Since the relevant TurboTax Help article recommends to just shuffle dollar numbers around between boxes 3 and 1 then it seems to me that that individual W-2 dollar figures are not transmitted via e-File to the IRS, are they? In which case it probably won't hurt for me to just change that "0.00" in box 1 on this W-2 to "1.00" in order to get past the e-File hurdle. $1.00 is basically a standard rounding error anyway...
If this causes the IRS to ask questions then I will just refer them to an archived copy of the TurboTax Help article. But that article really ought to be updated to handle W-2s with "0.00" in ALL the relevant fields, as this is apparently how the State of CA issues them when you instruct them to withhold no taxes.
Also, if flipping numbers around in the TurboTax W-2 forms is truly no big deal, then TurboTax ought to handle the entire issue with "0.00" in box 1 automatically. In this case just have it automatically enter a nominal "1.00" in box 1, with a ToolTip in the Step-by-Step and Form views to explain why it did that.
Forcing customers to print out reams of paper returns in this case is quite inconvenient and really silly. When we purchase a product with advertised e-Filing capability that feature ought to work, unless there is a very good reason for it to not work.
