Step 1. Have your W‑2 handy.
Worked this summer? You're owed one more paycheck.
SummerRefund is an AI solution built to help students file and claim their tax refund on their own in 10 minutes.
File the day your W‑2 arrives in January, and get your money before spring break, not after.
Depending on what you earned and what was withheld, you could be owed more or less.
SummerRefund is built for students who…
Four things, and you’re good to go.
You were born in the U.S. or became a citizen. If you’re here on a student visa, we can’t file for you.
You need to be at least 18 to sign your own return with us. If you’re younger, you can still file, but it takes a parent or guardian to sign for you, and we don’t handle it yet.
You’re not married. Your filing status is just the box the IRS puts you in, and for almost every student that box is Single. Whether or not your parents claim you doesn’t change it.
A W‑2 is the one-page form your employer sends you every January showing what you earned and what tax was taken out. Check your email or your employer’s payroll site, or ask your manager.
They list you as a dependent on their return. Usually the case if you’re under 24, in school, and they cover most of your living costs. You still file your own return and get your own refund.
Nobody lists you on their return. Usually the case if you’re 24 or older, or you pay more than half your own living costs.
But my parents file for me.
Being claimed as a dependent by your parents doesn’t mean you don’t have a return of your own. Your W‑2 is in your name, the tax withheld from your paychecks is yours, and the refund comes back to you. Filing it is just you handling your own return.
It doesn’t affect your parents either. They claim you on their return, and you file yours. Your return never touches theirs, so you’re not going behind their back or messing anything up by filing early. It takes about ten minutes.
And if your family uses a CPA or tax specialist, don’t assume they’ll do it. A summer job usually earns less than the standard deduction, so you owe no tax and the IRS doesn’t require you to file. To most preparers that means there’s nothing to do, so they skip it. But the money your employer withheld is still sitting with the IRS, and the only way to get it back is to file.
One thing to get right: when Sunny asks whether your parents claim you, say yes. That keeps your return and theirs consistent.
Built on an IRS‑authorized e‑file engine.
Sunny walks you through the questions, but your return isn’t filed by a chatbot. It’s prepared and transmitted by an e‑file provider authorized by the IRS, the same official route TurboTax and H&R Block use. That’s what makes the return real: it goes straight to the IRS and your state, and your refund comes back from them, deposited directly into your bank account.
Nothing is filed until you’ve seen your exact refund, checked the finished forms, and chosen to pay. If you decide not to, nothing goes anywhere.
Confused? Just ask.
Sunny is the AI assistant inside SummerRefund. It asks you one question at a time, reads your W‑2, and fills in the forms. If a question doesn’t make sense, or you hit a word you’ve never seen on a tax form, you don’t have to guess. Drag up the Ask Sunny box, ask in plain English, and get a plain-English answer. Then pick up right where you left off.
There are two boxes, and that’s on purpose. The top box is where you answer Sunny’s questions, by typing or by tapping one of the shortcut answers, and everything you enter there goes straight into your return. The Ask Sunny box, the one you drag up from the bottom, is only for questions, and that’s the only thing the AI ever sees. Your personal information never goes through it.
Sunny explains, it doesn’t decide. Every answer is information, not advice, and nothing is filed until you’ve seen your exact refund and chosen to file.
The people behind SummerRefund
Peter is a Master of Accounting student with a specialization in tax at Tulane University, where he also earned his bachelor’s in finance with a minor in real estate. This past summer he worked in PwC’s tax practice. He started SummerRefund because most students find taxes confusing and avoid them entirely. His goal is to make filing simple enough that students not only get their refund, but understand it.
Ben is a computer science major at Amherst College, where he played on the varsity hockey team. He spent this past summer at Magnetar Capital and will join Guggenheim Securities next summer. At SummerRefund he leads engineering, from integrating the IRS authorized e-file transmitter to data security.
Timur is the founder and CEO of FileYourTaxes.com, an IRS authorized e-file provider he has led since 1996. He studied electrical engineering at the University of Southern California and began his career as an engineer at IBM. At the U.S. Department of the Treasury, he served on the IRS Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee from 2011 to 2014 and returned to chair it from 2020 to 2024, advising the IRS on the future of electronic filing. He also chairs the CERCA board, the industry liaison to the IRS, and chairs the board of CBC Federal Credit Union.