TurboxTax stops me from submitting CA returns complaining I have duplicate state abbreviations on Form-W2.

[aidanbon]

I have 2 different employers, they both in California, and they both use the same payroll admin (Trinet). I only received a single W2-Form from Trinet, and in Box 15 to 19 (State related information), they put 2 rows in each box (one for each of my employer.  See attached image). Therefore Box 15 have duplicate CA on it.

How can I proceed with filing my State returns?

[MichaelDC · Accepted solution]

If you have two CA entries in Box 15 to 19, add each box to enter only one CA line. Be sure to delete your second row.

[oussamakhoury]

Which employee ID should be on the "one" CA line?

[ashleeh1]

I have the same question as @oussamakhoury - Doesn't make sense to combine the incomes if the money came from two different employers. ?

[carolyn-bartlett]

Agreed- I am not sure it makes sense to delete the second row since we had two different employees this year. Who can help us resolve this?

[ashleeh1]

After an hour and a half with turbo tax and their support team we finally figured it out. I deleted the second row of box 15-19 in the original W-2 and created a second W-2 containing just that second row. In order for TurboTax to accept this second W-2, you have to put $1.00 of income in box 1. So I went back to the original W-2 that now only contained the first line of box 15-19 and reduced box 1 by $1.00 so that my income being claimed overall is still the same. You don’t need to change any of the other boxes other than the ones I’ve listed here.

*side note* - when creating the second W-2 you will still use the employee ID number you used in your first W-2 and just “skip” the option to download the W-2.

Hope this helps everyone!!!

[amekoyangyu]

Thank you so much @ashleeh1 , this is really helpful.

[Chabelo27]

I am trying to file my taxes but it wont let me finish them because i have a duplicate CA abreviation on my W2 any suggestions 

[ibmett]

Thanks for this @ashleeh1 !
When I followed these directions this year TurboTax prompted me to add some extra info to the 'new' w2 form during the review process, (employer id and address etc). I was able to submit the forms after that!

[calitaxnerd]

Thank you so much for this @ashleeh1  this post saved me today while filing last minute.