Ok, I figured out what is happening, but I believe a fix is needed to the program.
My federal K-1 has the value of the money sent to the state entered in box 13, with a code 'W' indicating it was State income tax withheld. Turbo Tax sponges this into the state form on the 'Tax Payments Worksheet.'
However my State K-1 adjustments enter this value in box 15-f, creating form 3804-CR, which calculates the credit for the PTET (correctly I should add).
The problem is that on the CA state 540 the credit zeros out tax owed, but the link to the Federal box 13 code W from my K-1 still exists, so the CA 540 shows both the credit from 3804-CR and the payments from the federal form.
I think there needs to be a fix in the code such that:
IF a filer has K-1 income from CA AND is claiming PTET credit, THEN the link from the federal K-1 box 13 should be broken and have the filer enter in estimates paid (from spousal W-2 or other sources) in the Tax Payments Worksheet for CA on their own.
This would seem to make the math work out correctly.
Not sure if a fix can be done if time or if I need to file CA via paper?
