Which TurboTax should we use?

[tracy429]

My wife is salaried and I am retired but self employed. Should we use both TurboTax Deluxe and TurboTax Self Employed? Also, in 2020, I started my self employed business. I did not have income but I had approximately $1,000 in expenses.

[sdm8]

I am not a tax expert.  However, last year I was in a very similar situation to you.  My husband and I filed jointly - and we just used the Self-Employment edition of Turbotax.  It worked really well. 

[BillM223]

You can use the Self-employed product (if online) and the Home & Business product if get the CD/download software. These products support the same range of tax situations, including the W-2 and Schedule C (for the business).

You may see elsewhere that the Premier version also supports Schedule C, but the range of expenses that you can deduct in the Self-employed and Home & Business product is far broader.

Note that most tax pros here in the Community use the CD/download software, because you can see all the forms all the time. Plus you can do as many tax returns as you like (but e-file only 5). But many of the extra features like Max are only available to Online users.

[tracy429]

Thank you very much for your help!