I was on worker's compensation last year (i.e. no taxable income) and I get standard deduction refund. However, I also had several thousand in education expenses and my refund doesn't seem to increase. Why not? To me, it seems like, although I do not pay any taxes (and receive standard deduction refund), it also seems that I am being penalized against additional refund that I otherwise would have received if I had taxable income for the year. Thank you.

it depends; education tax credits can either be refundable / nonrefundable. This only refers to whether the credit reduces the amount you owe on your taxes or if it is an amount the government owes you. A refundable tax credit allows you to get money back from the government even if you owed nothing in taxes: If your tax liability is zero or even if you didn't earn any income, you may get money from the IRS if you qualify for a refundable tax credit. A nonrefundable tax credit can reduce the amount of tax you owe to zero but does not pay anything beyond this amount. You must owe tax to benefit from a nonrefundable tax credit, and the amount cannot exceed your tax burden.or example, The American Opportunity Tax Credit is a semi-refundable credit for undergraduate college education expenses. It provides up to $2.5K in tax credits on the first $4K of qualifying educational expenses