How do I file my wife's business taxes on 1040 forms using TurboTax?

My wife started a small consulting business last year and I'm trying to help her with taxes. Her accountant gave us a profit and expenses statement for filing taxes, but I'm completely lost on how to proceed. She works as an independent contractor and was paid through 1099 forms (not 1040, that was my mistake). I've been trying to use TurboTax to file everything myself, but I can't figure out where to input all this information. Do I need to find specific 1040 forms somewhere in the software? Should I just enter the total profit from her profit/loss statement? Or do I need to input both her 1099 income and then separately add all her business expenses somewhere? Her gross income was about $73,000 but after expenses it's closer to $42,000. I'm trying to save us from paying $500+ to have it professionally done, but this is getting more complicated than I expected. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

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18 comments

Carmella Popescu

•8M

You're mixing up some tax forms, which is completely understandable since tax terminology can be confusing! The 1040 is actually the main personal tax return form everyone files. Your wife would have received 1099 forms (likely 1099-NEC) from her clients, not 1040 forms. In TurboTax, you need to enter her business income and expenses on Schedule C, which TurboTax will automatically include with your 1040. When you go through the interview process, look for the "Business Income" or "Self-Employment" section. TurboTax will ask about 1099 forms she received and then guide you through entering all her business expenses. You don't need to find separate "1040 forms" - TurboTax creates the complete 1040 and all required schedules based on the information you provide. Just make sure to enter all income from 1099s and all legitimate business expenses from that profit/loss statement your accountant provided.

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Carmella Popescu

•8M

Yes, just follow the TurboTax prompts for self-employment or business income. The software will walk you through everything step by step. If she didn't receive 1099 forms from all clients, that's actually not uncommon. She's still required to report ALL income earned from her business, whether she received a 1099 or not. When you get to that section in TurboTax, there's an option to enter income that wasn't reported on a 1099. The IRS requires reporting of all income regardless of whether tax forms were provided.

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Lim Wong

•8M

After spending hours trying to figure out my husband's contractor income last year, I finally found taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) and it saved me so much time! It's designed specifically for people with self-employment income and business expenses. I uploaded my husband's profit/loss statement and receipts, and it automatically extracted all the important information and categorized everything correctly. Then it showed me exactly which expenses were deductible and gave me step-by-step instructions for entering everything into TurboTax. The best part was it explained which business expenses were legitimate deductions so I didn't miss anything!

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Lim Wong

•8M

Yes, it works perfectly with TurboTax! It gives you specific instructions on which sections to navigate to and exactly where to input each piece of information. It basically gives you a roadmap to follow in TurboTax, which saved me tons of time. For home office and vehicle expenses, it actually walks you through the qualification requirements for both. It calculated the square footage percentage for our home office and helped determine the business use percentage for my husband's car based on mileage. It even explained the difference between standard mileage rate and actual expenses method so we could choose the best option. The explanations were super clear - much easier to understand than the IRS website!

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Dananyl Lear

•8M

I just wanted to update everyone - I tried taxr.ai after seeing it mentioned here and WOW. I've been struggling with entering my side business expenses in TurboTax for days, but this tool made it so simple! I uploaded my bank statements and it automatically categorized my business expenses and told me exactly where to enter everything in TurboTax. It caught several deductions I would have missed completely (like partial cell phone expenses and some professional subscriptions). The step-by-step guidance was incredibly helpful - way better than trying to Google everything. Ended up saving about $1,800 in taxes from deductions I would have overlooked! Definitely using this every year now.

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Ana Rusula

•8M

If you get stuck with any questions when filing your wife's Schedule C, I highly recommend using Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) to actually talk to the IRS directly. I was in a similar situation last year with my wife's consulting business and had questions about home office deductions. I spent days trying to call the IRS directly, but kept getting disconnected or waiting for hours. Claimyr got me through to an actual IRS agent in about 20 minutes who answered all my specific questions. They have a demo video here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c that shows how it works. It's basically a service that navigates the IRS phone system for you and calls you back when an agent is ready.

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Ana Rusula

•8M

The service basically calls the IRS for you and navigates through all their phone menus. It uses a system that keeps dialing and trying different options until it gets through to a representative. Once it has an agent on the line, it calls you and connects you directly. The catch is that it's not free, but considering I spent 5+ hours over three days trying to get through myself, it was worth every penny. There's no guarantee exactly how quickly you'll get connected, but in my experience it worked within about 20 minutes. Much better than wasting an entire day on hold. They only charge if they actually connect you to an agent.

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Isaiah Sanders

•8M

I need to admit I was wrong about Claimyr. After posting my skeptical comment, I decided to try it anyway since I was desperate to resolve my audit question before filing this year's return. I was shocked when I got a call back in about 40 minutes with an actual IRS agent on the line. The agent was able to explain exactly what documentation I needed to provide and even gave me a direct fax number to send it to. Issue resolved in one call after months of frustration. For the original poster: if you do run into specific questions about your wife's business deductions that you can't figure out in TurboTax, this is definitely a way to get actual answers from the IRS instead of guessing.

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Xan Dae

•8M

TurboTax will absolutely calculate this automatically for you, so don't worry about figuring it out manually. The self-employment tax applies to her net earnings after expenses (so the $42,000 figure you mentioned), not the gross income. The one good piece of news is that you can deduct half of the self-employment tax on your 1040, which helps offset some of that additional tax burden. Also, don't forget to look into whether you qualify for the Qualified Business Income deduction (Section 199A), which could give you a deduction of up to 20% of qualified business income. TurboTax should walk you through this as well.

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Fiona Gallagher

•8M

Just a tip from someone who's been filing a Schedule C for years: SAVE EVERYTHING. Keep receipts and documentation for all business expenses. My wife started a business in 2020 and we got audited in 2021 because we didn't have proper documentation for some larger expenses. For mileage, keep a dedicated log. For home office, take photos and measurements. For equipment purchases, save those receipts! TurboTax can help you file, but if you get audited, you need the backup documentation.

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