TurboTax not letting me e-file Hawaii because of form 2106 (Teacher) which shouldn't be there.

[Gem-in-eye]

My wife is a teacher in California and she has educator expenses we report. I have a rental property in Hawaii which I report for that state. When I try to submit my Hawaii taxes TurboTax says that I can't because I have educator expenses, however because all those expenses are for California, I enter zero in the field for Hawaii. Regardless of the fact there are no educator expenses for my Hawaii tax return TurboTax is still creating a form 2106 (Teacher) that is preventing me from e-filing my Hawaii return.

Is this a bug? Is there a workaround? I confirmed if I don't report the educator expenses on my federal and California returns then the Hawaii form 2106 (Teacher) isn't created and I can e-file, but I don't want to give up that deduction.

[MarilynG1]

Form 2106 is not supported for Efile in Hawaii, but can be printed and mailed.  Click this link for a list of State Form Availability. 

You could Efile your Federal and California, and indicate you want to print your Hawaii return for mailing. 

[Gem-in-eye]

The problem is that the Form 2106 shouldn't be created since I don't have any educator expenses for Hawaii.

[AmyC]

Follow these steps:

1. Open or continue your return in TurboTax.
2. Locate Tax Tools 
3. Select Tools
4. See the pop-up window Tool Center
5. Choose Delete a form
6. Select Delete next to the HI form 2106 worksheet in the list.

You may need to log out and clear cache and cookies. Log back in. If it is still there, go back through your HI return. Continue through to the deductions section and make sure to mark zero in those expenses. You may need to delete the form again.

[Gem-in-eye]

Already tried those steps. Removing the 2106 form doesn't work. Once I go through the state review, it sees a value of 0 and puts the form right back.

[KrisD15]

Are you able to remove the CA teacher expenses, file Hawaii and then add the CA teacher expenses and file CA? 

[Gem-in-eye]

The teacher expense is entered in the federal forms and pulled into CA and HI. It's in each state that I designate how much of the deduction applies to each state. One option I was toying with was to submit my federal and CA returns, then go back and edit the federal by removing the teacher expense. I'm not sure how TurboTax will behave if I try that. Your suggestion to file the HI taxes with the teacher expenses removed from the federal forms first would allow me to e-file my HI taxes, but would TurboTax allow me to go back and modify the federal taxes after I've already started filing?

I think these might be the best options, but has anyone ever tried doing that? I'd hate to find out once I e-file something I can't to back and make changes.

[KrisD15]

Actually, it might be better to

Remove the teacher expenses

select "File By Mail" and print the HI state return as well as a copy of the federal return and mail both to HI

Use the directions in the link to go back into your return

Add the teacher expenses and e-file the Federal and CA

Directions to change mail to e-file

[Gem-in-eye]

I'm not understanding your reasoning. If I remove the teacher expenses then e-file becomes an option. Why would I want to file by mail? My goal is to e-file.

[MarilynG1]

You could Efile your Federal and California returns, and indicate 'you will file Hawaii later'.

After your Federal return is Accepted, click this link for the steps to go back into your Federal return and delete Form 2106 to Efile Hawaii.

[Gem-in-eye]

Deleting the 2106 form doesn't work since it is put right back by TurboTax. If I file my Federal and CA taxes, will I be able to go back after they are accepted and remove the teacher expenses from the federal which will also remove the $0 2016 form from my HI taxes?

[RobertB4444]

@Gem-in-eye  You will!  Just roll down to the bottom of the page after you log in to your TurboTax account and click 'add a state'.  Then make any adjustments that you need to, then file the returns.  Then go back to 'add a state' and add the adjustment back.

[Gem-in-eye]

I submitted my Federal and CA taxes. I then went back and removed the deduction from the Federal and it allowed me to e-file HI. However, I downloaded both versions of the forms with and without the deduction and while they both result in the same amount of money being owed, the numbers they are pulling from the Federal return are different. I'm concerned if I e-file with numbers that don't match what I officially submitted to the federal government, it could be noticed and raise a red flag that could initiate an audit. I guess I'll have to snail mail my return now. It's unfortunate that TurboTax wouldn't address this bug.