Self Employment Tax (non business income / wages) while spouse receives W-2 (I do not)

[tomumegu]

I work for a U.N. related office in NYC (Permanent Mission of Japan) and do no have taxes removed so I have to declare income (wages) and pay quarterly estimated taxes every year.  I live in NYC year round and am paid from Tokyo in USD.  I receive a letter from my office summing up my annual income - no W-2 or 1099 etc.  

I have been entering the information incorrectly as Business Income Schedule C because I cannot enter Wages/Earnings on line 1 of the 1040 since I have to EIN for my office/place of employment.   

I usually file every year with Turbotax deluxe married filing jointly and I end up having to pay for Federal and State along with the estimated quarterly tax payments through out the year.  My wife should receive a refund of her taxes in 2024 but somehow Turbotax Deluxe does not work that out for us filing married-jointly. 

I paid $60 to talk on the phone with a turbotax 'live tax advisor' who didn't even have the turbotax deluxe software running so could not initially help me walk through the forms/software on the phone. My case bamboozled the expert as well and did not have much advice to except to confirm I was already had entered my information in the right locations - apparently.

We do not have dependents or student loans, etc. so how much of a disadvantage would it be filing separately in NYC be?  I really need advice about using the Turbotax software and working on Self Employment (SE) Tax.

[Terry53029]

This is a place for tax professional tax preparers to ask questions on professional tax software. You should go to turbo tax help with your question.