My current refund is $4932. If I entered more business expenses, my refund amount will shrink. can you explain why?

[wang-vera]

I assumed the more expanses I have, the less income I have, the more refund I will get.

[noah6542]

When will I know when I'll get my refund

[SweetieJean]

<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/refunds">https://www.irs.gov/refunds</a>

[jerry2000 · Accepted solution]

That can happen if you qualify for an income based credit, such as the Earned Income Credit. The Earned Income Credit amount is based on your net income. As your income increases, your EIC (and your refund) goes up, until you reach a certain income level, then the EIC goes down with increasing income.
If you are on the increasing side of the EIC curve, then adding business expenses reduces your income and that reduces your EIC so your refund goes down.
You are required to enter all of your income and expenses. It is illegal to omit legitimate expenses that reduce your income so as to maximize your EIC.

[shanelaw]

And I take it that it won't help to decline taking the earned income credit? Assuming I'm permitted to even do that.

[MarilynG1]

@shanelaw Since we can't see your return in this forum, it's hard to say exactly why your refund decreases when you add Business Expenses.

It could be due to a lower EIC, as mentioned by others.  It could also be due to receiving less of a QBI Deduction (which is a % of Business Income).

if you have  "new" assets placed in service, check to see if you are expensing assets too fast by taking certain expensing elections on the "new" assets.

The Refund Meter is not accurate until you have finished adding all your Income/Expenses and finished the Deductions/Credits section.

Click this link for more info on Reporting Business Income and Expenses

If you want a tax expert to look at your return, you can request an Offline Review.