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February 9, 2022
Question

Turbotax not deducting tuition expense

  • February 9, 2022
  • 2 replies
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This question relates to my 19 year old daughter's return who I plan to claim as a dependent.  She is a full time college student.  I have not completed my tax return as i've been waiting for some final tax documents. 
 
Rough Details:
- 1099Q issued to my daughter shows $24k dispursed from 529 (round number)
- 1098T issued  to my daughter shows $18k tuition paid to college (round number) 
- $2k was used to buy a computer / books
- $4k withdrawn (covered by scholarships listed on 1099Q)
 
Everything enters fine in the deduction section under college expenses including the computer/book, but when you look at the summary of deductions the $18k in tuition does not show up.  When you then go to the final summary of incomes / deductions it lists the $24k in 529 dispursements as income, but does not deduct the $18k spent in tuition and gives her a nice tax bill.  
 
Any ideas? 

2 replies

Hal_Al
Employee
February 9, 2022

Delete the 1098-T and 1099-Q and start over.  Be sure to enter the 1099-Q first. Based on the numbers provided (so far) she should expect a small portion to be taxable.

 

How much is in box 5 of the 1098-T?

How much did she/you pay for room & board? If she lives off campus, what is the school's normal charge for Room & Board.  If she lives at home, what is the school's normal board (meal plan) charge?

How much is in boxes 1&2 of the 1099-Q?

Do you plan to claim the American Opportunity Credit? Unless your income is too high, you should, allocating $4000 of the tuition for the AOC, on your tax return. 

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There are three things you can do with your Qualified educational expenses (QEE):

  1. Allocate then to scholarships (so that the scholarship remains tax free)
  2. Use them to claim an education credit
  3. Allocate them to the 529 distribution (1099-Q) so that it will not all be taxable

TurboTax allocates QEE, in that order, until you tell it otherwise.

One possibility is that TurboTax allocated part of your dependent's college expenses to claim the Tuition credit, even if you are not eligible or otherwise did not claim it. That reduces the amount that can be used to claim the  529 earnings, shown on the 1099-Q, as being totally tax free. Go through the entire education interview until you reach a screen titled "Your Education Expenses Summary".  Click edit next to the student's name. That should take you to a screen “Here’s your Education Summary”. Click edit next to “Education Information”. When you get to the screen titled “Amount Used to Calculate Education Deduction or Credit”, verify the amount you want to use or change it.  You may reach that screen sooner.

Most people come out better (much better),  first using QEE for the tuition Credit. The American Opportunity credit is 100% of the first $2000 of QEE and 25% of the next $2000.  Usually, you want to set that box "Education expenses used for a tax credit or deduction" to $4000. 

Another possibility is that you had scholarships (box 5 of the 1098-T) that TurboTax allocated some of the expenses to.   To make some of the scholarship taxable (re-allocate some of the expenses), you must tell TT how much you want taxable by saying it was used for room &board. Note the wording at that screen “or other expenses”. You didn’t have to literally use the scholarship for R&B.

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Qualified Tuition Plans  (QTP 529 Plans) Distributions

General Discussion

It’s complicated.

For 529 plans, there is an “owner” (usually the parent), and a “beneficiary” (usually the student dependent). The "recipient" of the distribution can be either the owner or the beneficiary depending on who the money was sent to. When the money goes directly from the Qualified Tuition Plan (QTP) to the school, the student is the "recipient". The distribution will be reported on IRS form 1099-Q. 
The 1099-Q gets reported on the recipient's return.** The recipient's name & SS# will be on the 1099-Q.
Even though the 1099-Q is going on the student's return, the 1098-T should go on the parent's return, so you can claim the education credit. You can do this because he is your dependent.

You can and should claim the tuition credit before claiming the 529 plan earnings exclusion. The educational expenses he claims for the 1099-Q should be reduced by the amount of educational expenses you claim for the credit.
But be aware, you can not double dip. You cannot count the same tuition money, for the tuition credit,  that gets him an exclusion from the taxability of the earnings (interest) on the 529 plan. Since the credit is more generous; use as much of the tuition as is needed for the credit and the rest for the interest exclusion. Another special rule allows you to claim the tuition credit even though it was "his" money that paid the tuition.
In addition, there is another rule that says the 10% penalty is waived if he was unable to cover the 529 plan withdrawal with educational expenses either because he got scholarships or the expenses were used (by him or the parents) to claim the credits. He'll have to pay tax on the earnings, at his lower tax rate (subject to the “kiddie tax”), but not the penalty.

 

Total qualified expenses (including room & board) less amounts paid by scholarship less amounts used to claim the Tuition credit equals the amount you can use to claim the earnings exclusion on the 1099-Q. 
Example:
  $10,000 in educational expenses(including room & board)

   -$3000 paid by tax free scholarship***

   -$4000 used to claim the American Opportunity credit

 =$3000 Can be used against the 1099-Q (usually on the student’s return)

 

Box 1 of the 1099-Q is $5000

Box 2 is $2800

3000/5000=60% of the earnings are tax free; 40% are taxable

40% x 2800= $1120

You have $1120 of taxable income  

 

**Alternatively; you can just not report the 1099-Q, at all, if your student-beneficiary has sufficient educational expenses, including room & board (even if he lives at home) to cover the distribution. You would still have to do the math to see if there were enough expenses left over for you to claim the tuition credit. Again, you cannot double dip!  When the box 1 amount on form 1099-Q is fully covered by expenses, TurboTax will enter nothing about the 1099-Q on the actual tax forms. But, it will prepare a 1099-Q worksheet for your records, in case of an IRS inquiry.

On form 1099-Q, instructions to the recipient reads: "Nontaxable distributions from CESAs and QTPs are not required to be reported on your income tax return. You must determine the taxability of any distribution." 

***Another alternative is have the student report some of his scholarship as taxable income, to free up some expenses for the 1099-Q and/or tuition credit. Most people come out better having the scholarship taxable before the 529 earnings. 

 

KerneyAuthor
February 10, 2022

I feel like you need to be a forensic accountant to work through this stuff as I made a few corrections based on your feedback, but it still is showing $0 on deductions page under educational expenses and scholarships.  The taxes owed has dropped though.    Looking at the final page of income / deductions has very strange numbers.   I really need to print off all the forms to see what is going on, but it will not let me complete her return as I think I have to have mine completed first?  It's saying there are forms not yet released. 

 

Here are the answers to questions you asked (round numbers):

1098T - Box 1 $18k (payments)

1098T - Box 5 $17.5k (scholarships)

1099Q - Box 1 $24k (Distribution)

1099Q - Box 2 $13.5k (Earnings)

1099Q - Box 3 $10.5k (basis)

Room & Board - $13.5k

 

I'll also delete everything and load it back in the order you suggest.  What is strange is the $24k is reported as income....Shouldn't only the 'earnings' at $13.5k be reported since me (father) paid taxes on the basis already?

Hal_Al
Employee
February 10, 2022

Yes, if none of the distribution had been used for qualified expenses, $13,500 (the earnings) would be the taxable amount.

 

Based on the numbers you provided, you have $14,000 of qualified expenses for the 1099-Q ($500 of tuition not covered by scholarship + $13,500 room & board).

 

14,000 / 24,000 = 58.333% of the earnings are tax free; 41.667% are taxable

She has 0.41667 x  13,500  = $5625 of taxable income to report and TurboTax should calculate that. This will be subject to the "kiddie tax".

 

Books and computers can also  be added to qualified expenses.

 

You have no apparent expenses left over for claiming the  American Opportunity Credit, on your return.  But see below.  In fact, if she has no other income to report, she should claim up to $10,000 of the tuition for the  1099-Q, declaring the scholarship as taxable, rather than the 529 earnings.  This is because taxable scholarship is treated as earned income for purposes of a dependent's standard deduction (earned income +$350) and the "kiddie tax" will not kick in.  Her standard deduction wipes out all taxable income.  She pays no tax.  When a dependent, under 24, has no earned income, her standard deduction is only $1100.

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There is a tax “loop hole” available. The student reports all his scholarship, up to the amount needed to claim the American Opportunity Credit (AOC), as income on his return. That way, the parents  (or himself, if he is not a dependent) can claim the tuition credit on their return. They can do this because that much tuition was no longer paid by "tax free" scholarship.  You cannot do this if the school’s billing statement specifically shows the scholarships being applied to tuition or if the conditions of the grant are that it be used to pay for qualified expenses.

Using an example: Student has $10,000 in box 5 of the 1098-T and $8000 in box 1. At first glance he/she has $2000 of taxable income and nobody can claim the American opportunity credit. But if she reports $6000 as income on her return, the parents can claim $4000 of qualified expenses on their return.

Books and computers are also qualifying expenses for the AOC. So, extending the example, the student had another $1000 in expenses for those course materials, paid out of pocket, she would only need to report $5000 of taxable scholarship income, instead of $6000.

February 24, 2022

Similar situation...something is glitching in Turbo Tax...I entered $18k in tuition as shown on my student's 1098-T, which exceeds the $11k 529 withdrawal on the 1099-Q, so nothing should be taxable.  However, TT is generating 'other income' on line 8 of my 1040 of about $2k.  When I switched to 'forms view' and looked at the 1099-Q, there's a worksheet on page 3 of that form comparing the 529 withdrawal amount to the qualified tuition expenses.  It appears TT is subtracting $10k from the expense amount, so it thinks the tuition was $8k instead of $18k.  To test it out, I plugged in $28k on the input screen, and again the worksheet dropped it by $10k, this time to $18k.  Seems like a patch is in order...

Hal_Al
Employee
February 24, 2022

TT is assuming you want to use $10,000 to claim the Lifetime Learning Credit.  

 That reduces the amount that can be used to claim the  529 earnings, shown on the 1099-Q, as being totally tax free. Go through the entire education interview until you reach a screen titled "Your Education Expenses Summary".  Click edit next to the student's name. That should take you to a screen “Here’s your Education Summary”. Click edit next to “Education Information”. When you get to the screen titled “Amount Used to Calculate Education Deduction or Credit”, verify the amount you want to use or change it.  You may reach that screen sooner.

Change it to $4000 if you want to claim the American Opportunity Credit. Or change it to 0 if you are not eligible for a credit. 

February 24, 2022

Thanks, but can't get that screen to come up to change the amounts...and not eligible for AOC...