Thanks @NCperson
I thought I read other posts where folks are saying a calculation can be made for 'living at home'.... cause 'you gotta eat', etc....as long as it doesn't exceed the COA the school publishes.
'Incurred' is indeed the question. Does 'incurred' require a contract? Or specified payment dates/terms? Or a start/stop time? There is a LOT of gray here.
I'm still thinking of calling on a CPA just to see what they say.
As @confusedrf stated...maybe it's better to NOT SUBMIT anything and roll the dice on a letter or audit. I don't find that acceptable, but perhaps that's why that advice is often made. TurboTax provides ZERO HELP for those of us with the circumstance. So I may as well just sent it in and if they don't like it I'll gladly pay the true amount if it can be figured out and documented correctly. The cost of fines and penalties may even be cheaper than going to a CPA!
In our case, if she doesn't have Room and Board her tax due will go up. Though I think its just the 'income tax' (she is above the standard deduction). The 'penalty' portion should NOT apply because there is an explicit exception for that.
BUT, you need to know how to enter such values into the 1099-Q manually. I've tried some of those 'overrides' and it seems like those lines were put there for such reasons, though I've not heard anyone else mention them.
