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March 9, 2020
Question

Do I need to file? I had under $1.5K inW2 income, got $9k scholarship, and used $ from a 529 plan for tuition. $0 fed tax withheld and $37 in state tax withheld.

  • March 9, 2020
  • 2 replies
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2 replies

March 9, 2020

If the total of your wages, scholarships and earnings on the 529 distribution is less than $12,200, you are not required to file a tax return.

 

If you had $37 of state tax withheld, you could file a state return to get a refund However, this is to be balanced with the cost of filing such a return.

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Hal_Al
Employee
March 10, 2020

The statement "If the total of your wages, scholarships and earnings on the 529 distribution is less than $12,200, you are not required to file a tax return" , is generally true.  But the taxable portion of a 529 distribution is treated differently than wages and taxable scholarship.  If  the taxable portion of the  529 distribution is more than $1450 ($1100 + $350), you are required to file a tax return, even if you total income is less than $12,200. 

 

In order to prepare a state return, in TurboTax (TT), you must first complete a federal return, even if you don't actually file it. 

 

TurboTax also has another free product called the Free File Edition (not to be confused with the regular Free Edition).  It has free Federal preparation and free State preparation. There is no efiling fee. It is not available after October 15

The Free file Edition can handle a 1099-Q.

The Free file Edition is more fully-featured than the regular Free Edition.  

For Free File Edition a user needs to meet only ONE of these qualifications:

  •      AGI of $36,000 or less
  •      or active duty military (including Reservists and National Guard) with a military-issued W-2 and a 2019 AGI of $69,000 or less
  •      or eligible for the Earned Income Credit (EIC aka EITC).


The FREE FILE Edition is located at:
https://turbotax.intuit.com/taxfreedom

How to switch and start over in Free file Edition
https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2026912-how-do-i-switch-to-turbotax-freedom-edition