Wait, I owe the IRS? The first tax filing season under the new federal tax law is proving to be surprising, confusing — and occasionally frightening — for some Americans, especially those accustomed to getting money back from the government. Take Andy Kraft and Amy Elias of Portland, Oregon. The couple had grown comfortable getting a small refund each year, a few hundred dollars or more. Then they found out they owe $10,160 this year. "I will never forget the moment, I thought 'We look good' and then we added in the next W-2 and my jaw hit the floor," Kraft said. "There was no way I wanted to believe that what I was looking at was accurate." President Donald Trump promised a reduction in taxes with the new law. And by most measures, the majority of Americans will see one. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center projected the tax law would reduce individual income taxes by about $1,260 on average, although it benefits higher earners more.

Some people already saw the benefit in the form of bigger paychecks. That's because the law forced employers to change what they withheld. But the system is far from perfect, and many workers didn't have enough in taxes set aside. Now, the IRS wants that money. In addition, the law also eliminated personal exemptions, increased child credits, limited popular deductions, and generally upended many familiar practices that determine what happens at tax time. That has taxpayers feeling a bit unmoored.

President Donald Trump promotes a newly unveiled Republican tax plan as he meets with House Republican leaders and Republican members of the House Ways and Means Committee in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, November 2, 2017. Carlos Barria | Reuters

"We were very comfortable with our tax law, it had basically been there since 1986, suddenly all these things that were very important to people changed ... it's all different," said Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center. Kraft and Elias are able to pay their tax bill but he's still stunned. He even tried to reverse-engineer things to figure out where they went wrong, diving into page after page of IRS rules. He painstakingly put together all the numbers. The couple ultimately asked a CPA to verify the figures they were seeing on TurboTax. Crushingly, they were correct. The couple's effective tax rate was lower, but they still owed the government. "I feel like I have reached a stage of grief of acceptance," he said. "In a twisted way I should have been paying this all year and now I just have to pay it in one lump sum." A number of experts such as Gleckman are urging taxpayers to obsess less about their refund or what they owe when measuring the effect of the new tax law. These are just a sliver of your tax picture. But the truth is, many Americans have come to rely on refunds. About three-quarters of U.S. taxpayers typically get one and they had averaged around $2,800. For some low-income households it is the biggest cash infusion of the year. The IRS reported Thursday that the average tax refund as of the second week of filing season was $1,949, down 8.7 percent from the year earlier. The total number of refunds is down 16 percent. Experts caution it is too early to draw conclusions about a tax season that ends in April. Plus, the number of returns — 27 million as of Feb. 8 — is down 10 percent from a year ago, due in part to the partial government shutdown. The picture will become much clearer as more filings are processed, refunds are issued and the IRS gets back up to full speed. All the same, the initial results have surprised early filers and worried those who haven't yet tackled their taxes. Part of the problem centers around how employees and employers adjusted (or didn't adjust) withholdings from paychecks to account for the law's changes. The government issued updated withholding guidelines to help employers determine how much to set aside from an employee's paycheck to cover taxes. Withhold too much and you get a refund at tax time; too little and you owe.