Are all self-employed business expenses treated the same? I noticed that when I went back to add some sched C expenses that I forgot, my refund went down.

[bnb125]

When I increase 'office expenses' from $498 to $648, my refund goes down about $100.

[CatinaT1]

There are several possible reasons for the decrease in your refund.   

The profit from your business decreases when you add an expense to your Schedule C. This, in turn, decreases your overall income. Your overall income determines the amount of certain credits you receive. 

For instance, if you are eligible for Earned Income Credit, when your overall income decreases, so can the amount of credit you are eligible for.

The best way to see what is happening is to look at the forms before and after you add the expense to see what is happening.    

Please take these steps to preview your 1040 in TurboTax Online:  
1.Login to TurboTax Online (https://turbotax.intuit.com/)  
2. Click on "Pick up where I left off"  
3. Select "Tax Tools" from the menu on the left side of the screen  
4. Next, select "Tools" from the drop-down menu on the left side of the screen  
5. Then click "View Tax Summary" from the pop-up menu  
6. Lastly, click on "Preview My 1040" from the menu on the left side of the screen. 

[bnb125]

Thank you for your help! It seems like an annoying numbers game to figure out how many office supplies to deduct because the refund goes up and down and up and down as I adjust the office supplies in $5 increments. It doesn't seem to be in my benefit to necessarily deduct every paperclip.