High School Tuition in TurboTax

Forum|Forum|5 months ago
March 15, 2026
2 replies
83 views

I paid $30,000 in tuition for my daughter's High School in 2025. I received a distribution of $10,000 from her 529. I received and entered the 1099-Q "income", but don't see where Turbo Tax allows me to enter the Qualified spending to offset the income? Where do I go in Turbotax to do this?

MindyB

Level 13

The IRS does not require that you report the 1099-Q in your tax return, if the entire distribution was used for qualified expenses. You only need to report it if some of the distribution was not qualified, and then be taxed on some or all of the earnings. They expect you to keep your own records of what was paid with the 529 distribution.

"Beneficiaries are not required to report distributions on their tax return as long as the distributions are used for qualified education expenses."

If that applies, you can delete the 1099-Q from your return and forego any issues with TurboTax.

Here's more detailed info on Form 1099-Q.

Hal_Al

Level 15

TurboTax has a glitch that is presenting the entering of expenses. They are aware and working on it.

But as others have said, you can just delete the 1099-Q.

The 1099-Q is only an informational document. The numbers on it are not required to be entered onto your (or your student's) tax return. The interview is complicated, even when it's working and it's easy to make mistakes. Avoid it if you can and you probably can.

You can just not report the 1099-Q, at all, if your student-beneficiary has sufficient educational expenses, 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 don’t need it). 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.

References:

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."
IRS Pub 970 states: “Generally, distributions are tax free if they aren't more than the beneficiary's AQEE for the year. Don't report tax-free distributions (including qualifying rollovers) on your tax return”.
"IRS Publication 970, Tax Benefits for Education states: If the entire 1099-Q went to qualified expenses, room and board, tuition, etc; then, you do not need to enter the form."