Turbotax Generating Californa D-540 Despite No Adjustments

[taxes4739]

TurboTax 2018 is generating a California D-540 - which says at the top of the form "Do not complete this schedule if all your California gains (or losses) are the same as your federal gains (losses).  As far as I can tell, they are.  In particular, D-540 lines 12a & 12b are both 0, and no Schedule CA (540) is being generated.  Why is TurboTax spitting out this form in the "print return to mail" printout if it's unnecessary?  Should I remove it from my return before sending, or am I misunderstanding its purpose?

[TerryA]

If line 8 is less than zero then the Calif Sch D will print out to help with computation of any capital loss carryover to next year.
There is also a force print checkbox at the bottom of the Smart Wks at the top of the form.

[taxes4739]

>>If line 8 is less than zero then the Calif Sch D will print out to help with computation of any capital loss carryover to next year.

That would make sense when a doing save/print "for your records," but as mentioned, this was a printout of the forms for mailing/filing.  So is this required to actually be mailed (contrary to what it seems to say on the form itself), or am I misunderstanding the instructions, or is this just a TurboTax bug (it should've printed it "for records," but NOT "for mailing to CA FTB," as it did)?

>>There is also a force print checkbox at the bottom of the Smart Wks at the top of the form.

Not checked.

"Should I remove it from my return before sending?"

[TerryA]

Since Sch D is a gov't form it can't be set "for your records" so it prints out for filing as well. If mailing the Calif return in it doesn't hurt for it to be attached when it doesn't need to be. In your case you can leave it out since the FTB won't expect it to be there.

This printing of the Sch D when line 8 is negative is because many TT users over the years have asked how to compute their Calif capital loss carryforward when the amount wasn't available from their prior year return. That can't be done without seeing the prior year Sch D.
So it's a convenience for the users but can cause questions for astute users like you.

[taxes4739]

...I really don't see any reason why the software couldn't be coded to print it "for your records" - That's precisely what it's for - it's being included for future reference, just like all the other worksheets etc that are "for your records."  This does seem pretty clearly like an error in the software.  But in any case...I guess I have my answer: it's printing it "for filing," even though it shouldn't be as it actually isn't required "for filing"...and can be removed 😛

Thanks for the answers 🙂

[TerryA · Accepted solution]

Answered in comments