Turbotax Premier College Expense Entry

Forum|Forum|6 months ago
January 30, 2026
27 replies
142 views

I am using the desktop product for the 2025 tax year and I have entered the 1099Q and 1098T information, however I am not getting a screen to enter my other college expenses. It keeps taking me to the education credit and showing I owe taxes and penalties on my 529 withdrawals. I have used this version for multiple years with a prior child and have always been prompted to add these costs. Has something changed in the step by step?

sanfranwinter

Level 2

Exactly what you wrote---there must be a bug in this year's software as there is no screen that I can navigate to in order to enter other (e.g., room & board, required fees, etc) non-book/materials, non-tuition expenses.

BWest1

Level 2

Obviously a bug. No screen in Step-by-Step, so I entered the expenses directly into Student Information Worksheet using Forms. However, that info is not saved! As I continue to use TurboTax, the data is still in the worksheet and shows correctly, even after saving the return several times while entering other info. However, the next time I open the return, the Student Information Worksheet data that is not auto-populated by 1098-T entry is BLANK again, causing tax to be computed on the 529 withdrawal. One would think that entering data into Forms would be saved...

amptaxAuthor

Level 3

I spoke to someone on the Turbotax help line. After trying to do it themselves and looking through the forms she thinks that functionality is not complete yet and should roll out with an update. She said to try again in a week and call back if the problem continues.

corbi

Level 2

I have been trying to report in Premier my college student qualified room and board expenses etc... and have been on the phone with multiple TT specialists and resolution experts. There is no place in the education section to do this and I get some message as my income is too high and don't qualify. These expenses are qualified distributions from our 529 plan and the TT program will not let me report them and therefore the program is including these expenses as taxable income when they are not. I even received an email yesterday from TT that the issue was fixed but it is not. I'm glad to see others are having this problem. I entered these expenses last year. One of the TT specialists claimed that there were changes under the new OBBB that impacted this but that is not true. This bill did not impact 529 qualified expense distributions. How do we get this fixed?

amptaxAuthor

Level 3

It is not income related. I am retired and live off my investments. I have not entered that income yet (as I don't have the 1099s yet) and I have the issue.

amptaxAuthor

Level 3

Latest update. I called this AM and only had to wait 5 min on hold. However, I shared my screen with the agent to show him the issue and he saw the issue. Then he pulled up the description of the functionality of that section and insisted it was operating correctly. He said TurboTax program decides based on the 1098T info entered if more information is needed to cover the 1099Q figure and that the program is deciding it is not needed. I said that is exactly what the defect is in that it is not asking for the additional costs because the 1098T did not cover the 1099Q. After arguing for about 30min on that (including him recommending I go to a tax accountant) he sent me to a supervisor. Within the first two sentences she confirmed that it is a known bug and added my name to the list to get an email when solved. I expressed my disappointment with spending over 4 hours on the phone with 4 different agents over the past few days and none of them had that information. (and to different degrees pushing back on the program not working correctly)