The only qualified education expenses are tuition, books and lab fees. While the category for "lab fees" is rather broad, there are absolutely no exceptions to this. But when dealing with 529 funds the rules are a bit more relaxed.
529 funds can be used to pay for the qualified education expenses of tuition, books and lab fees. Additionally, those funds can be used to pay for the unqualified but allowed expenses of room & board ***PROVIDED*** that room and board is *in direct support* of the education. So if the student was more than 100 miles from home and living on/off campus in the local area of the school, *AND* they were enrolled as a full time student for the semester, their room and board expenses for that semester can be paid with tax free 529 funds.
Now the fall semester is Jan-May so room and board expenses paid with 529 funds for those 5 months would be tax free. However, if the student did not enroll for the summer semester and continued to live on/near the school and pay room and board, then the room/board paid for the summer semester would not be "in direct support" of any education and would therefore not be tax exempt. Enough of that.
When you have a 1099-Q it is *IMPERATIVE* that you work through the education section of the TurboTax program the way it is designed and intended to be used. Otherwise, chances are high (like 99.99999%) that you will miss the questions asking about unqualified but allowed expenses. This will result in the program treating some (or all) of the 529 funds as taxable income.
