topic ESA Withdraw after 30 and not used for education cost basis not reducing tax liability in Education

ESA Withdraw after 30 and not used for education cost basis not reducing tax liability

jjmillerx21 — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 18:36:50 GMT

My wife is 38 and her parents forgot about an ESA account they had setup as a teen for her. They cashed it out in 2024, Vanguard wired my wife the balance of 7,800 and sent a 1099-Q form for it. The form does not have a cost basis, only an account number in box 3. We called vanguard and they said that do not have the contribution amount and that it is on the contributors to keep a record. My father-in-law stated he contributed $4,00 total to the account. When I put that number into box 3 while filling out my taxes on turbo tax, it does not reduce the tax liability and expects I pay taxes and the 10 penalty on the full amount of 7,800 instead of this amount minus the contributions which is would mean a taxable and penalty amount of 3,800. Does the cost basis not apply in this scenario because it was distributed so late or is turbo tax not getting this correct for me?

Re: ESA Withdraw after 30 and not used for education cost basis not reducing tax liability

BillM223 — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 19:48:17 GMT

Please do this IRS worksheet with your numbers and see how it comes out.

Re: ESA Withdraw after 30 and not used for education cost basis not reducing tax liability

jjmillerx21 — Sat, 01 Feb 2025 16:11:22 GMT

Thank you for the reference. That confirms what we all thought that only half is taxable. Hopefully I can turbo tax to recognize it that otherwise I may have to have a tax professional do my taxes this year.

Re: ESA Withdraw after 30 and not used for education cost basis not reducing tax liability

Hal_Al — Sat, 01 Feb 2025 16:17:37 GMT

When you put $4000 in box 3 at the 1099-Q screen, you must also put $3800 (7800 minus 4000) in box 2.

$3800 will get taxed (plus $380 for the 10% penalty).

Re: ESA Withdraw after 30 and not used for education cost basis not reducing tax liability

jjmillerx21 — Sat, 01 Feb 2025 16:19:50 GMT

That makes sense because my 1099-q box 1 and 2 show the 7800 under in the middle. Vanguard, the holder of the account did not do a good job with this form to make this process easy.