I don't see in TurboTax where to put the money we paid for my son's college tuition and room and board.

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
March 1, 2025
2 replies
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I don't see in TurboTax where to put the money we paid for his college tuition and room and board. I have the school information entered, it asks if we got a 1098-T, I hit no, and then it asks us to enter the information from the 1098-T? When I try to edit the tuition information, it just brings me back to the 1098-T form. I need to manually enter the tuition and Room & Board somehow; but it isn't clear how.

KrisD15

Why do you need to enter the payments you made to the student's education expenses?

Is the student your dependent? Are you claiming the student on your tax return?

Why do you not have a 1098-T?

Did you make a distribution from a 529 or other saving instrument and if yes, did you get Form 1099-Q showing that distribution? (are you listed as the recipient or is the student?)

If the student is not your dependent, only the student (or the Taxpayer that claims the student) can use the expenses paid towards a credit, no matter who made the payments.

Pub 970

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Hal_Al

Employee

You don't enter the money you paid. What you enter is the expenses incurred.

After answering no to having a 1098-T, answer yes to qualifying for an exception (that gets you to the entry screens).

Room & board is only a qualified expense for a 529/ESA/Q TP plan distribution. Therefore, TurboTax (TT) will not give you a place to enter R&B unless you earlier told it that you took a distribution from a 529/ESA/QTP (in the 1099-Q section)..

To get the screen to enter Room & Board, answer yes when asked if you have book expenses, in the 1098-T section.

Scott K1Author

I don’t see a question about if I qualify for and exception.

Hal_Al

Employee

Delete the student and start over. Go through the entire education interview until you reach a screen titled "Your Education Expenses Summary". Click delete next to the student's name. You'll then get the "Your Education Expenses Summary" screen again. Click the "Add a student" button and re-enter everything.