I'm filing schedule C but it doesn't give me an option to enter salary expense. It doesn't have an expense line item for it.

I pay 2 employees working in Pakistan for me so can I deduct those as salary and payroll expenses?

Business & farm

On the screen What kind of expenses did you have

Scroll down and check the box for Contract Labor and Continue

On the following screen click on the start button for Contract Labor 

Business & farm

Did you hold out taxes and give them a W2?  Employees get a W2.  If you paid them as independent contractor, outside labor, etc you give them a 1099NEC.  Don't know if you need to give a 1099NEC to foreign people.

 

Assuming you didn't deduct taxes and give them a W2 then enter it as Contract Labor on Schedule C line 11.

 

If they are employees and you do have payroll,  it goes on line 26.

 

(Don't know if this work for the Online version this year but should get you close)

If Employee Expenses doesn't show up in the list of expenses you need to go back to the Business Profile section and click Edit by Has Employees and change it to yes.

Go to Business tab- then Continue

Business Income and Expenses - Click the Start or Update button

 

You should see the Business Summary page that lists your businesses, (right below the list you can Add Another Business)

 

Then click EDIT by the business name and the next screen should be a list of  topics,

Business Profile, Income, Inventory/Cost of Goods Sold, Expenses, Assets, and Final Details last.

 

Click Start or Update by Business Profile

Then Click Edit by Has Employees and change it to yes.