Cannot E-file CA DE-9C because SSN is missing

Good afternoon, @mhpkap. 

Welcome back to the Community! 

Since you're receiving this message and the form has a SSN field on it, the only way to get past the error message on the system is to enter an SSN. If you're unable to be I recommend manually entering the information for the form on the EDD website. 

I'll make sure our Product Developers receive your feedback to help improve the system in removing this error message. 

I hope this helps answer your question. I'm only a post away if you need me again. Take care! 

This does not solve the problem. The EDD accepts the form without a SSN, but QB does not allow it for some reason.

This is similar to the issue last year with W-2 submission. 

https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/employees-and-payroll/invalid-social-security-numb... 

Manually filing the form is not an option for me as I have multiple forms to complete. 

I appreciate your perseverance in resolving this issue, @mhpkap. I can see that you have already exhausted all the troubleshooting steps available. Allow me to assist so you can e-file the CA DE-9C payroll form in QuickBooks Desktop.

If you haven't done so, I recommend entering all zeros for Social Security Numbers (SSN) as a workaround. It will enable you to comply with the Social Security Administration's guidelines for situations where an employee doesn't have an SSN.

To ensure everything works as expected, please verify that you are using the latest version of QuickBooks Desktop: Update QuickBooks to its latest release.

If the error message persists after trying the workaround, I suggest contacting our Support team for further investigation and troubleshooting.

Here's how to reach them:

1. Open your QuickBooks Desktop.
2. Go to Help and choose QuickBooks Desktop Help/Contact Us.
3. Select Contact Us.
4. Give a brief description of your issue, then hit Continue.
5. Sign in to your Intuit account, and select Continue.
6. Choose Continue with my account.
7. We'll email you a single-use code. Enter your code and select Continue.
8. Select to chat with us or Have us call you.

Furthermore, I've included some resources to guide you in handling payroll-related activities in QBDT:

• Access state agency websites for payroll
• View your previously filed tax forms and payments
• Payroll Hub

I'm just around the corner and ready to answer if you have additional questions or concerns about E-filling in QBDT. If you have any inquiries about your data, entries, or other items in QuickBooks, enter a reply below, and I'll help you out.

What happens if you enter all zeros in the SSN field on the employee records? In QB that means "applied for" and all forms that allow that case should accept it.

It doesn't work if all zeros are entered in the SSN field. The form leaves the SSN blank which it should do, but now an error message pops up when trying to e-file. In previous years we were able to submit the form with a blank ssn per California EDD rules. 

This is similar to what happened with the W-2 for 2023 and QB not putting "applied for."

This is a QB problem, but I'm afraid it's not going to get looked at by Intuit unless more people start complaining about it. 

I am having this exact same issue. I was able to file my Q1 DE9C with no problem but now QB won't let me. This is a very similar issue to the W-2 issue everyone was having at the beginning of the year however the workaround for that will not work for this. As for manually filing my DE9C info onto the CA EDD website, does QB even offer a way to export in an XML format or any other format that the EDD accepts, unless I'm missing something...

I'm here to ensure you can file Q1 DE-9C, ChadCLK. Allow me to add information regarding the ability to prepare and download DE-9C in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT).

In QBDT, providing Social Security Numbers (SSN) when filing DE-9C is required by the system. For an employee without an SSN, enter all zeros in its designated field. With this, please ensure you have the latest QBDT release.

If the issue persists, I recommend contacting our payroll support team during their support hours. With the available tools and expertise, they can identify the root cause of this issue and determine the most appropriate resolution.

On the other hand, when preparing and filing CA DE-9C in QBDT manually, the form can only be downloaded in PDF format. Hence, I recommend using a third-party application to convert the form to the format acceptable by EDD.

Before downloading your payroll tax forms, please create your tax payment and print the check. After that, you can proceed to these steps:

1. Head to the Employees menu, then pick Payroll Tax Forms and W-2s.
2. Choose the federal or state form you want to create and click Create Form.
3. Select the Filling Period from the appropriate dropdown, then hit OK.
4. Complete and provide all the necessary information on the form, then click Next to check all the form pages.
5. You can ensure all data are correct by selecting Check for Errors to let QuickBooks identify discrepancies.
6. Choose Save as PDF or Print for your Records.

You may also refer to this material for the detailed process: Pay and file payroll taxes and forms manually in QuickBooks Desktop Payroll.

On the other hand, if you need to access your filed tax forms and paid tax payments, you might want to scan this resource for guidance: View your previously filed tax forms and payments.

I'm always around the corner for questions when filing payroll tax forms in QuickBooks Desktop. Update us in the Community by adding a reply regarding your queries below.

You need to call QB and complain about it. I called today and they were not able to find a solution. More people need to experience the problem for them to investigate and raise it up the command chain to get a fix.

This is not an option if you have to file for multiple clients. 

I called QB today and was told you can't submit a form with SSNs as zeros, which is incorrect as that's exactly what the EDD wants you to do. I wasn't able to get anywhere with them on resolving this issue. I'm sure more people are going to run into this issue as the due date for this quarterly submission is in a few weeks. 

You are right. This will not be addressed until it is too late. 

QB software has a message when you enter 0's for the SSN:

"Quickbooks will complete your state payroll forms according to the particular state's requirements (For example, some states require filers to enter [removed] for the employee's Social Security number. Other require filers to leave the field blank)"

The above message conflicts with the new policy of not being able to submit with zeros. I can manually enter my information into the EDD website and it will gladly accept zeros. I'm not sure why QB arbitrarily decided it is not going to comply with California requirements.  

Please add me to the list of affected users.  This is unacceptable, especially after the huge issue we had with this same sort of thing at the beginning of the year when filing W-2's.

Your sentiments are valid, and I hear you, @chadmac. I want to ensure that you'll be able to have accurate information on the DE-9C form you need to file.

Please know that the data on the filed forms are based on the information you've entered in QuickBooks Desktop. It includes entering your employee's SSN to avoid errors.

If your employee doesn't have an SSN, we can enter all zeros for Social Security Numbers (SSN). This is a new update released by Intuit as of January 18, 2024. 

Just make sure you're using the latest version of QuickBooks Desktop and the latest tax table to get new updates.

If that doesn't work, I recommend contacting our Payroll Support team if you haven't done it yet for further investigation. They have the tools required to check your account and identify what action is needed so you can complete the task. They can also create an investigation ticket if necessary.

If you also want to e-file federal payroll tax returns for your clients, keep this article for future reference: E-file tax returns for clients. 

Please get back to this thread if you have any other questions or concerns about filing taxes in QuickBooks. The Community team is always around to answer them for you. 

You are completely missing the point Nicole_N. The problem we are all experiencing is QuickBooks is no longer allowing us to e-file the California DE-9C when an employee is already setup in the system with all zeros for their social security number. In the past, QuickBooks would leave the social security number field blank on the DE-9C for employees with all zeros for their social and it was able to be e-filed this way. Now, an error is generated when one or more employees are setup with all zeros and we can no longer e-file the DE-9C.

As for your suggestion to contact the payroll support team, it should be noted that several other commenters in this thread have already done exactly that but after hours of wasted time, nothing could be done to fix the issue. That is because this is a very specific issue that can only be fixed the same way the W-2 issue was fixed in January: by fixing the issue internally and then releasing a QuickBooks update. No amount of time spent on the phone with the QuickBooks Payroll Support Team will fix this issue so I recommend you pass this on to your "technical team" so they can release an update to fix this as soon as possible since these forms are due on 7/31/24.

As far as I can tell, the response from QuickBooks here amounts to "If it doesn't work in our system, go somewhere else to do it."

That may be the best advice I've ever seen QuickBooks offer here.

@ChadCLK  RE: I called QB today and was told you can't submit a form with SSNs as zeros, which is incorrect as that's exactly what the EDD wants you to do.

I've been seeing a pattern lately with Intuit, where they seem to just make s**t up (like this) and then change the product in a sophomoric effort to save you from yourself. It's amazing really, how they now seem to live in an alternate reality regarding compliance.

They didn't used to be this way. They used to understand the law and write payroll software that worked, and didn't make these sorts of blunders - which they now do on a regular basis.

@Nicole_N   RE: Your sentiments are valid, and I hear you, @chadmac. I want to ensure that you'll be able to have accurate information on the DE-9C form you need to file.

That's an excellent start, but then you did no such thing. You don't appear to have read or understood the thread. It's really not that hard. If you try, I think you can do it.

Hey QB I'm also having the same problem. Need a fix by 7/31.

Hey there, matrol. I know how challenging it must be to encounter the same issue when filing your forms, especially with the deadline approaching. I'm here to provide some information and help you find a solution.

As mentioned by my colleague @Nicole_N above, the data used to generate the forms comes directly from QuickBooks. This means that if an employee doesn't have an SSN, you'll need to enter all zeros (000-00-0000) in the SSN field in your employee's profile to proceed with the filing. 

Once that's done, it should allow you to comply with the Social Security Administration's guidelines for situations where an employee doesn't have an SSN. I'd also recommend downloading the newest payroll tax table update to make sure all critical fixes and updates specifically for payroll tax forms are applied. Here's an article for reference: Get the latest tax table update in QuickBooks Desktop Payroll.

If you continue to experience issues, our Payroll Support Team can provide further assistance. They have specialized tools to investigate the problem and can create a support ticket if needed. You can reach them using this link: Contact QuickBooks Desktop support.

I'll continue checking this thread for any of your follow-up questions or other payroll-related concerns. Have a good one!

My client has the most updated version of QuickBooks Desktop 2024. I click Payroll Updates every time I do anything in the payroll tab. I still cannot e-file CA DE 9C. This situation is very frustrating.

Hello, @kkauffman.

I appreciate the time and effort you've already invested in trying to resolve this issue. I'm here to help you with the e-file CA DE 9C in QuickBooks Desktop Payroll.

As mentioned by my colleague above, if an employee doesn't have an SSN, you can to enter zeros (000-00-0000) in your employee's profile to proceed with the filing.

Since you've already done this and updated your tax table, I recommend contacting our Payroll Support Team. This way, we'll be able to check your set up further.

Here's how to reach them:

1. Open your QuickBooks Desktop.
2. Go to Help and choose QuickBooks Desktop Help/Contact Us.
3. Select Contact Us.
4. Give a brief description of your issue, then hit Continue.
5. Sign in to your Intuit account, and select Continue.
6. Choose Continue with my account.
7. We'll email you a single-use code. Enter your code and select Continue.
8. Select to chat with us or Have us call you.

You can also read the year-end payroll checklist to prepare for the tax season.

Let us know if still have further questions about the e-file, we'll be right here to help you.

@Archie_B Just like your colleague @Nicole_N, you are completely missing the point.  Why are you talking about the Social Security Administration when we have made it clear from the beginning that our problem relates to e-filing the CALIFORNIA form DE-9C?  This has nothing to do with the Social Security Administration.  We are not having a problem with a federal filing, the problem is with a state filing.  I highly recommend you actually read through the thread and attempt to understand what the actual problem is before replying with completely irrelevant information and suggestions.

@ArielI The problem we are experiencing is not that the DE-9C is not showing up in the File Forms tab.  The problem is that when we attempt to e-file the DE-9C when one of the listed employees does not have a social security number (and is instead setup with all zeroes in their respective employee information screen), we receive an error message and are unable to e-file the form.

I don't understand why this is so hard for all of you QuickBooks representatives to understand.  It really is a straightforward issue that has been explained in detail over and over again in this thread.