@VolvoGirl Thank you for the link. Just to be clear, this question comes up when filing my California tax returns. I already went through my federal returns and calculated how much of my dividends were from U.S government securities, and that's where the $179 comes from.
What I don't understand is why I'm even being asked this question when box 12 of my 1099-DIV shows that I received zero dollars in exempt-interest dividends. It seems like Turbotax is assuming that the $179 I received from U.S government securities is exempt-interest dividends. Is that a correct assumption?
According to this Vanguard tax document, it doesn't seem like I have anything to report here: https://investor.vanguard.com/content/dam/retail/publicsite/en/documents/taxes/inbst-2024.pdf
I don't own any of the listed funds that give tax-exempt interest dividends. The instructions also say to multiply the given percentage for a particular fund/state by the amount in box 12 of my 1099, which is zero for me. So it seems to me that Turbotax's question does not apply to me. If that's the case, I'm wondering how I should proceed since I still have to answer the question.
