Am I doing something wrong on my taxes?

So I realize that this is kind of a long shot, especially because it is relatively early in the year to be filing taxes. But today I discovered that my W-2 was available and since I didn’t have much to do at work, I decided to e-file my taxes. Now last year was the first year that you were required to take the earned income tax credit, the EITC, if you qualified for it. I got a little back from that because although I was under the income limit, it wasn’t by much.

Well this year, when I plugged my numbers in, I found out that my earned income credit was going to be probably about 15 times more than what I got last year. My first thought was that I had made a mistake somewhere so I went back and checked all my numbers probably about four times, but my tax form is always rather simple. I don’t make much money, I don’t have any investments, I don’t have any kids, and I don’t own a home. Basically I put in my filing status and the information on my one W-2 form. So it’s not like there’s a lot of room for error. Plus the company I use has you repeatedly double check your information before you file.

It turns out that because of the American rescue plan last year, the cap for what you can make to get the EITC went up by almost 50% of what it was last year. Also the maximum amount you could get for the EITC tripled.

So it appears that I am now getting a much larger amount back and I think mathematically it makes sense, but my head is still reeling. So my question is, has anybody else filed their taxes yet who also qualifies for the earned income tax credit? I’m not asking for any specific numbers if you have, I just want to know if you too have gotten a pleasant surprise as far as the change in taxes owed or refunded.