I have been doing this for several years on Turbo Tax Deluxe. I DO NOT enter my RRSP and LIRA dividends and capital gains on the federal form, but do in the California form. There seems to be some minor change for 2019 compared with 2018 in Schedule CA, where you enter the adjustments for these additional income items.
I usually look at FTB Publ. 1001, page 6, published every year, which gives instructions for Canadian RRSP: "Under both federal and California law, the RRSP does not qualify as an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) and does not receive IRA treatment. The federal treaty that allows taxpayers to elect to defer taxation on their RRSP earnings until the time of distribution does not apply for California income tax purposes. California residents must include their RRSP earnings in their taxable income in the year earned."
WHAT TO DO IN CALIFORNIA:
"Enter on Schedule CA (540), Part I, Section A or Schedule CA (540NR), Part II, Section A, line 2, line 3, or line 6, column C, the earnings from the RRSP."
In the past, there was no Section A in the instructions. But this year, Capital Gains has been moved to Section A of the Form (used to be in Section B), so it makes sense. I enter Dividends from RRSP and LIRA in line 3 of the Section A and Capital Gains in Lines of Schedule A, both as Additions to income in Column C.
I usually enter this information direct on the Form (Schedule CA) in Turbo Tax, because the Step-by-Step interview does not account for it. If you do the Step by Step, you will have to add it as Other in Section B, then describing what it is in the dialogue box. This will not be following the new instruction for 2019 to enter it in Section A.
I hope this helps.
