When it comes to "qualified" education expenses, there are three basic categories.
1) Tuition
2) Books
3) Lab fees
That last one of lab fees is rather broad too. It includes supplies the student is required to purchase and provide for the course, and can even include the purchase of a laptop or computer if the course requires classwork to be done on line and/or submitted electronically on line. Generally, all this stuff is covered in the course syllabus, and that syllabus is your documented evidence of any lab fee requirements the student pays for.
With a 529 plan, you can also use that money to pay the unqualified but allowed expenses of room and board, provided that room and board was in direct support of the education. Additionally, if on campus room and board is/was available to the student but they chose to live off campus, then the amount claimed for off campus room and board can not exceed what it would have cost the student to live on campus.
If on compus R&B was not available to the student, then those limits don't apply. But still, the amount claimed for R&B must be reasonable. So no $5000 a night penthouse suites with steak and lobster for lunch and dinner every day. 🙂
