Married filing jointly & both qualify for Georgia's retirement income exclusion but only one of us is retired. Why does our refund reduce when we enter the exclusion?

[dhburton]

If I tell the app to remove the exclusion which is supposedly a tax break, our refund amount increases. Why? Can we elect to not take the deduction since it seems to provide a greater refund?

[RobertB4444]

Your deductions are based on your income.  Changing your income changes your deductions.

Yes, you can skip taking a deduction like this.  

@dhburton