Why is my 2021 tax higher than 2020 tax even though taxable income is lower?

[TaxMystery1]

My total income and taxable income are about $17K less than last year.  However, the taxes calculated by TurboTax came out close to $1800 higher than last year.  Dividends were higher than last year by about $5K, but capital gains was much lower and wages nearly same.  So why is the tax higher even though income is lower?  Will the $5K higher dividend cause this increase in tax even though I am in the same bracket?

[VolvoGirl]

Compare the withholding amounts.  

[TaxMystery1]

I am referring to the actual tax that is assessed for the income and not the refund or amount that is to be paid.  

[VolvoGirl]

Yes it sounds like it is the Dividends.    You can compare the Schedule D and Tax worksheet for both years.

If you have capital gains or qualified dividends the tax is not taken from the tax table but is calculated separately from Schedule D. The tax will be calculated on the Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet. It does not get filed with your return. In the online version you need to save your return as a pdf file and include all the worksheets to see it.

For the Desktop version you can switch to Forms Mode and open the worksheet to see it. Click Forms in the upper right (upper left for Mac) and look through the list and open the Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet.

[TaxMystery1]

Thanks.  It helped me understand.  After comparing the two, the tax still comes out to be lower from that tax worksheet. However, the difference was how the child credit was accounted for. Last year, it was entered in line 19 of 1040 and deducted from the calculated tax to come up with the final tax on line 24.  This year it is added to line 28 and is part of the other payment and credits and gets add to the withholding amount.  So the tax on line 24 seemed higher than last year but looks like it was an artifact of how the child credit was considered.  Thanks for your quick response!