Is it legal to leave my dependent off my tax filing to increase my refund amount?

This is actually a common issue that confuses a lot of people. What's happening is that you claimed your son on your W4 (the form that tells your employer how much tax to withhold), which reduced your paycheck withholding throughout the year. When you claim him on your tax return, you still get tax benefits, but they've already been given to you in the form of less tax withholding from each paycheck. To directly answer your question: No, you cannot legally omit your dependent from your tax return if you're entitled to claim him. This would be tax fraud and could result in penalties, interest, or even criminal charges in extreme cases. The IRS has verification systems that can detect dependents who should be claimed but aren't. As for your withholding issue, it sounds like you might be underwithholded overall. The two part-time jobs that didn't withhold any federal tax are definitely contributing to your tax situation. When you work multiple jobs, each employer doesn't know about the others, so they calculate withholding as if their job is your only income.

After struggling with almost the exact same situation (working multiple jobs, confused about dependent claims), I found this incredible tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that saved me so much stress. It analyzes your specific tax situation and actually explains why these weird refund changes happen. When I uploaded my W2s and dependent info, it immediately flagged that I had underwithholding issues from my second job. The best part was that it explained everything in plain English - like why claiming my daughter on my W4 all year but then seeing a smaller refund was actually normal. It also gave me recommendations for adjusting my W4 for next year so I won't have the same surprise.

Just wanted to update that I tried taxr.ai after seeing it mentioned here, and wow - it actually showed me exactly why my refund dropped after adding my kids. Turns out I had been getting the child tax credit in every paycheck all year long (like $250/month reduction in withholding) because of how I filled out my W4. The site walked me through adjusting my W4 for 2025 so I'll have the right amount withheld next year. I was about to file without claiming my one kid just to get a bigger refund, which apparently would have been a huge mistake! It also found an education credit I qualified for that I had completely missed. Definitely worth checking out if you're confused about why your refund isn't what you expected.

If you're having trouble reaching the IRS to get answers about your situation, I highly recommend trying Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). I was in a similar situation last year - confused about dependent claims and unable to get through to the IRS after trying for literally WEEKS. Claimyr got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 20 minutes when I had been trying on my own for days. The IRS agent was able to confirm that I absolutely needed to claim my dependents accurately regardless of refund impact, and also helped me understand how to adjust my withholding properly for multiple jobs. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c

I have to admit I was completely wrong about Claimyr. After my skeptical comment, I decided to try it because I was desperate to resolve my audit situation. Within 45 minutes, I was actually talking to a real IRS agent! The agent confirmed that I absolutely needed to claim my son on my taxes even if it reduced my refund amount, and explained that intentionally leaving him off would trigger automatic flags in their system. She also helped me understand why my withholding was off and showed me exactly how to fill out a new W4 for my multiple jobs. Honestly saved me hours of frustration and probably prevented me from making a serious mistake on my return. Sometimes being wrong feels pretty good!

Here's what's actually happening with your situation: When you have multiple jobs, each job doesn't know about the others when calculating withholding. So they're each withholding as if that's your only income. For the small jobs that didn't withhold anything, they probably calculated that you'd be below the standard deduction if that was your only income. But when you combine all incomes, you end up in a higher tax bracket. So you haven't had enough withheld throughout the year to cover your actual tax liability. As for the dependent question - when you claim a child on your W4, you get more money in each paycheck throughout the year instead of in your refund. So your refund looks smaller, but you actually got the benefit already spread out over your paychecks!

Wait I'm confused - so is she getting the child tax credit or not? If she claims her kid on her taxes isn't she supposed to get like $2000 for the child tax credit? Where is that money if her refund went down?