Hello and thank you for your great ideas. Unfortunately, I confirmed it is definitely a bug.
1) I did try deleting the 1099-DIV and entering it again. Same problem. There are no stray entries in the other boxes (checked that in the beginning, as I know that can often trigger errors).
2) I then tried deleting the 1099-DIV, logging out of TT, and logging back in. My federal return still showed that my 1099-DIV for this Payer "Needs Review" even though the 1099-DIV no longer existed as an entry (!!) Clearly flag was being triggered by old data that is somehow being retained on the server. When I logged out and in a second time, this went away.
3) I entered the 1099-DIV again, and the same issue (TT will not allow 1a to be blank and it holds up my return). I see on the forum that others are having this issue. The only solution identified thus far is entering 0.00 into 1a. It worked for me and hopefully will not cause issues with my return.
https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/state-taxes/discussion/it-says-return-can-y-be-e-filed-form-1099-i...
