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 can help you file Q1 DE-9C manually, ChadCLK. Allow me to add information regarding the ability to download DE-9C in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT).

You can prepare and print payroll taxes and forms in QBDT to file them manually with the IRS and state agencies. However, please note that CA DE-9C can only be downloaded in PDF format. Hence, I recommend using a third-party application to convert the form to your preferred format acceptable by EDD.

To begin with, please create your tac payment and print the check. After that, you can proceed to these steps to create and download your tax forms:

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 and click Next to check all pages of the form.
5. You can ensure all data are correct by selecting Check for Errors to let QuickBooks identify any discrepancies.
6. Choose Save as PDF or Print for your Records.

For more information, please refer to this material: Pay and file payroll taxes and forms manually in QuickBooks Desktop Payroll.

Once downloaded, you may visit this page and look for a third-party application to convert the file: Apps for QuickBooks Desktop Marketplace.

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

I'm always around the corner if you have other questions when filing payroll tax forms in QuickBooks Desktop. You can tag me with your replies to update us regarding your queries here in the forum.

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. This will enable you to comply with the Social Security Administration guidelines for situations where an employee doesn't have an SSN or the number is unknown.

Make sure you're using the latest version of QuickBooks Desktop 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.