California - Non-residency status wrongly filled by TurboTax

[MonikaK1]

Thank you for providing the file. I reported the issue. 

If you are using the Desktop version of TurboTax, you can go to the Schedule CA and type in the move date directly. 

As you noted, this didn't affect the calculation. Had you had income that wasn't attributable to California in the last few days of the year, you would have been able to identify it in the California questionnaire.

[onesmallspeck]

Thank you!

Do I have to pay for the Desktop version, if I have already paid for the Federal and State returns on the online version?

[DaveF1006]

Yes, but contact Turbo Tax customer service in accordance with instructions given in this link to have the charges refunded back to your account.

@onesmallspeck 

[onesmallspeck]

Hmmm, I tried. I pointed to this discussion since there is a bug in the software. This is the response I received. Trying to call and explain my situation on the phone, and they said it can't be done. 🤷

--

Dear, Thank you for reaching out to TurboTax Customer Care.  TurboTax is a self-preparation software package, and the fees are related to the use of the program. In most cases, discrepancies are due to the information that was entered. TurboTax Online fees that you paid were to prepare your DIY tax return. You may use the TurboTax Online software without charge up to the point you decide to print or e-file your tax return. Printing or e-filing your return reflects your satisfaction with the software, at which time you’ll be required to pay or register for the services, and the fee is non-refundable. We are unable to process your refund request until we speak with you. Please use the link below to contact us at your earliest convenience so we can assist with this issue.

[DaveF1006]

Try calling 1-800-4-INTUIT (1-800-446-8848). Ask to speak to a product support specialist. They should be able to help.

[onesmallspeck]

Hi Dave,

I have called 3 times over the last two days and spoken for hours to the product specialists. They seem to deny the problem is with turbo tax and won't issue a refund. 

I have spent so much time over the phone, and they don't seem to be able to understand what the issue is. This is hopeless.

[Tormyr]

I have had the same issue. I left California for another country in 2023, while my spouse was outside of the US all year. TurboTax took my inputs and set us both as full-year nonresidents. I spent 6 hours on tech support with 5 different people, including level 2 tech support, and no one could help me. They were puzzled, and every call ended with me being disconnected.

The only way I was able to resolve it was to edit the form online directly. The SmartCheck asked me to fill in line 5 (location of all-year nonresident). Rather than doing that, I did the following. (Caution if you don't know what you are doing, this might mess up your form.)

1. Go to a field on the form that is incorrect. For me, that started on line 1, where it said my status was nonresident instead of part-year resident. I right-clicked the filled-in circle for nonresident and selected "Inspect". This opens a view into the html of the web page focused on the section of html that relates to what you clicked.
2. That section of html will have an attribute called "disabled". Delete that, and if it has an equals sign (=) with more text after it, delete that as well. The field will now be editable in the form.
3. Repeat for all fields that are incorrect. I had to do this for both the nonresident and part-year resident fields in line 1, and the two fields in line 4.
4. Set the lines in the form to the correct values. For me, that was the part-year status, the date I left, and the two-letter code of the destination.

After I did this, the SmartCheck validation completed successfully, and the resulting CA540NR had the correct values.

I think the nonresident section in TurboTax has some serious problems. The date I left only showed up for me if I incorrectly also said that I entered California in 2023 as well. Otherwise, that screen was skipped. However, subsequent times through the California residency section on TurboTax showed that I was unable to set whether I had moved to California in 2023 back to "No".

Hopefully, TurboTax actually fixes this issue that has been present for 5 years. If not, hopefully this will show others how to fix it for themselves.

[onesmallspeck]

Hi @Tormyr 

Thank you for your response! I appreciate it, and I wish I had seen it sooner. I have been on call with multiple folks for hour after hour and they almost had me believe the problem was with something I had done.

One of them finally said they could process a refund for TurboTax online (hopefully I will see that money). But I bought TurboTax desktop, and ended up adding information about the dates on CA540NR.