<prompt> Human: Admittedly, I dont know much about taxes.. My wife and I file jointly, and have our taxes done by a family friend whos filed them for the past 8 years.We take our W2, mortgage interest statement, bank savings interest statement, and the slip that shows what you took as a return from last years taxes. I believe it counts towards taxable income Then she does all the paperwork and lets us know what both the State and Federal refunds will be.However, this year our refund is down 45-50 and there havent been any changes to our withholding.Both my wife and I no children file Married, 1 which hasnt changed.There was a gross increase in income of 8,415 over last year for a total of 118,127, but thats still far from hitting the next tax bracket.Im just not sure where to start looking into this, as it doesnt make sense to me. There was an increase in income, but since we made zero changes to witholdingshealthcare401k over last year I figured it would all balance and wed see roughly the same as last years numbers.I recall last year our compounded property tax account came up short, and we had to pay something like 3,000 out of pocket.. but Ive been wracking my brain and thats the ONLY difference I can think of in the past year.Im hoping for a direction to start looking in so this will make more sense to me. I dont really think they were filed incorrectly this year, Id just like to know why.. I was told Its because we made more this year. but that doesnt explain it for me.  <response>: Stop looking at the refund for a comparison - look at your total tax liability compared to last year. If that is significantly different and not in line with the income changes, then youd have a problem. The refund is a red herring in this situation. 