I ran the same test as both of you and you are correct - the system does not allow an exception to the Bona Fide Residence or Physical Presence Tests for someone who was in a combat zone as the tax law allows.
To get the ball rolling for the TurboTax developers it would be really helpful if we had a diagnostic copy of your return to submit along with our note and request. Please go to 'Online' in the upper left corner of your TurboTax program and select 'Send Tax File to Agent'. This will generate a copy of your tax return with all of the personal information removed. You'll get a six digit code and if you share it here it will help us out.
After you've shared that I have the workaround so that you can file. It's not great but it will get the job done. The other option is to wait and see if the developers update the 2024 program. They might not - this may be a fix they add to 2025.
In order to file the exclusion you'll have to first make sure that you have the income set to exactly what you earned in the combat zone. That means that you classify the W2 that you received as containing foreign earned income. When you go to the foreign earned income section there is a screen that allows you to adjust the amount of foreign earned income from that W2. You need to enter a negative number in the box provided to remove any income that wasn't earned in a combat zone that was on that W2. That way the total foreign earned income should match what was actually earned. Then you need to span the dates the way that @pk did above. Get all the way to 329 days so that it's not enough to meet the physical presence test but it is enough to exclude all of the income. That will bring up the waiver. In the waiver explanation you need to enter the dates that you were actually in the combat zone as well as the explanation that it was a combat zone. Then continue through.
This should get the amount of income excluded on the 2555 to the correct level, include the explanation with the correct dates and allow you to efile the return. Obviously, it's not perfect but it will get the job done while the program gets fixed.
Good luck!
@Elvin Richmond
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