Education Distribution bug when entering 1099-Q

Forum|Forum|5 months ago
January 31, 2026
3 replies
52 views

If the name of the Payer on the 1099-Q form has a number in it, ex. "State of Rhode Island CollegeBound 529", you will get a error message that the distribution information does not sum correctly "Your box 1 gross distribution must equal the sum of box 2 earnings plus box 3 basis. Make any necessary corrections here." My numbers are correct on the form and on the screen. Could also be a length issue, haven't tried that yet

TurboTax Premier Online

Hal_Al

Level 15

TT can't handle rounding errors. If box 1 (rounded) + box 2 (rounded) does not equal box 3 (rounded), you have to force it by rounding one of the boxes the other direction.

stephensjonesAuthor

Level 2

I use exact values, no rounding.

Also, when I remove the “529” from the name of the payer, the issue seems to go away.

ejudgie

Level 2

I am seeing the same thing. It seems to be mishandling decimals. If I round the 3 numbers, it seems to work.

What did you mean by "remove the “529” from the name of the payer"?

gyongsu

Level 2

I am facing the same problem.

I think this is an Turbo Tax error.

From the 1099-Q,

Box 1. Gross distribution is $89,793.74,

Box 2. Earnings is $20,599.82

and Box 3. Basis is $69,193.92.

But the Turbo Tax blocks me to continue with warning the 'Your box 1 gross distribution must equal the sum of box 2 earnings plus box 3 basis. Make any necessary corrections here'.

But the calculation is correct as 1099-Q form.

How can fix this?

Hal_Al

Level 15

Instead of actual numbers, try entering rounded numbers:

Box 1. Gross distribution is $89,794

Box 2. Earnings is $20,600

and Box 3. Basis is $69,194

Imv2oD0xBiI9

Level 2

This rounding error cannot always be fixed by pre-rounding the values. In particular, with the box 2 and 3 values are rounded down, but box 1 is rounded up, there is no way to fix this short of putting in an incorrect value - one that does not match the 1099-Q. E.g. xx2.62. = xx1.19 + xx1.43 correctly rounds to 3 = 1 + 1, which throws the error.

barainey

Level 2

I just had the same issue. When I used the Back button to go back to the payee info and then continued back to the payment info, it allowed me to continue again off that page.