Thank you so much for your thorough answer. I have a few follow up questions. I am in the same situation. If I make $50,000 a year as a w2 employee and spouse who is a new realtor and has zero income in the first year (market is tough and hasn't been able to sell a home) and let's say she incurs $20,000 in expenses such as home office, business new car purchase, membership/professional fees you are saying our joint taxable income for the year is $30,000?
Also spouse has to use the self employed Turbotax? I have used the Turbotax premium for many years now and there is a section for "self employed" but when I ran this scenario on my tax return the Turbotax software did not seem to deduct her write off expenses from our total joint income.
