The reason why room and board does not appear in the 1098 T interview is that this not a qualified educational expense that is applied to the credit. The only place room and board will appear in the return is that if you reported a scholarship amount in Box 5. There will be a follow-up question that will be asked if you used the scholarship to pay for room and board. If you answer yes, then the full amount of the scholarship may be taxable because it wasn't used to pay a qualified educational expense.
Room and board is a qualified expense for a 529 plan distribution and is accounted for as you list the educational expenses that were paid for in the distribution. When you report 1098 T educational expenses in your return, be sure you exclude amounts that were reported against your 1099Q distribution amounts minus the room and board amount.
She can claim her own dependency on her own return because there is no qualifying asking if she provided more than 1/2 of her support. If in her return, the box is marked that she can be claimed as a dependent of someone else, then she is ineligible to claim the credit on her own return. The only time that question appears if you are claiming her as a dependent and if you provided more than 1/2 of her support.
if you claim he as a dependent, you may receive the educational credit. If she claims her own dependency and not claim she is a dependent of someone else, she may take the credit.
@mkttaxer
[Edited 04/12/24|7:15 am PST]
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