I am divorced, we split room and board for my son's school. I also took 529 funds to help us both but now I am paying income tax. Do I enter 1/2 of the total?

[cherrydal281]

I am paying tax on all of the 529 disbursement. How do I show a fair split of the school costs because I used some of the funds to pay for his half.

[Critter-3]

If all of the 529 plan distributions were used for qualifying expenses then you don't need to enter anything from the 1099Q  in the program or on the return at all.  

[Hal_Al]

Room and board (R&B) are qualified expenses for a 529 plan distribution.  R&B are not qualified expenses for tax free scholarship and/or an education credit or deduction.  

So, unless the other parent also took money out of a different 529 plan, you can claim all the R&B expenses. You don't have to split/share them. Also,  as Critter-3 said, if the entire distribution was used for R&B, you do not need to enter the 1099-Q, at all.  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. 

However, if the 529 distribution exceeded R&B and was used to pay other qualified expenses (tuition, fees, books, computers) then some coordination of expenses* will have to be done with the student and/or the other parent, but only if the other parent is claiming the student as a dependent.  If that is the case, we need more info: 

• Who is claiming the student as a dependent
• Box 1 of the 1098-T
• box 5 of the 1098-T
• Any other scholarships not shown in box 5
• Does box 5 include any of the 529/ESA plan payments (it should not)
• Is any of the Scholarship restricted; i.e. it must be used for tuition
• Box 1 of the 1099-Q
• Box 2 of the 1098-Q
• Who’s name and SS# are on the 1099-Q, parent or student (who’s the “recipient”)?
• Room & board paid. If student lives off campus, what is school's R&B charge. If the student lives at home, only the school's board charge for on campus students. 
• Other qualified expenses not included in box 1 of the 1098-T, e.g. books & computers
• How much taxable income does the student have, from what sources
• Are you, the other parent, or the student trying to claim the tuition credit (are you eligible)?
• Is the student an undergrad or grad student?

*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