I'm no longer dependent, but my refund went down. Why is this? I was lead to believe it was a benefit.

[cmv292]

I forgot to switch myself from being my parents dependent when I filed. I'm currently amending it and I noticed my refund almost got cut in half. I answered the Healthcare questions and it is still isn't close to what it was. I thought filing independently helped you when it came to taxes/

[AnnetteB · Accepted solution]

Under the right circumstances, changing from being claimed as a dependent to claiming your own exemption would lower your taxable income and thus increase your refund.  This would be the case if there were some taxable income shown on the return where you were claimed as a dependent.  So, you are correct, in general filing independently is better than filing while being claimed as a dependent.

You mentioned in your question that you are in the process of amending your return.  Amended returns stand on their own. 

When you start an amended return using TurboTax, the slate (your refund or balance due amount) is wiped clean.  This means that any refund you are seeing on the screen pertains only to the amended return.  It is not taking into account any refund/balance due amount from the return that was originally filed.  So, if you are seeing a refund on the screen with the amended return, it is in addition to the refund shown on your originally filed return. 

[cmv292]

Thanks for the answer! What you said was correct and the amount was the change in my refund not the total.