California W2. Box 20 blank, but box 19 says "CASDI" and a dollar amount. Box 18 says 0.00

[JMB51]

California W2.

Box 20 blank, but box 19 says "CASDI" and a dollar amount. Box 18 says 0.00. Turbo tax keeps giving me an error saying that box 20 cannot be blank.

I have called my payroll dept and they insisted that there is no locality tax in CA and that my W2 is correct.

I have checked this forum and some answers say that the CASDI should be in box 14. My box 14 is blank. 

I have had a family member show me some forum from 2018 that says I can put "CASDI" in Box 20. 

So what should I do? Move info from box 19 to box 14? Or put "CASDI" in Box 20 as the locality name?

Thank you

[Irene2805 · Accepted solution]

Enter the dollar  amount from box 19 on your form into Box 14 of the W-2 entry screen, with the description CASDI.  If you have a Tax Category column, select CA SDI tax from the list.  See screenshot, below.

[JMB51]

Many many thanks. I was able to finish my taxes now.

But was my W2 inaccurate then? Or did they just complete the W2 in an alternative way?

[BillM223]

"But was my W2 inaccurate then?" That's a polite way of saying it. 

The IRS says "Use these boxes (boxes 15 - 20) to report state and local income tax information". CASDI belongs in box 14, along with a dollar amount, as Irene explained.

I have no idea why your payroll people would say that there is no locality tax yet would put entries in boxes 18-20. To put it politely, "that don't make sense".

[chefserv]

Per https://www.edd.ca.gov/pdf_pub_ctr/de8829.pdf page 41 of PDF / 47 printed, it states that Box 19 should be used for CASDI, and that Box 14 should only be used if there is already a value in Box 19.  While I agree I normally see it in Box 14 and TurboTax clearly prefers this, California clearly has indicated that they want it in Box 19.  I feel this is a TurboTax defect to not handle this scenario, when the EDD tells payroll that they want it in Box 19.  I asked payroll to put it in Box 14 and they refused on this grounds.

[JMB51]

I just got my 2020 W2 from my employer. Now they put CASDI in box 14. Interesting.

[JMB51]

Thank you for your answer. Now for 2020, they put that info in Box 14. They figured out they "dont make sense." Thank you