Employer ID box 15 Error. I am active duty Military with Texas home of record "box 15" but no state income tax "0.00" when I try to file it says I need to enter employer ID number but there is none.

[DoninGA · Accepted solution]

Leave boxes 15 thru 17 blank

[pgreulic]

I expect TurboTax might get a lot of calls on this one (I called Fidelity first and they gave me a number but said it probably wasn't what was needed). In the past several years, I have never been asked for the employer ID number and it has been ignored even though I had TX in Box 15 and a dollar amount was in  Box 16.

Just saying that you might want to revert to your old style and ignore Box 15 Employer's State ID Number even if the State (TX) and the Dollar amount in Box 16 is completed.

That is what you did in the past.

Cheers,

- Pete

[BillM223]

We do not want to ignore box 15 if boxes 16 and 17 have data in them. Instead, TurboTax would want to know who withheld the taxes.

The situation with box 15 usually occurs when some software printing W-2s always enters a state code, even if the state (like Texas) has no income tax, and therefore, 16 and 17 are blank.

In such a case, we ask the taxpayer to blank out box 15, just to confirm that there was no withholding.