I have made around 14,000 dollars for the past couple of years, and have been claimed as a dependent by my parents. I have gotten no refund, and have actually had to pay in. I am just wondering if anyone would know why this is. (Taxes have been filed online, I don't know if that makes any difference or not.) Any input would be appreciated. Thanks!

You will want to look at your W-4 form and make sure you've marked "Someone can claim me as a dependent".

You will also want to review your pay stub and see that you prepay tax over the course of the year. The method they use to prepay those taxes is by looking at your W-4 and placing you in the correct bracket for tax.


The reason you are not getting any money back and may have to pay is because your parents are claiming you as a dependent. Making 14,000 isn't really enough to support yourself so they are contributing quite a bit to your living expenses (I would think anyway). For this reason they get a deduction for you - this means that they don't pay as much taxes because they can take a deduction off their income for supporting you - in exchange for that tax break they support you.

For this reason it would be very unlikely that a dependent would get a refund. Generally, if all is right on your W-4 and you have no special deductions, you shouldn't have to pay much more or less than the amount deducted from your pay check each pay period. A refund means that you've overpaid the taxes each week so it's not really a good thing to be paying more to the government over the course of the year.

The most I'd expect a person (that makes 14,000 a year, is claimed as a dependent and has their W-4 marked properly) to have to pay in additional taxes would be $100-$200. Same for a refund. If it's more than that you should discuss with your parents and review the possible reasons with them.

If you weren't claimed by your parents as a dependent then you would pay much less tax because you'd be living in poverty and people living in poverty don't pay much tax. The problem of course is that you'd be living in poverty to get that lower tax rate and I'm sure your parents would like to continue to claim you as a dependent until you can in fact support yourself.

Hopefully that helps you understand. Talk to your parents if you're still confused how it all works.