topic Turbotax Premier College Expense Entry in Education

Turbotax Premier College Expense Entry

amptax — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:30:26 GMT

I am using the desktop product for the 2025 tax year and I have entered the 1099Q and 1098T information, however I am not getting a screen to enter my other college expenses. It keeps taking me to the education credit and showing I owe taxes and penalties on my 529 withdrawals. I have used this version for multiple years with a prior child and have always been prompted to add these costs. Has something changed in the step by step?

Re: Turbotax Premier College Expense Entry

sanfranwinter — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 04:12:38 GMT

Exactly what you wrote---there must be a bug in this year's software as there is no screen that I can navigate to in order to enter other (e.g., room & board, required fees, etc) non-book/materials, non-tuition expenses.

Re: Turbotax Premier College Expense Entry

BWest1 — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 16:20:15 GMT

Obviously a bug. No screen in Step-by-Step, so I entered the expenses directly into Student Information Worksheet using Forms. However, that info is not saved! As I continue to use TurboTax, the data is still in the worksheet and shows correctly, even after saving the return several times while entering other info. However, the next time I open the return, the Student Information Worksheet data that is not auto-populated by 1098-T entry is BLANK again, causing tax to be computed on the 529 withdrawal. One would think that entering data into Forms would be saved...

Re: Turbotax Premier College Expense Entry

amptax — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 19:07:46 GMT

I spoke to someone on the Turbotax help line. After trying to do it themselves and looking through the forms she thinks that functionality is not complete yet and should roll out with an update. She said to try again in a week and call back if the problem continues.

Re: Turbotax Premier College Expense Entry

Hal_Al — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 13:41:43 GMT

TT is aware of the glitch and working on it.

Re: Turbotax Premier College Expense Entry

Hal_Al — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 13:42:11 GMT

The 1099-Q is only an informational document. The numbers on it are not required to be entered onto your (or your student's) tax return. The interview is complicated and it's easy to make mistakes. Avoid it if you can and you can.

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. 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 (you don’t need it). You would still have to do the math to see if there were enough expenses left over for you to claim the tuition credit. You also cannot count expenses that were paid by tax free scholarships.

References:

On form 1099-Q, instructions to the recipient reads: "Nontaxable distributions from CESAs and QTPs are not required to be reported on your income tax return. You must determine the taxability of any distribution."
IRS Pub 970 states: “Generally, distributions are tax free if they aren't more than the beneficiary's AQEE for the year. Don't report tax-free distributions (including qualifying rollovers) on your tax return”.
"IRS Publication 970, Tax Benefits for Education states: If the entire 1099-Q went to qualified expenses, room and board, tuition, etc; then, you do not need to enter the form."

Re: Turbotax Premier College Expense Entry

amptax — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 14:45:03 GMT

The info on the 1099Q gets reported to the IRS. Last year the IRS challenged me on what was reported to them vs what I submitted. I sent them the Turbotax worksheet as proof of expenses and they accepted it. Also, I have had turbotax maximize my benefit by excluding some of my expanses, paying tax on the excluded amount because the education credit was more.

Re: Turbotax Premier College Expense Entry

afaczan — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 20:33:16 GMT

I have tried for hours to get this to work and spoken to two experts and a certified CPA in TurboTax.

Everyone tried extremely hard, but no one can figure it out and they don’t seem to know about any update or glitch.

I remain hopeful that an update to the software will fix this issue.

Re: Turbotax Premier College Expense Entry

afaczan — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 20:29:33 GMT

Exactly! If we don’t enter a 1099Q or 1098 plus all the expenses We can’t even get that option to show up so I think we might be missing out on a better credit or refund etc

hoping a software gets fixed in the next couple of weeks…

Re: Turbotax Premier College Expense Entry

JFW3 — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 21:55:14 GMT

There is a lot of informational data on various 1099s. Many of us use TT for the program to decide what needs to be included in taxable income or not. For example, we enter tax-exempt interest from Form 1099-B, and TT does not add it to taxable income. I personally think the programming and the reliance on the user to determine taxability, and then not to enter a 1099-Q, is lazy. That is part of the reason people use TT. TT could ask questions regarding the circumstances and handle appropriately on the tax forms.

Re: Turbotax Premier College Expense Entry

sglen — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 19:02:50 GMT

Click on View and selct Forms (versus Step-by-Step); click on Student Info WK; scroll down worksheet and click on the Room and Board line item and enter your amount; then back to View and change back to Step-by-Step -- that's what I did and it seemed to work including passing federal view check.

Re: Turbotax Premier College Expense Entry

amptax — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 23:15:55 GMT

A previous responder said it did not save when entered into the form. Did that save for you?

Re: Turbotax Premier College Expense Entry

BWest1 — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 00:13:34 GMT

As I stated in a previous post, the data entered via forms (the student info worksheet) processes throughout the session correctly, even after saving many times throughout the process. When I reopen the tax return after exiting TurboTax, all the data I entered is saved WITH THE EXCEPTION of this worksheet. Even if it passes error checking, any return submitted is questionable because I can't reopen the file to see what was done -- so would the IRS receive the file that is "open" when filed or would they receive the version that is saved? Printing the return does not equal the saved data file!

Others have stated not to worry about entering my 1099-Q since it was all used for qualified education expenses anyway. That sounds ok, except that by not entering all qualified expenses other things are impacted -- for example AOTC does not calculate correctly, questions from IRS can't be answered by documentation in the TurboTax return, etc, etc.

There is NO substitution for entering and storing (!!!) education expenses correctly. After spending over 2 hours online with Intuit support, they finally agreed there "is likely" a problem as they viewed my screens while entering expenses and not seeing those same expenses when reopening the file. They captured screen shots and I sent a diagnostic file. They indicated they would take a look at it, offered no indication about resolution. At least somebody there acknowledged a "likely" error in their code, although this has been several days and the only response I have seen from them to date is a support satisfaction survey....

Re: Turbotax Premier College Expense Entry

amptax — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 16:21:18 GMT

I received a message from TurboTax yesterday that they fixed the problem and it is being rolled out as an update. They said it would update the next I launched TurboTax. I have done so three times over the past day and there has been no update. I manually checked for updates and the program said I was up to date. The problem still exists. Has anyone had an update/fix?

Re: Turbotax Premier College Expense Entry

Hal_Al — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 16:24:16 GMT

Some people got an email saying it had been fixed. But that appears to have been a separate issue (entering R&B when reporting scholarship taxable). Reading between the lines, it's gonna be later, not sooner.

Re: Turbotax Premier College Expense Entry

amptax — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 19:00:57 GMT

I've been on the phone with TurboTax for 3 hours and counting (typing as I wait to get a manager now). Twice the call got dropped and the agent never called me back. Once I was sharing my screen when the call dropped so I typed my number on the screen for the agent to see (even though it is in my case) and he did not call back. Another time the agent said she would definitely call back if disconnected, but didn't. The last two agents did not appear to have any knowledge of the software and seemed to be reading from a troubleshooting script on things to do for generic app errors. Still waiting to talk to a manager or an agent with TurboTax product knowledge.

Re: Turbotax Premier College Expense Entry

corbi — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 19:08:33 GMT

I have been trying to report in Premier my college student qualified room and board expenses etc... and have been on the phone with multiple TT specialists and resolution experts. There is no place in the education section to do this and I get some message as my income is too high and don't qualify. These expenses are qualified distributions from our 529 plan and the TT program will not let me report them and therefore the program is including these expenses as taxable income when they are not. I even received an email yesterday from TT that the issue was fixed but it is not. I'm glad to see others are having this problem. I entered these expenses last year. One of the TT specialists claimed that there were changes under the new OBBB that impacted this but that is not true. This bill did not impact 529 qualified expense distributions. How do we get this fixed?

Re: Turbotax Premier College Expense Entry

amptax — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 19:40:21 GMT

It is not income related. I am retired and live off my investments. I have not entered that income yet (as I don't have the 1099s yet) and I have the issue.

Re: Turbotax Premier College Expense Entry

amptax — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 17:22:27 GMT

Latest update. I called this AM and only had to wait 5 min on hold. However, I shared my screen with the agent to show him the issue and he saw the issue. Then he pulled up the description of the functionality of that section and insisted it was operating correctly. He said TurboTax program decides based on the 1098T info entered if more information is needed to cover the 1099Q figure and that the program is deciding it is not needed. I said that is exactly what the defect is in that it is not asking for the additional costs because the 1098T did not cover the 1099Q. After arguing for about 30min on that (including him recommending I go to a tax accountant) he sent me to a supervisor. Within the first two sentences she confirmed that it is a known bug and added my name to the list to get an email when solved. I expressed my disappointment with spending over 4 hours on the phone with 4 different agents over the past few days and none of them had that information. (and to different degrees pushing back on the program not working correctly)

Re: Turbotax Premier College Expense Entry

afaczan — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 18:16:36 GMT

Thank you for getting hold of a supervisor. I was only able to get through to two LONG chats and a CPA and no one solved the problem and/or didn't believe a bug existed. (3 hours at least of my time) I would love to know how I could get my name on the "list" for updates but I can't bare the thought of spending more hours on the phone/online again.

Will you please post if you hear anything?

It is just ridiculous and frustrating to have to wait but I'm a little hopeful now since you stated that a "bug" has been acknowledged.