Its about tax return! 3 years consecutive received refund, 4th year, they asked us back!?

I dont know if it was filed individual or joint, for the first three years, but my friend received a tax return of $1800 for three consecutive years with out break. Than his pay got little bit change more or less, the 4th year, he was asked to pay $1500 as a tax return (charges billed by IRS), now my concern is this:- what happened - did the tax was filed one or together( he is married) or the employer paid so much money that he was asked to pay back as more income your tax fluctuates and jumped back on his own foot or something. What may be the best possible thing happened here? Reason why we dont have answer - employee is 65+ he cannot read carefully, he went to one of the tax people, they did nt answer him straight doing blah blah.

tro2017-07-07T18:05:19Z

there could be any number of reasons and you don't actually know enough about his filing to even consider trying to find out
but essentially if he got consistent refunds in three years it would appear that his income and withholding as well as deductions remained pretty stagnant
in the year he ended up owing some drastic changes were made which no one here knows about nor do you, if he had someone prepare his returns and he tried to get them to explain the reason, he apparently didn'tl listen or understand what they told him

Beverly S2017-07-07T13:44:22Z

No way for us to know.

Bostonian In MO2017-07-05T21:19:37Z

No possible way to say without seeing copies of all of his tax returns.

If he just turned 65 and is now collecting Social Security, it's possible that he owes because he did not have taxes withheld from his Social Security benefits. Depending upon his total income for the year, some of his Social Security -- up to 85% of it -- may be taxable.

Amy2017-07-05T21:14:15Z

Without seeing the numbers, we can't tell you what changed.

One possibility is that he sold an investment that he had held for many years, and so he owes tax on the gain.

Another is that when he got the raise he filled out a new form W4, and didn't actually pay any more tax than previous years.

Meanwhile, it sounds like you do not understand how taxes work. Tax is withheld from every paycheck, and at the end of the year you calculate how much you paid vs. how much you were supposed to pay. A tax refund is getting back money that you overpaid. Giving away $1800 and getting it back a year later is stupid - you would much rather pay $1500 too little and have to make it up at the last minute.

Judy2017-07-05T20:19:56Z

No way to answe without knowing exactly what was different the 4th year.

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