Why my tax due increase after I added more repair expenses

[tianwaifeixian]

I entered the W2 and it shows tax due (around $2300). I then entered my rental property info. Of course after I entered the rent, the tax due went up, which is expected. Then I started to enter expenses. Everything looks normal until I noticed that after I entered more expenses for the rental, my tax due is bigger- this has never happened before. For example, I added $40 more on repair expense, while the tax due increased $1. I was expecting a reduction on my tax due not an increase to my tax due when I have more expense entered. 

I then added another $75 on expenses but see no change on the tax due. 

I am really confused and don't know why this is happening- can anyone help?

[ThomasM125]

Most likely you have a tax credit, such as an earned income credit, that is going down as your income decreases. If the decrease in the credit is more than the decrease in your tax before the credit, then your net tax due will increase. You can look at your Form 1040, lines 18 to 32 to see what is happening to your credits as you enter more business expenses.

To view your form 1040 and schedule 1 to 3:

1. Choose Tax Tools from your left menu bar in TurboTax Online while working in your program
2. Choose Tools
3. Choose View Tax Summary
4. See the Preview my 1040 option in the left menu bar and click on it

Choose the Back option in the left menu bar when you are done

[tianwaifeixian]

I do not see anything show up as earned credit or Additional tax credit or any other credit from line 27-32 on my 1040. Also, I definetly think there is something wrong with TT- I just removed all the rental income and only left the expenses. The total tax due didn't change at all. I closed the TT and reopened it, the number is still the same

[ThomasM125]

You can only deduct a rental loss if your income is under $150,000, so if your income is more than that and you had a rental loss to begin with, removing rental income would not affect your tax.

You can look at your Form 8582, Passive Activity Loss Limitations. You may have passive income or losses elsewhere in the current year or from a carryover from a previous year. It would be combined with your rental income or loss in the current year, as it is passive as well, so that could be offsetting passive income elsewhere which can cause unusual things to happen.