<prompt> Human: What happened?! I work as a teaching assistant at a special needs school and dont make very much. Usually I qualify for an earned income credit and get back a few hundred at tax time but this year they are saying I owe 2600 in federal and 1300 in state taxes. What should I do?I did get some federal health insurance premium subsidies this year, which I was expecting to have to pay back, but they only provided me with 2000 in benefits for the year so it just doesnt add up. The biggest thing was I acquired control of my dads stock account. He saved up around 15,000 for me for college and I never used it. He set it up as some kind of stewardship and they forced him to give it to me completely once I turned 26. Before it transferred over though he sold all the stocks and the money was just sitting in a money market waiting to be reinvested. Im thinking they are taxing me on the stocks sold since it happened in 2017, even though it was in my dads name when it was sold. I dont have that kind of money, and paying a third of the college money is some bullshit. Is this normal? Should I try and avoid taxes by opening an IRA or something? Or did I just mess up somewhere on my taxes and its all a mistake?  <response>: There is no they when it comes to your taxes, at least not in early February. You are the one who tells the government how much you owe, based on your own knowledge and calculations. Where does this high number come from? 