<prompt> Human: Or a more general question, why do people owe money after they do their taxes anyway? Im 17 and I filled out my first tax form earlier this year and I got a decent amount of money back. Why do my parents owe money on their taxes every year? What kind of situation causes that? Sorry for all the questions, Im just kind of curious. Its a sensitive topic for them so I figured here would be the next best place to look for answers.Assistant: Well if 100 of your income comes from wages with W-2 reporting, its pretty easy for the government to pre-take the right amount in advance.But what happens if you have an extra 10K or 50Kyear from investments? Or rental property? You owe taxes on that too but havent had it withdrawn.Thats a simple example but should help your thinking.Human: AFAIK my parents dont have any extra property or investments other than our house.  <response>: Those were examples.If your parents were contract workers 1099 instead of a fulltime worker W-2 I know there are 1099s that are full time, they likely didnt have any taxes withheld from their employer. Theyll have to pay those at the end of the year.Even if they were W-2, they may not have set their withholding on the tax forms correctly and didnt pay enough throughout the year.Basically, tax season is when you and the IRS figure out what you paid during the year, what you actually owed and either get a refund because you paid too much, or you owe money because you didnt pay enough. 