Hal_Al
Level 15

Education

Q. It's counting 529 as taxable even though all the tuition info is entered.  This is a TurboTax problem in my opinion.  Why is this happening?

A. There are three things you can do with your Qualified educational expenses (QEE):

  1. Allocate then to scholarships (so that the scholarship remains tax free)
  2. Use them to claim an education credit
  3. 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. TurboTax allocates QEE, in that order, but it doesn't do a very good job.  It's best if you have some idea of the outcome expected, when you make your entries.