The number on the screen was $588, and I said a word I don't usually say in front of the cat. Last year our federal refund was $3,410. I had already spent some of the new one in my head on a dehumidifier for the basement.
This was the first year Greg and I filed with no dependents on the return. Emily has been on her own for years, and for 2025, Josh wasn't ours to claim either. I did our taxes with the same software we've used for a decade, at the kitchen table, over two evenings. Here's what changed and why.
Why Josh came off the return
Josh turned 22 in December and is still a full-time student at UC until he graduates this spring. A college student can stay a dependent into his twenties, so I assumed we'd claim him one more time.
But there's a support test. A child can't be your qualifying child if he provided more than half of his own support. Josh worked two co-op terms in 2025 at real engineering wages, paid his own apartment rent since August and bought his own groceries. When I sat down and added up what we paid for him versus what he paid himself, it wasn't close. He supported himself. I was proud and a little annoyed at the same time.
So Josh files his own return now, and his tax questions are his own business. He did call me twice.
What we lost
Two things went away with him.
The first was the $500 credit for other dependents. That's the small cousin of the child tax credit. The big child credit stops at 17, but for older kids you can still claim this one.
The second hurt more: the education credit. For the last few years we claimed the American Opportunity credit for Josh's tuition, which is worth up to $2,500 a year. In 2024 we got the full amount. Since we couldn't claim him, we couldn't claim that either.
That's $3,000 of the difference right there.
What else changed
The rest of the story is my own working life.
I left my school job in June, so my wages for the year were about half of what they used to be. Less income means less tax, but it also means less withheld, and those two mostly washed each other out.
Then there's the bookkeeping. I started part time in September, about 12 hours a week at $21 an hour. The company pays me as an independent contractor, which means nobody withholds anything. From September through December I earned a little over $4,000. On that I owed regular income tax plus self-employment tax, which is the Social Security and Medicare that an employer would normally split with you. Together that was close to $1,000 that nobody had set aside.
A couple of things went the other way. Greg raised his 401(k) contribution in December, which lowered his taxable pay a little. And our mortgage interest is so small now that it hasn't mattered for years. We take the standard deduction.
Our Ohio return came out about even, with a $41 refund. The city income tax I file separately, and I owed $68 on the bookkeeping money.
What I'll plan for next year
A smaller refund isn't a bad thing by itself. A refund just means you lent the government money for free. But a surprise at tax time is a bad thing, and I don't want another one. Here's what we've set up for 2026:
- Every bookkeeping check, I move 25% into a separate savings account the day it lands. That covers federal, state, city and self-employment tax with a little room to spare.
- Instead of making quarterly estimated payments myself, Greg added an extra amount of federal withholding to his paycheck through a new form at work. Withholding counts as paid evenly through the year, which is simpler for us than remembering four due dates.
- I'll do a rough check in September using the software's estimate, so if we're off, there are still a few paychecks to fix it.
- There's no tuition credit coming back, so I've stopped counting on a spring refund for anything. The dehumidifier comes out of the regular budget.
I'm not a tax preparer, and your return will have its own wrinkles. If your youngest is right at the edge of being a dependent, sit down with the actual rules or someone who does this for a living. Don't assume, like I did, that a student is automatically still yours.
The strangest part of the whole thing was the dependents section on the software. For twenty-seven years it had a name in it. This year I clicked "no" and it went straight to the next screen, like it was nothing. Then Greg came in to ask what was for dinner, and I got back to work.
