There are three things you can do with your Qualified educational expenses (QEE):
- Allocate then to scholarships (so that the scholarship remains tax free)
- Use them to claim an education credit
- Allocate them to the 529 distribution (1099-Q) so that it will not all be taxable
TurboTax allocates QEE, in that order, until you tell it otherwise.
One possibility is that TurboTax allocated part of your dependent's college expenses to claim the Tuition credit, even if you are not eligible or otherwise did not claim it. That reduces the amount that can be used to claim the 529 earnings, shown on the 1099-Q, as being totally tax free. Go through the entire education interview until you reach a screen titled "Your Education Expenses Summary". Click edit next to the student's name. That should take you to a screen “Here’s your Education Summary”. Click edit next to “Education Information”. When you get to the screen titled “Amount Used to Calculate Education Deduction or Credit”, verify the amount you want to use or change it. You may reach that screen sooner.
With multiple sources of funds, you have, it's not surprising some of it is taxable. But, for specific help, you need to provide specific numbers. If some of it must be taxable, most people come out better making some of the scholarship taxable, rather than the ESA/529/prepaid distributions earnings
