Colleagues --
Many thanks for the responses and the assistance.
I believe the latter answer about DC and part-year residents is correct, but my personal situation is even more complicated. I work for the federal government and have been overseas on official assignment and I actually was not physically present in DC at all last year. (The whole backstory is complicated, and last year I completed a domicile move as I own no personal property in DC.)
I did resolve the problem along the lines of TomD8's suggestion. The problem was I assumed that TurboTax would prorate my earnings by the dates I lived in each state. In fact, there is a question as you go through the first state about "other state income" but TT provides no information on this page, including no hyperlinks. I didn't quite understand the importance of this and did answer "no" which resulted in TT computing my DC taxes looking at my total yearly earnings, while prorating the VA taxes. I deleted both my state taxes in TT per the earlier suggestion, and as I re-input my data, I actually answered "yes" to the "other state income" which prompted TT to ask "how much"? I then figured out the number of days I was in DC for the calendar year (x/365), multiplied that percentage by my total income and inputted that number for DC. That resolved the issue with a more logical state tax result.
This actually tracks with tax law (you are taxed based on where and when you get income, not necessarily the days you are in a state) but TT really should provide a hyperlink on this page and make clear the importance of providing this information. Instead of automatically prorating my earnings, it expected me to do the math -- which may be logical as only I would know when I earned income, but TT should provide more information guiding the user who is unlikely (like I was the last 2 days) with this nuance of tax law.
Thanks again everyone for your help.
