Question

TurboTax only allows one child to be selected when entering 1099-Q

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
February 19, 2022
1 reply
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I have two sons in college that live off campus. For the college related expenses outside of tuition (that is paid directly to the university from the Virginia 529) I had the distributions come to me and then I paid their college expenses. For those expenses, I'm listed as the recipient for the 1099-Q. However, turbotax only allows me to select one of my sons for that 1099-Q. This seems to be misleading and may be potentially causing me problems when entering college expenses for my younger son (the expenses part is not allowing me to enter any room and board for him which is not allow me to truly reflect all the expenses we've paid for college).

Does anybody have any advice on how to proceed?

P

PattiF

From "Expert" MinhT1:

On form 1099-Q, instructions to the recipient read: "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.

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.

Since all of the distributions from the Virginia 529 plan were used for education expenses, there is no need to enter the 1099-Q as none of the amount was taxable. You can divide the distribution between your two sons. Just make sure that the totals are not greater than the distribution shown on the form.

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