w/1 child making 55k. This year w/2 kid making 35k I'm getting 12k back. Does this sound right?

[MayaD]

It make sense to receive a higher refund this year. 

• The standard deduction for married couples filing jointly for tax year 2024 rises to $29,200, an increase of $1,500 from tax year 2023
• Your income decreased. 
• you are claiming 2 kids in 2024. 
• You could qualify for higher Earned Income Credit. The max amount of Earned incomed credit when claiming  qualifying children:

                  1 qualifying child: $4,213

                  2 qualifying children: $6,960

[xmasbaby0]

We cannot see your tax return.   That sounds too high----but we do not know how much tax was withheld from your income.    Based just on the EIC table for 2024 your EIC should be around $6700 and your additional child tax credit could be $3400.

  Double check all of the amounts that were entered from W-2's and/or 1099's.  Watch for misplaced decimals or extra zeros.  

Print out 2023 and 2024 to compare them line by line with each other.

Look at your 2024 Form 1040 to see the child-related credits you received

PREVIEW 1040

https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/tax-return/preview-turbotax-online-retur...

Child Tax Credit line 19

Credit for Other Dependents line 19

Earned Income Credit line 27

Additional Child Tax Credit line 28

  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.

 If your child is older than 16 at the end of 2024, you do not get the CTC.  But you may still get the non-refundable $500 credit for other dependents instead.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/taxation/child-tax-credit/L2lNhfGDl_US_e...

https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/taxation/additional-child-tax-credit/L6x...

https://www.irs.gov/help/ita/does-my-childdependent-qualify-for-the-child-tax-credit-or-the-credit-f...

And for the Earned Income Credit—-

https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/tax-credits-deductions/qualifications-ea...

https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/earned-income-tax-credit/use-the-eitc-assistant

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