Refund more than taxes paid

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
May 14, 2021
1 reply
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Both my federal and state refunds were greater than the amount of taxes that I paid for 2020. I suspect this has to do with the credits that I qualified for and applied for.

I think my Education section credits are inflating my refunds, and I just wanted to make sure that this was ok, as I didn't get any errors from TurboTax.

In the Federal Review section, for the Education credit row, it says that what I've entered is way higher than what I'm allowed. But I'm not sure how it's calculating this, and I'm wondering why it's not giving me an error?
There's also a difference with my State and Local Taxes deductions, but I'm not sure how to correct this.
Screenshot 2021-05-14 192559.png

TurboTax Home & Biz Windows

Best answer by Hal_Al

American Opportunity Credit (AOC) looks about right. It is a refundable credit. That is, you get it even if you had no tax liability to offset.

We can't see your whole return, but based on the info provided, it looks correct.

That assumes, you are otherwise eligible. Your income is low and that means you might qualify as someone else's dependent. Full time student dependents (or those that qualify as dependents), under age 24, do not qualify for the refundable AOC, unless they support themselves with earned income.