topic TurboTax is not providing a space to enter qualifying education expenses. I am the recipient of a 529 distribution and my nondependent child is the beneficiary. Where? in Education

TurboTax is not providing a space to enter qualifying education expenses. I am the recipient of a 529 distribution and my nondependent child is the beneficiary. Where?

walte182 — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 17:10:49 GMT

Re: TurboTax is not providing a space to enter qualifying education expenses. I am the recipient of a 529 distribution and my nondependent child is the beneficiary. Where?

Hal_Al — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 17:19:22 GMT

You can't enter those room and board 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.

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: TurboTax is not providing a space to enter qualifying education expenses. I am the recipient of a 529 distribution and my nondependent child is the beneficiary. Where?

walte182 — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 11:53:49 GMT

Thanks! This is very helpful. I wish TurboTax were more transparent about this bug.

Re: TurboTax is not providing a space to enter qualifying education expenses. I am the recipient of a 529 distribution and my nondependent child is the beneficiary. Where?

Hal_Al — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 12:58:16 GMT

Post from an Employee Tax Expert, Tuesday Feb 10, at another thread, on this same topic: "This is currently being investigated and we are informed that the issue should be fixed during the upcoming update this Friday, February 13. Please check back after February 13 to confirm whether or not you are still having issues with this."

Re: TurboTax is not providing a space to enter qualifying education expenses. I am the recipient ...

AnnetteB6 — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 20:18:36 GMT

The experience described here is expected to be resolved in a TurboTax update to be released by February 27th.

@walte182

Re: TurboTax is not providing a space to enter qualifying education expenses. I am the recipient of a 529 distribution and my nondependent child is the beneficiary. Where?

nancycallan — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 14:07:03 GMT

Still having this issue