Is a $12k tax refund even possible? Seems too high to be real?

Yes, a $12k refund is absolutely possible depending on your specific situation. As a single parent with two dependent children, you qualify for several valuable tax credits that can significantly boost your refund. The Child Tax Credit can provide up to $2,000 per qualifying child. The American Opportunity Tax Credit for education expenses can be worth up to $2,500. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is especially powerful for single parents in your income range - it could provide several thousand dollars alone. Without seeing your full tax details, I can't confirm if your specific amount is correct, but the total doesn't immediately sound unreasonable given your situation. The combination of being a single parent, having education expenses, and being in that specific income sweet spot for EITC can definitely result in substantial refunds.

I was in a similar situation last year with a surprisingly big refund. I was nervous about filing it on my own, so I used taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) to double-check everything. Their AI reviewed all my documents, found a couple mistakes I made, and confirmed I was actually eligible for credits I didn't know about. The peace of mind was worth it - I was able to confidently file knowing I wasn't making any mistakes that would come back to haunt me. With education credits and child tax credits combined, large refunds can be totally legitimate, especially when you're in the right income bracket for EITC like you are.

Ok so I was skeptical about taxr.ai but after reading about it here I decided to give it a try since my refund was showing $9k which seemed really high for me too. Uploaded my docs and it actually found I missed reporting some side income (which would have been bad) but also confirmed I was entitled to education credits I wasn't sure about. My refund is legitimately high because of my education expenses and having a dependent. Their explanation really helped me understand exactly why my refund was so big - turns out the combination of credits is powerful and I was missing some key things! Definitely glad I checked before filing.

For what it's worth, when I had a question about a large refund last year, I spent 3 WEEKS trying to get someone at the IRS on the phone. Finally found Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) which got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 20 minutes. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The agent was able to confirm that my refund amount was legitimate based on my situation and helped explain exactly which credits and deductions were creating such a large refund. Might be worth a call just for peace of mind before filing.

I need to admit I was totally wrong about Claimyr. After doubting it would work, I tried it yesterday because I was desperate to talk to someone about my tax situation. To my shock, I got a call back in about 35 minutes saying they had an IRS agent on the line! The agent confirmed that large refunds like $12k are absolutely possible for single parents with 2 kids in that income range because of how the EITC works combined with Child Tax Credit and education credits. She explained that the EITC alone could be worth over $6,000 in my situation. Definitely saved me from second-guessing my legitimate refund and potentially leaving money on the table!

I'm a single mom with 2 kids too and my refund was $11,430 this year. I was shocked too but the tax preparer at H&R Block confirmed it was correct. The combo of earned income credit + child tax credits + head of household filing status is no joke! Don't be scared to file - this is exactly how the system is supposed to work to help working parents.

Double check that your withholding from your paychecks was entered correctly. If TurboTax thinks you had way more tax withheld than you actually did, that could explain the large refund. Check line 25d on your draft 1040 - this should match the total federal tax withheld from all your W-2 boxes.