Virginia state return "Child and dependent care expenses - taxpayer can not be greater than total expenses reported on the federal return"

[vanklein1]

Confirmed with federal form multiple times, the total amount is exact same. I even tried arbitrarily lowering the virginia total to see what would happen and same error. Unfortunatley, the state error doesn't link to the federal return amount that it is comparing to. So I am stuck.

[BrittanyS]

I would like to take a deeper look at this. However, I need a diagnostic file which is a copy of your tax return that has all of your personal information removed. You can send one to us by following the directions below:

TurboTax Online:

1. Sign into your online account.
2. Locate the Tax Tools on the left-hand side of the screen.
3. A drop-down will appear. Select Tools
4. On the pop-up screen, click on “Share my file with agent.”
5. This will generate a message that a diagnostic file gets sanitized and transmitted to us.
6. Please provide the Token Number that was generated in the response.

TurboTax Desktop/Download Versions:

1. Open your return.
2. Click the Online tab in the black bar across the top of TurboTax and select “Send Tax File to Agent” *
3. This will generate a message that a diagnostic copy will be created.  Click on OK and the tax file will be sanitized and transmitted to us.
4. Please provide the Token Number (including the dash) that was generated in the response.

*(If using a MAC, go to the menu at the top of the screen, select Help, then, “Send Tax File to Agent”)

[vanklein1]

Thanks. I was able to eventually figure it out. 

on the Virginia form, all though the questions is “total paid for child and dependent care” I really needed to cap it at the max allowed by the state (in my case $6000 - FSA contribution. Unfortunately the software doesn’t catch that you entered higher than the state max until the review and the review itself makes no mention of this, only that it can’t be higher than federal (which is misleading) 

thanks for your quick reply. Hopefully this thread can help make the software better and maybe even help someone else who hits the same issue