Q. Does he even need to enter the 1099-Q on his tax return?
A. No.
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. 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. You would still have to do the math to see if there were enough expenses left over for you to claim the tuition credit. You also cannot count expenses that were paid by tax free scholarships. You cannot double dip!
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."
Q. If he does, how do I determine what these missing boxes should be?
A. You calculate it from your own records. Even though ESA custodians are not required to provide those numbers, they may be able to help. But, you should not need those numbers unless you end up shifting some tuition to the tuition credit. Room & board, books and computers are also qualified expenses for an ESA distribution.
