That said, my 4th attempt was accepted. In my case I did go back to my Federal and "itemized" my cash contributions in the appropriate section. This caused my 540 Part II Line 11 to reflect that amount, which matches 1040 12b. I verified this made no changes to the final 1040 by inspection.
Even though this worked, I think a better approach is entering an appropriate deduction directly in the CA return. Although this was accepted, I'm not sure it's 100% kosher.
Sheesh. What a nightmare. Shame on Intuit.
