Your wife is allowed to deduct any ordinary and necessary business expenses paid during the year, even if there was no income.
Note: Expenses must be reported in the year that they were paid. You are not able to "save" the expenses to report in a later year.
When you come to the input screen for the business's income, simply do not enter anything. Work through the other screens that come up (business information, etc.) and then you will be able to enter your expenses.
