Education

It is taxable in the year of the distribution not the year you turn 30.    https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc310

 

The reason it is not auto closed/distributed in the year the bene turns 30 is the possibility to roll it to another bene ... read the rules starting on page 50 ...  https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p970.pdf