My CA Refund seemed to decrease dramatically when filling out my health coverage information, even though I've had health coverage all year. Why would this happen?

[BillM223]

Is it possible that you made contributions to a Health Savings Account (HSA)?

California does not permit the deduction of contributions to an HSA from state income - this means that your taxable state income is higher than your taxable federal income (so your tax in CA goes up when you enter the HSA information).

Of course, we in the Community cannot see your private tax data, but this is a common enough cause.

[ashley-atwood2]

I didn't have an HSA, so it just seems very odd. There was no explanation as to why it went down either. 

[BillM223]

The only thing I can do is encourage you to look at your CA Summary (I assume that you are using the Online product) and see what changes there are between before and after.

Do you know how to see the CA Summary? While you are in the Step-by-Step for CA, look to the left and click on Tax Tools, then on Tools, then on View Tax Summary. Your CA Tax Summary should be an option on the left.

If you are using the desktop software, of course you can go into Forms mode at any time and see your actual CA forms.