Yes, you do need to declare your California EDD benefits as income on your tax return. But, there's a little more to it than that. Please keep reading for a full explanation.
Paid Family Leave benefits in California are paid by (or are
channeled through) the California Employment Development Department.
Any formal PFL benefits you received (such as being out on Paternity
Leave) are considered taxable income by the IRS, because they consider
PFL a type a unemployment compensation. However, for California state
tax purposes, the PFL income is entirely exempt.
Because of this different tax treatment, the California EDD sends you a Form 1099-G. The same income should definitely not be been included
in Box 1 (wages and other compensation) of your employee W-2 tax form.
Thus, you don't enter your PFL benefits in the W-2 data entry screen.
Instead, please use here only numbers from your actual W-2. The PFL
benefits should be entered on the 1099-G data entry screen (and yes, for
federal tax purposes, as well as the federal tax side of the TurboTax
software, they are considered just the same thing as unemployment
compensation).
If you have a W-2 from your employer (or you don't have one), and you have a 1099-G from the California EDD, then you don't need to wait for any more tax documents with respect to PFL, because you won't be receiving any.
That said, when in TurboTax, and assuming that your tax data
on the W-2 and 1099-G is correct, you will want to enter your W-2 and 1099-G data into the
program. When you do enter your 1099-G, as a California resident, and
you get to the state module of the TurboTax program, the software should
confirm that your 1099-G is indeed CA state-tax exempt. I've included a
series of screen-capture images and attached them to this answer
(please click them to open pictures). Your TurboTax screens might look
somewhat different, depending on program version, but the process is the
same.
In addition, here is a link to a CA EDD FAQ sheet. Please
refer to the bottom of Page 2 therein to confirm what I've indicated
about the taxability of PFL income.
http://www.edd.ca.gov/pdf_pub_ctr/de8714cf.pdfIf you would like additional assistance, or if you have any other CA EDD related questions, please
feel free to contact us and speak with a live TurboTax agent. As a paying TurboTax customer, the call is free to you. We can
screen-share with your computer, if necessary, and help you resolve most any
issue. Here is a link where you can reach us:
https://support.turbotax.intuit.com/contact/
