In the California Turbotax module there is a screen called "Federal and California AGI Adjustments". The instruction at the top of this screen begins by saying "Your total federal adjusted gross income (AGI) is shown below" followed by a simple quarterly table of cumulative AGI boxes to be filled in. The column label says "Federal AGI". The fourth quarter cumulative is pre-filled with a number. The user fills in the earlier three quarters.
BUT, the number pre-filled in is the California AGI - which is the Federal AGI after applying all of the changes from the California Adjustments schedule (540 CA).
It is really simpler than it sounds. This whole section of dialogue in the step-by-step has to do with whether the taxpayer earns their California taxable income unevenly through the year. The column title on this screen should have been labelled "CA AGI" instead of "Federal AGI" and the instruction should begin with "Your total adjusted California income is shown below".
