@kiyomi-peach , my apologies for delay in responding.
(a) My struggle has been how to answer if you will benefit tax liability wise with a higher level of service ( from TurboTax). My understanding here is that TurboTax services ( whether in answering your queries directly/live or prepare the return for you etc. ) ONLY assures you that your return has been correctly prepared and based on information you have/do provided/ provide. Higher functionality products help you in preparing a correct return. I am not aware of any TurboTax service will assure you that you get a larger refund or lower tax liability. So I am at a loss on how to answer this query.
You said that you both move to Japan in 2016. So how have you been filing your joint return ? Or is it that your wife started earning in Japan only for 2024 and therefore the questions ?
(b) As I said in an earlier post and based on your responses --
1. You need to enter your W-2 as per usual -- just as if you were in the US ( since you are working for and paid by DoD ).
2. For your wife, you do NOT enter her income under wages . You need to go down the list of personal incomes ( On my windows product I get there by selecting "I will choose what I work on "-- under personal income tab) till you see "Foreign Earned Income and Exclusion ". Select that and follow through the next few screens --- . This fill out the form 2555 ( to qualify your wife for physical presence test. ).
3. Once your wife's Foreign Source income has been excluded , you be getting the most tax beneficial outcome.
I have , in other post have covered this -- how to exclude Foreign Earned In come. But would be happy to walk you through this process.
Note -- (a) I am not familiar with the On-line version of TurboTax and so I will have to get another expert ( familiar with the On-line product to help on the specifics ).
(b) Even though all her foreign income is excluded from US taxes, your marginal tax rate is computed as if her income was included ( this is the this works per the IRS rules and regs. ), but this is a better path ( tax liability wise ) then trying to use Foreign Tax credit ( for the taxes she pays to Japan ).
Is there more I can do for you ?
Sorry , I cannot advise you on cost/benefit vis-a-vis usage of TurboTax services ( Full Disclosure : I have no beneficial -- financial or otherwise connection with TurboTax , Intuit, Lacerte, Pro Tax etc. -- just a volunteer).
