You are talking about California state individual tax returns I believe. We looked and did not see a global answer option in primary options for this. We all vented about it for a moment and just accepted the fact we need to clear it for each client. 🙂

Nope.... and the 'issue' has been extensively discussed in the LTUG forum.

MY solution was to have my office manager go into every file (late January, after all proforma'ing done) and mark it with the '2' for not interested.

I also have them do some other things that I know will come up/generate PITA diags during filing season.  It's worth the time/effort/cost for me.  

YMMV

How did I not know about that forum? Thanks for the mention...

You do have to join, meaning your credentials are vetted.

Unlike 'this' place that can become a free-for-all DIYers at times.... 😉

So this is still there for TY 2024.

I recently submitted 3 separate Calculation Challenges to Lacerte, asking them to cite their authority for this being a required entry.  They claimed that unless I could submit an FTB document saying that this field is optional, they were not changing anything.  Yeah, right, prove a negative!

I also submitted a CA return with diagnostics overridden, with this field blank.  CA accepted it just fine.

Lacerte's response was to then simply override the diagnostics each time!

This is madness!  How do we get them to contact California's FTB and confirm this is not a mandated field?

I could just enter the "2" - but since I didn't ask the client (no reason to if their employer is providing health insurance), that is not as accurate as leaving it blank.

Link to the LTUG forum please