For 2025 California estimated payment planning, how do I change the number of dependents in Lacerte?!

[Kathi_at_Intuit]

Hi @Yawn 

Thanks for stopping by the community and posting. Have you had a chance to reach out to Lacerte  Support yet? They could help with this. 

 

[Yawn]

I have not made any other inquiries....perhaps I was mistaken, but I thought that by posting the questions it would result in somebody responding with an answer!

[sjrcpa]

@Yawn  I would not call Support for this.

If someone knows the answer they will post it.

Does changing the federal number of dependents change it for CA? Or is this a weird situation where CA and federal are different?

How material is this for CA? I thought the CA exemption/credit is miniscule.

[Yawn]

For years now, there are no dependent exemptions on the Federal return, but CA still has deductions for them.

Perhaps insignificant to many, but the exemption amount for the taxpayer(s) is $149 and for a dependent $461.

For planning the following year's estimated tax payments for CA, one can override the number of exemptions in the case of a deceased spouse or a change in dependents. There should be a diagnostic in the case of a deceased spouse but there isn't one for number of dependents going down. 

Go to Estimated Payments screen  [7.1] and scroll down to CA Adjustments...enter the revised number in the field "Exemption Credits".

[Karl]

I don't know if there is automatic, but here is how I would play with this to try and get it to work.

1) If dependents are going up, input the new baby on Screen 2 with a DOB of 2025. Just input a fake DOB and SSN if not born yet, but MAKE SURE to leave a note for yourself somewhere where you'll see it next year to update that.

2) If dependents are going down, due to aging out or custody issues, mark "Dependent not claimed every year" and pick "even years only"

3) If neither of those work, I would just try to override/add/reduce credits in the CA section at the bottom of Screen 7.