I am a taxpayer and not an expert, but I had the exact same situation as you, so here's my take. I found that if I enter only the amount from box 1 on my 1099-NEC and do not enter any expenses, then TT does not create either a Schedule-C nor a Schedule-SE, and therefore does not calculate any self employment tax on the amount. In this case, TT puts the amount from my 1099-NEC under "other income". But as soon as I tell it I have expenses against it, TT suddenly creates a Sch-C and Sch-SE, which adds 15.3% self employment tax to my tax liability. In my case I would be far better off, tax wise, reporting this income as "other income", and NOT entering expenses. However, although TT lets me do this, I don't believe that would be correct, since from all the articles I've recently read on the matter, I believe this actually should be reported (unfortunately) as self employment income. If I'm wrong about that, someone please let me know. Thanks!
