topic Where do I enter room and board expenses not included in a 1098-T for a dependent college student ? in Education

Where do I enter room and board expenses not included in a 1098-T for a dependent college student ?

JShere — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 09:55:27 GMT

Turbo tax asks for book and materials, and then says room and board not paid to the university will be entered "later". "Later" never comes. any thoughts?

Re: Where do I enter room and board expenses not included in a 1098-T for a dependent college student ?

Hal_Al — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 14:41:54 GMT

You can't enter those expenses yet. This is a known glitch in TurboTax (TT). They are working on it (no announced fix date). The 2025 education and 529 sections appear totally redesigned, from last year.

Re: Where do I enter room and board expenses not included in a 1098-T for a dependent college student ?

bartzda67 — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 00:31:40 GMT

yeah - I think I just asked the same question as I'm getting hit on a taxable 529 withdrawal because I cannot enter my RB expenses. To get by for now, I entered all in required materials - the outcome is right but it messes up the calcs on the student worksheet and puts all the money on line 3 (books supplies and equipment) and nothing on line 6 for room and board.

Re: Where do I enter room and board expenses not included in a 1098-T for a dependent college student ?

user17704802684 — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 16:06:44 GMT

It doesnt appear to be available yet in the step-by-step views so switch to the forms view and you can manually enter room and board on form 1098-T. There is a box for it.

Re: Where do I enter room and board expenses not included in a 1098-T for a dependent college student ?

TCMGCM — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 14:14:01 GMT

A potential workaround for now. Go into Forms view. On left pane, select "People wks" form. The dependent should appear as Person on the Return. Scroll down to "Part IV - Education expenses". Enter required room and board, required fees, computer, etc. in the Total column. Note - the form did not populate the additional columns under Amount Eligible for on this form. Save the tax return. On left pane, select "Student info wk". The calculations for Amount Eligible shows up on this form. Note - do not enter the education expenses directly on this form (Student info wk); there is a warning that "Part VI cannot be entered directly on this worksheet. Data must be entered on People Wks." If you enter data here, it will disappear after you exit the program.

Re: Where do I enter room and board expenses not included in a 1098-T for a dependent college stu...

AmyC — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 18:17:59 GMT

We have been told the room and board should be coming out this weekend. Perhaps as soon as Friday night.

@TCMGCM @user17704802684 @bartzda67

Re: Where do I enter room and board expenses not included in a 1098-T for a dependent college stu...

bartzda67 — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 18:57:23 GMT

That would be fantastic and allow me to finish up cleaning my taxes this weekend!

Re: Where do I enter room and board expenses not included in a 1098-T for a dependent college stu...

bartzda67 — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 23:13:06 GMT

Unfortunately I do not see an updated fix for this in either of the 2 updates this week. The Thursday morning and Friday morning updates did not address this issue. I also have noted that TT (desktop) is defaulting to 10K on line 18 of the student info worksheet even though I am not eligible for the AOC or LLC credits. This is what is really messing up my returns as its making some qualified 529 withdrawals taxable as it no longer shows the right expenses.

not sure if you have gotten any more update from TT if this fix is still in the works.

I assume to deal with both these issue I can just manually add RB expenses on line 6 and zero out the 10K used for credit on line 18 if TT is not actually going to fix the issues on the 1098T section.

Re: Where do I enter room and board expenses not included in a 1098-T for a dependent college stu...

bartzda67 — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 23:32:03 GMT

okay - new update!

I manually updates the student info worksheet and added my RB on line 6 and zeroed on the 10K credit on line 18. This then showed the correct tax impact. I then saved the tax form and exited the program. I restarted it and as was noted by another user, the RB amount was gone, but the 0 stayed on line 18. my 1098T also noted it needed review. Now when i did the review, I got a completely new screen that now showed me the ability to enter RB!!!! So I completed this part of the conversation, save it and exited the program. Now when I restart TT and reopen my student info wksht for my daughter, line 6 retained the correct RB amount and line 18 stays at zero!

I wonder if the 10K incorrect credit on line 18 was causing the program to not correctly display the new fields for entering RB on the step by step mode???

Re: Where do I enter room and board expenses not included in a 1098-T for a dependent college stu...

JShere — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 23:39:02 GMT

the online version is now fixed in that there is now a room and board section. however, it is not calculating correctly. the equal numbers 1098-t andd 10990q do not cancel each other out. it is creating a taxable event. the problem seems to be the number that is in the earnings section of the 1099-q. that is creating the taxable event . if you put the entire amount in 3. basis, then there is no taxable event. at this point, I'm giving up and deleting the sections entirely since you don't have to report 1099-q and 1098t if all the distribution from 1099-q is for qualified education expenses, which it is.

Re: Where do I enter room and board expenses not included in a 1098-T for a dependent college stu...

jakbb88 — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 17:51:56 GMT

I'm needing this too. Is there a way to be notified when the update is completed?

Re: Where do I enter room and board expenses not included in a 1098-T for a dependent college stu...

bartzda67 — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 18:02:57 GMT

The updates are there - I can now enter RB in the conversation of the desktop. However, one thing that I noted on both of my college students and was still causing issues was that TT is still on the Student Info worksheet is filling in $10000 in line 18 of part VI "used for credit..." even though I am not trying to use AOC / LLC. That then removes 10K of "expenses" and starts making 1099Q money unqualified. When I zeroed that out, everything then allocates correctly. Really interested if AmyC or HalAI have and comments on this.

If you are seeing that you are having 529 money be allocated as taxable when it really should not, I'd first check the student info section VI line 18 and see if you have 10K in that line. Just the left most box. TT will carry it over automatically to the other line18 entries as needed.

Re: Where do I enter room and board expenses not included in a 1098-T for a dependent college stu...

bartzda67 — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 18:09:20 GMT

Try going into forms and look at the student info worksheet. then look in section VI line 18 and see of TT has put $10,000 here (assuming you have not taken AOC or LLC in past years). they are trying to get you AOC money back by paying some taxes on the 529 gains. I don't want this. I zeroed out line 18 and everything then calculated magically as I want with no AOC (I dont qualify but TT is still trying to apply it) and my expenses fully cover my 529 funds.

Re: Where do I enter room and board expenses not included in a 1098-T for a dependent college stu...

jakbb88 — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 20:57:26 GMT

There are no numbers on my son's student worksheet Section VI Line 18

Re: Where do I enter room and board expenses not included in a 1098-T for a dependent college stu...

bartzda67 — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 23:46:46 GMT

Some follow up questions for JAKBB88 -

Are you still not able to get to the questions on the step by step that asks you for room and board or are you seeing issues with TT making part of your 529 withdrawals be taxable when they should not be taxable. If I can get some more specifics, I may be able to help you get TT to do what you need it to do. I've now got my 2 girls 1099Q / 1099T and AOC for my oldest working correctly now in TT.

Re: Where do I enter room and board expenses not included in a 1098-T for a dependent college stu...

jakbb88 — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 01:50:19 GMT

No, I can't get to the place where it asks for room & board expenses. It just closes out saying I don't need to report the 1099Q because I'm not eligable for the deduction. But I want to make sure I'm not taxed on the distribution from the 529 since the 1099Q is more than the 1098T.

Re: Where do I enter room and board expenses not included in a 1098-T for a dependent college stu...

Hal_Al — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 02:53:15 GMT

Q. How do I make sure I'm not taxed on the distribution from the 529 since the 1099-Q is more than the 1098-T?

A. Don't enter the 1099-Q.

You will not be taxed if you don't enter the 1099-Q. If you don't enter the 1099-Q, TurboTax (TT) won't know that you got a distribution. So, there is no dollar amount for TT to calculate tax on.

If you do enter the 1099-Q, TT will theoretically calculate that nothing is taxable. But, when it does TurboTax will enter nothing about the 1099-Q on the actual tax forms. But the interview is complicated and mistakes are frequent. This forum is flooded with complaints that TT is incorrectly calculating tax on qualified distributions.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

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 probably 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: Where do I enter room and board expenses not included in a 1098-T for a dependent college stu...

bartzda67 — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 02:30:57 GMT

The educational expenses interview part in TT is terrible and easy to get confused or make an inadvertent mistake.

The Room and Board enter will be part of the 1098T section and not the 1099Q part.

This is what I do when I do this section. First I make sure this is the only thing I am going to work on. If you're doing other parts of your return, complete those, save the return, quit a restart. I will only do the 1099Q and 1098T, and if I believe I got everything right, I will save/quit and restart to give me a clean starting point to continue other items. If something looks wrong, I literally quit, do not save and restart the 1099Q and 1098T all over.

First do the 1098T. I'll assume your 1098T is correct (what is reported for Tuition and Scholarships match what you paid / received in in 2025). Start by entering this exactly as shown on your 1098 into TT .

In the education section on Deductions and Credits, select Expenses and Scholarships (Form 1098T).

You may get first window that tells you that you are not eligible for AOC/LLC, but still enter your expenses so your 1099Q is not taxed. you should then be able to get to a screen where you can either update your students 1098T info or add a new student if not in here. if your student shows up in the education summary, be sure to click the little pencil to edit and this will walk you through entering the 1098T details. if you need to add a student. click add new and it'll basically do the same thing.

you then should get to a point where they ask you about schools - you can add a school or edit a previous year school -again if you need to edit and existing entry click the pencil. After answering all the questions about your 1098T details, then you'll get back to the summary screen of all your students 1098T's. if you have more than one, repeat by adding another. once you are done with all your 1098T info, click continue.

This then takes you to the screen where it says time to enter your childs expenses and this now has the room and board added to it.

Time to Enter XXX Educational Expenses

Required Books

Optional Books

Other Course related mats

Room and Board

Computer software and internet

Special needs.

Complete this section and continue to finish the rest of the section.

Make sure when you get to the ed summary page for your student you also click the pencil here and answer the questions about your student - this is an easy place to miss.

If that works for you, then go enter your 1099Q and you should be good.

One last tip - keep track of your refund/owed amount before you start. when you are done, if your 1099Q is all covered as you expect you will not see any changes in amount owed (you might get an AOC/LLC credit but thats a good thing).