You said "Fidelity who said that since my son was the direct recipient of the funds from Fidelity, his name should be on the 1099-Q form and not my wife's". That's probably not correct because you said earlier "The actual beneficiary's name/info (our son) is not mentioned on the 1099-Q form" and " we reimbursed later from our 529 Plan".
For 529 plans, there is an “owner” (usually the parent), and a “beneficiary” (usually the student who may or may not also be a dependent). The "recipient" of the distribution can be either the owner or the beneficiary depending on who the money was sent to. When the money goes directly from the Qualified Tuition Plan (QTP) to the school, the student is the "recipient". The distribution will be reported on IRS form 1099-Q.
The 1099-Q gets reported on the recipient's return.** The recipient's name & SS# will be on the 1099-Q.
**Alternatively; you can just not report the 1099-Q, at all, if your student-beneficiary has sufficient educational expenses, including room & board (even if he lives at home) to cover the distribution. You would still have to do the math to see if there were enough expenses left over for you to claim the tuition credit. Again, you cannot double dip! When the box 1 amount on form 1099-Q is fully covered by expenses, TurboTax will enter nothing about the 1099-Q on the actual tax forms. But, it will prepare a 1099-Q worksheet for your records, in case of an IRS inquiry.
