Why am i getting less federal refund by uploading a 2nd w-2?

[yohswha]

I uploaded a w-2 and turbo tax shows an amount example of 1000 dollar, but after i try the second w-2 i goes down to 700$

[Bsch4477]

It’s because your first W-2 income is offset by your standard deduction. Since it is used up your second income reported doesn’t have that cushion. 

[leeloo]

You can't take your income piecemeal. All the information must be entered to get an accurate picture. The more income you have, generally, the higher tax you pay. While one W-2 may have withheld too much, another may have withheld too little.  

[yohswha]

how you recommend me to do my taxes without losing too much

[VolvoGirl · Accepted solution]

Nothing you can do about that.  You can't change the past.   Your income and tax is just what it is.  You can give your employers a new W4 to have more withholding taken out.  

Because we have a progressive tax system.  The more total income you make you pay a higher percent for tax.

You only get one refund or tax due for all your income combined.  The Refund Monitors won't be right until you have entered all your income.  So don't look at it until you are done.

That's common.  It just looks that way because you put them in as separate W2s and saw the tax due change in between them. If it all was on one W2 you would get the same answer. And each job was withholding like it was your only job.

Because you only get one standard deduction no matter how many W2s you put in. Turbo Tax starts out by giving you the Standard Deduction.  You entered more income when you entered the second W2 but you didn't enter more deductions.  And each job only withheld taxes like it was your only job for the year.  You might want to adjust your withholding.  Also as you add more income you might not be getting as many credits as before like the EIC credit.  And it was probably giving you the EIC credit until you went over.

See,   https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/refunds/help/why-did-my-refund-drop-when-i-entered-a-second-w-2/00...

[Mike9241]

a possibility is that the additional income taxes were not fully covered by the additional withholding.