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

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

No way for us to know.

Income went up, withholding did not, so he owed.

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.

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.

We can't tell.

We can't tell you without seeing his tax return.

But it comes down to - what was withheld, and did it cover the tax due? If too much was withheld, you get a refund, if not enough was withheld, you owe. Simple as that.

HOWEVER - if he sent the return in, and then the IRS *changed* it...sometimes it's fixable. For instance, a friend had her tax return changed by the IRS and they sent her a bill for $2500. Turns out she had typo'd her dependent's SS#. It didn't match, so the IRS simply REMOVED her dependent from the tax return, and billed her as if she had no dependent. She had to send in an amended return to fix it, but she did get a small refund.

Bottom line - have a TAX PREPARER or someone who actually knows this stuff, look at both the original return AND the notice from the IRS about the amount due to make sure.

If it was done by a tax preparer, and the bottom line was simply that he owes this year, then it's about his withholding. If he has the same job - he needs to increase his withholding, or send in periodic estimated tax payments.

Without seeing his taxes there is no way to even guess.

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