Until your itemized deductions exceeds your standard deductions you will not see any change in the Refund-O-Meter. And that meter means NOTHING until you have completed the entire interview AND have passed the REVIEW tab ... until then the meter figure is just a floating number ESPECIALLY this year since the Stimulus payment questions are not addressed until the very end at the beginning of the REVIEW tab which is going to confuse many user's this year especially when they update the program for the second stimulus payment as well.
For instance ... if you were eligible for the $1200 first stimulus and $600 for the second then the program computes these after you finish the income section and adds the $1800 to the refund meter BUT when you get to the REVIEW meter and you tell the program you already GOT the $1800 then the refund meter will drop that same $1800 since you don't get the money again. This is correct however many users will cry FOUL if the program doesn't explain it well which it currently doesn't. However even if they did put in a message in red flashing letters many users will still fail to read these screens fully in their haste and we will be answering their posts very soon and in great numbers I fear.
In fact if I had my way that meter would be unavailable until the very end as it causes much anxiety like a stock market ticker.
