Why did my refund go down compared to last year's?

There are many events that may reduce your refund, including:

• Starting an additional job (especially self-employment)
• Getting a significant raise, but your W-4 staying the same
• Selling stock, crypto, or other investments
• A change in filing or marital status
• Receiving unemployment benefits, but not having taxes withheld
• Taking an early withdrawal from your retirement account
• Having your child age out of the Credit for Other Dependents or the Child Tax Credit
• Started receiving Social Security benefits or Roth IRA distributions
• Paying off your mortgage, so you can no longer deduct mortgage interest
• Paying off your student loan, so you can no longer deduct the interest
• Finishing school, so no longer eligible for certain education credits
• Earning little or no income and not qualifying for the Earned Income Credit

Note: If your TurboTax navigation looks different from what’s described here, learn more.

You can access your personalized refund information in TurboTax:

1. Open or continue your return.
2. Choose Federal review.
3. Under the Explain Why section of the Federal Review screen, select Why am I getting a refund of $? to see more details on your refund and how it was calculated.

If your refund seems extremely off, double-check the amounts you entered. A typo of just one dollar can have a big impact on your refund.