<prompt> Human: I have had part time jobs from 2010 up until mid 2014, up to two at a time. Throughout that same period I have been a part time student in college as well. I have always filed as dependent as i live with my parents. I also file as single and i am now 23 will be 24 in march if that matters. Every year i have gotten every penny back that I paid towards taxes which did not exceed 600 dollars.. up until 2014. 2014 i started a full-time job in July. when i filed for 2014, i received roughly 350 dollars. less than i got every other year and only about 13 of what i paid in taxes. Thinking it was a fluke, considering i just started my full time job, i was excited to file after a full year of employment. I submitted my w2 to shock and frustration when turbo tax told me i owe 45??? How does this happen? I dont have assets or any special deductions, nor have i ever. my 1098 doesnt count towards me since i am dependent. how does this work? i made roughly 31,000 after taxes and paid a total of 3,300 both rough estimates, will update later when i have my w2 if necessary. How is it that I owe money and dont get jack ish now that i am making more and paying more taxes?? is this right? or is Uncle Sam raping me?EDIT: thank you everyone for the helpful responses. I know this is an obnoxious question, I am just ill informed when it comes to taxes. Some asked about me being claimed, yes, my father is claiming me as his dependent. He always has. and i didnt really think about it like this until wasilvers put it this way below, he does not provide 31k worth of support. I live at home with family, but I am rarely home. He also pays my phone bill service only, notthe phone itself and my car is in his name used 2001, no payments. Otherwise I pay for my own food, gas, school, car insurance 250month, clothes, stupid shit i buy etc. Im under my stepmothers health insurance too if that counts for anything. Its complicated though. my father is the type of guy that if i took that credit from him, he would be like oh yeah? I dont provide your living expenses? well you can provide yourself a place to live. ATM i cant afford to pay rent on my own. I have the expenses i listed above, paired with debt that I am slowly paying off, and virtually nothing in savings. So Im kind of stuck.also, as I understand, you can claim someone up to the age of 24 if they are a full time student; otherwise the cutoff age is 19. is that accurate? because I have not been a full time student for almost 3 years now, only part time. In addition to that, someone mentioned below something about losing the dependent credit if the dependent if making more than a certain income. is that accurate? and how does that work?  <response>: You just arent understanding how taxes work.You work, and you get a paycheck. Your employer holds aside some of your money to pay for taxes, which you HAVE to pay. How much your employer sets aside is based on how you fill a W4 form out, which you probably did when you were hired with them.Now, tax filing time comes around.IRS looks at your forms and says:1 Oh, your employer took out too much for taxes, so here is some of it back2 Oh, your employer did not take out enough to cover your taxes, so you owe us some moreSo this year, you were really supposed to pay roughly 3345 in taxes. Since your employer only held aside 3300, you now are paying that difference. 