Is there a deadline to withdraw money from my 529 account to pay for my child's current year tuition? In other words, do I have to withdraw money from 529 account by Dec 31 if I want to use that money to pay for the current year tuition?
529 plan distributions must be made during the same tax year that the qualified expenses are incurred. This is not an official IRS rule, but it is implied by published IRS guidance. Tax professionals and other experts agree that 529 plan distributions should match up with qualified expenses.
Don't wait til the last minute. A common problem, we've seen in this forum, is the plan owner making a withdrawal request very late in December and the plan administrator not processing it until January (or the school not showing the money credited to the student's account until January) resulting in paper work not matching (you get a 2021 form 1099-Q and/or 1098-T, instead of a 2020 form).