Why am I getting a federal refund as a self-employed filer but I owe state

[fanfare]

did you elect to defer some SE tax ?

[gloriah5200]

You may be getting a federal refund as a self-employed person but owe state taxes because you  may be getting some credits that are large enough to cover your se taxes on the federal return or have a larger amount of taxes withheld or estimated taxes paid for the federal return than you do for the state.  

The state return may not have any credits on it for you or they may not be large enough to pay the taxes on it.