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February 25, 2021

The main reason why you owe is because you didn't have enough taxes withheld from your paychecks. The less tax that is withheld during the year, the more likely you are to end up paying at tax time.

Also it could be that:

  • Your income increased.
  • You lost a dependent.
  • You changed your filing status. 
  • You did not qualified for the full amount of the Child Tax Credit. If you don't have any Tax liability you will only receive the additional Child Tax Credit. 
  • You didn't qualify for the Earned Income credit. When you qualify, the credit amount will go up as you earn more income, but once you earn too much, it will go down eventually to zero. TurboTax will figure out exactly how much you’ll receive. 

Make sure to adjust your W-4 form so you won't have the same issue next year. The more allowances you claimed on that form the less tax they will withhold from your paychecks.

I recommend that you make a line by line comparison with last year's return to see what is different this year.

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