I have $17178 wages, $429 fed withheld, $1065 soc withheld, and I still am only seeing a $46 return. I am a 3/4 time student (9 credit hours) and I assume this means I cannot claim being a full time student.

My live in girlfriend had $8773 wages, $10 fed witheld, $544 soc witheld, and her return is $411. She reported being a full time student last year (12 credit hours).

Please help me make some sense of this.

richardb86:

You don't provide enough details of your tax situation for me to give you a definite answer. The most obvious thing here is that, if you are both single, with no dependents, and at least age 25, your GF qualifies for earned income credit (which would be around $350 based on her income level), while you do not.

Even though you are not a full-time student, you may still be able to claim education credits if you paid your higher education expenses out of pocket. Please consult with a reputable tax professional in your area, or take a look at IRS publication 970 on the IRS's Web site, Internal Revenue Service.

Sorry about the lack of details, I wasn't thinking about their applications. We are both under 25, filing as single, not claimable by anyone with no dependents.

I believe the only difference between our tax situations other than the obvious income difference is that she doesn't have a prepaid college fund and she paid her tuition and school fees with a credit card. Is this part of why she has a significantly larger refund?

Your girlfriend has no tax liability, given her income. In previous years, she would not have been able to claim an education credit because those credits are nonrefundable (which just means that if you have no tax liability you don't get them). However, beginning with the 2009 tax year there is a new education credit available called the American Opportunity Credit which is partially refundable - she would get 40% of what she would have been entitled to receive based on her out-of-pocket expenses even though she has no tax liability. If she claimed those expenses on her return, that is probably the source of most of her refund.

Again, please realize that without reviewing the details of your return, and that of your GF, I can only give a general answer. Please consult a reputable tax professional in your own area if you have additional questions; he or she can look over your details and give you a specific answer based on your tax situation.