What determines if you get money back from taxes?
Andrew Mclaughlin
Published Mar 22, 2026
Your refund is determined by comparing your total income tax to the amount that was withheld for federal income tax. Assuming that the amount withheld for federal income tax was greater than your income tax for the year, you will receive a refund for the difference.
How do you determine if you owe money to the IRS or get a refund?
There are several ways to discover whether you owe back taxes to the IRS, including these:
- You receive a notice from the IRS via mail. Uncle Sam will let you know if you owe back taxes with a mailed notice.
- Viewing your tax account on IRS.gov.
- Filing or reviewing tax returns.
- Contacting the IRS at 1-800-829-1040.
Will people who owe taxes get a refund?
Most Americans do indeed get a refund from the IRS after filing their tax returns. Taxpayers receive refunds from the IRS when they overpay what taxes they owe on their annual adjusted gross income.
How to determine if you have a tax refund or owe tax?
After completing this lesson, you will determine if taxpayers have overpaid (a refund is due) or have underpaid (balance is due to the government) their tax. This part of the return is a summary of the tax, credits, and payments. Taxpayers may be entitled to a refund or owe tax.
When do you get a tax refund from the government?
A person is owed a refund if the amount of taxes the government has taken from their pay checks over the course of a year — an amount referred to as “taxes withheld” — is greater than the actual income tax figure that is determined while filing a tax return.
What is an example of a tax refund?
A super simple example would go like this: If your tax return determined that the income tax you owe is $6,000, but the amount of taxes withheld over the course of the previous calendar year was actually $7,000, then you’ll be entitled to a $1,000 refund check. Here comes the more complicated answer now.
How are tax refunds calculated in each county?
We did the same to calculate the average amount owed, by dividing the total taxes owed in each county by the number of filers that still owe taxes. We then ranked and indexed each of the counties where residents receive the highest average refunds and where residents pay the most after filing their taxes.
