<prompt> Human: I have a friend in Texas who got a tax return of over 7,000 this year. He has a full-time job making maybe 50k per year. He does not own a house. He was a student working on his masters this year. He had a second child this year. Texas does not have state income taxes. I moved from Texas to Oregon in the middle of 2017. My wife left her job in Texas and I started a new job in Oregon. Combined we made 66k last year. We also bought a house. We also had our second child. Oregon does have state income tax. I havent completed the file yet. But Turbo-Tax is showing me getting around 3,000 in a federal return and then OWING Oregon 1,500.Im not any better than my friend, obviously, but after he bragged about his return and our lives are relatively similar, I thought I would be getting more back. Im mostly just confused as to why he got so much more back federally. I also have NO idea why I owe the state of Oregon money. Can someone please explain this to me? How can I avoid owing money in the future?  <response>: Yikes. Please read more into how taxes work. There are numerous factors and none of those include having a similar lifestyle to a friend. 