First let me point out that the Refund-O-Meter is only correct once all your income and expenses have been entered and the program is fully operational. With each entry of income or expenses the meter will continue to vary as the program recalculates the return with each step you take. If this annoys you then turn off the meter until the end.
Next ... the program interview flow is poorly designed and it will give you a false refund total early in the interview. The program gives you 100% of the CTC and the third stimulus credit once you have completed the MY INFO tab early in the interview and then much later in the deductions & Credits tab you are asked how much of these credits you got in advance and then the credits are adjusted for the advance payments which will show as a reduced refund amount or an increase in the balance due.
Same thing for the EIC … the program gives you the credit in the refund posted BEFORE you get to the EIC portion of the interview. At that point it asks you a couple of questions that could possibly REMOVE the credit already reflected in the refund posted which is also a point of confusion for many.
One day the programmers may get this changed to more timely reflect the section you are working on as you work on it and not way in advance. Users are not happy when they see the refund being reduced without a good explanation especially when the program says you can get $X as a credit and they see the refund either being reduced or not increased.
NOW ... did you actually look at the return ? The remaining amount of CTC that you can receive will show up on line 28 of your 2021 Form 1040.... so is the rest of the credit showing up on that line? Also review the 8812.
How do I preview my TurboTax Online return before filing?
You can view your entire return or just your 1040 form before you e-file:
- Open or continue your return.
- Select Tax Tools in the left menu (if you don't see this, select the menu icon in the upper-left corner).
- With the Tax Tools menu open, you can then:
- Select Print Center and then Print, Save, or Preview This Year's Return to preview your entire return, including all forms and worksheets (you may be asked to register or pay first).
- View only your 1040 form by selecting Tools. Next, select View Tax Summary in the pop-up, then Preview my 1040 in the left menu.
