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SAHM with Small Business Confused: Transcript Shows -$2,661 EIC but Only $1,473 Refund Balance

Filed my taxes with my small business income as a SAHM and noticed something weird on my transcript. I just got my tax transcript and I'm confused about what I'm seeing. According to my transcript from the IRS (United States Department of the Treasury), my account balance shows -$1,473.00, which matches what I expected my refund to be. The transcript shows a request date of 02-05-2025 and confirms there's no accrued interest or penalties as of Feb. 17, 2025. What's confusing me is the transactions section. It shows: CODE EXPLANATION OF TRANSACTION | CYCLE | DATE | AMOUNT 150 Tax return filed | 20250603 | 02-24-2025 | $1,188.00 16211-424-31491-5 768 Earned income credit | 04-15-2025 | -$2,661.00 My transcript shows my filing status as Head of Household with an Adjusted Gross Income of $7,813.00 and Taxable Income of $0.00. It also shows my SE Taxable Income (Taxpayer) as $7,763.00 with a total self-employment tax of $1,188.00. The negative amount (-$2,661.00) for the earned income credit is showing bigger than my original federal refund of $1,473.00. I didn't pay for early deposit with TurboTax this year so I'm totally lost on why this is happening. Is this normal? Does this mean I'm getting more back than I thought? The total account balance still shows -$1,473.00, but that earned income credit amount has me confused. My return due date/received date shows as Apr. 15, 2025 with a processing date of Feb. 24, 2025. Can someone help me understand what's going on with these numbers?

Ethan Clark

Tax pro here. The negative number on your transcript actually represents a credit to your account. Its larger because it likely includes any withholdings or estimated tax payments you made throughout the year. This is normal - the final refund amount is calculated after all credits and debits are applied to your account.

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Aisha Hussain

omg thank you so much! that makes so much more sense now 🙏

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StarStrider

in the same boat and was freaking out about the negative numbers lol

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Yuki Sato

hey if your trying to understand your transcript better you should check out taxr.ai - its only $4.99 and breaks down everything super clearly. saved me hours of googling and reddit searches tbh https://taxr.ai

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Carmen Ruiz

does it actually work? sounds to good to be true ngl

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Yuki Sato

yeah its legit! uploads your transcript and gives you a full breakdown of whats happening + timeline predictions

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Carmen Ruiz

just tried it and WOW 🤯 finally understand wtf is going on with my refund. worth every penny fr

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Andre Lefebvre

Transcript codes be looking like hieroglyphics fr fr 🤣

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Zoe Alexopoulos

wait till you see the TC codes and dates... its like trying to decode ancient alien messages 👽

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Jamal Anderson

TC 150 got me questioning my whole existence rn

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Mei Wong

Running a small biz is hard enough without all this tax confusion. The IRS really needs to make this stuff more user friendly smh

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QuantumQuasar

facts 💯 like we ain't all accountants irs!

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Liam McGuire

Check if you have any credits applied. Child tax credit? EIC? Those can make the numbers look funky on transcripts.

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Aisha Hussain

yeah i got the child tax credit, maybe thats part of it

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