According to CZ/US tax treaty, Czech social security benefits are fully exempt from U.S. tax even if the beneficiary is US citizen/resident. Article 19, subparagraph 1(b) - exception to the "saving" clause.
Is benefit reportable on 1040? If so, would second entry in Other Income with notation "treaty based" with same amount in negative be acceptable? i don't need to fill 8833 but not certain about reporting requirement.
On California side, which does not honor provisions of tax treaties it simply asks for US Fed excluded income and plugs it in as ordinary income. That is very straightforward.
@jan100 , a method to "Recognize " the income and then exclude proposed by my colleague @DaveF1006 , works well in this case --- enter the Social Security total as Other income -- Schedule-1 line 8 "other income", sub. line z with comment -- Czech Social Security. Then follow by another entry with a negative amount with notation " excluded per US-Czech Tax Treaty article 19 para 1(b). Part of the reason for this contorted way is because of limitations of TurboTax software. But it works