topic Re: 529 question in Education

Turbo Tax is not allowing me to input qualified education expenses from my 529 plan withdrawals.

Chrisgmitchell — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 22:05:47 GMT

Background. I have had 529 plans for my daughters for 25 years and have used Turbo Tax for about 30. The last 10 years I have entered qualified education expenses from 529 withdrawals into Turbo Tax with no big issues. This year, I input the 1099-Q info and the 1098-T info. Approximately 99% of the 529 withdrawals were qualified. When I enter the 1098-T I input the tuition that matches the form. After that, it asks for inputs for "required books and materials" and "optional books and materials". I input a number for the former but not the latter. After hitting enter I expected inputs for things like Room & Board, computer expense, etc. which I have seen in the past. Instead I get a screen saying I'm not eligible for Education credits (I already knew that). So its not letting me input the rest of the education expenses. MORE importantly, when I look at the Qualifying Education Expenses Worksheet using the forms view, it shows NO Qualified expenses not even the Tuition and books numbers I have already input. In other words Turbo Tax is treating my entire 529 withdrawals as taxable when it shouldn't be. I'm not sure what it's doing here but looking for some help. Thank you.

Re: Turbo Tax is not allowing me to input qualified education expenses from my 529 plan withdrawals.

Hal_Al — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 00:51:42 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: Turbo Tax is not allowing me to input qualified education expenses from my 529 plan withdrawals.

talltodd — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 13:13:13 GMT

Let us know when it is fixed.

Re: Turbo Tax is not allowing me to input qualified education expenses from my 529 plan withdrawals.

talltodd — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 14:53:17 GMT

Still not fixed with latest update (2/2/26).

Re: Turbo Tax is not allowing me to input qualified education expenses from my 529 plan withdrawals.

Hal_Al — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 15:18:44 GMT

I'm only guessing, but I think it's gonna be later not sooner.

Re: Turbo Tax is not allowing me to input qualified education expenses from my 529 plan withdrawals.

Chrisgmitchell — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 15:22:25 GMT

Hope we're not gonna have to wait for too much longer. You would think this would be something relatively easy to fix if it was previously working OK.

Re: Turbo Tax is not allowing me to input qualified education expenses from my 529 plan withdrawals.

Hal_Al — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 15:30:07 GMT

The 2025 education and 529 sections appear totally redesigned, from last year.

Re: Turbo Tax is not allowing me to input qualified education expenses from my 529 plan withdrawals.

talltodd — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 15:58:29 GMT

I expect better of Sasan and crew.

Re: Turbo Tax is not allowing me to input qualified education expenses from my 529 plan withdrawals.

talltodd — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 16:09:54 GMT

There are planned updates on 2/11/26 and 2/18/26 so hopefully no later than that. Disappointing nonetheless.

Re: Turbo Tax is not allowing me to input qualified education expenses from my 529 plan withdrawals.

talltodd — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 16:09:01 GMT

Update (2/7/26) still did not fix the issue.

Re: Turbo Tax is not allowing me to input qualified education expenses from my 529 plan withdrawals.

Chrisgmitchell — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 16:25:27 GMT

Help us Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're our only hope.

Re: Turbo Tax is not allowing me to input qualified education expenses from my 529 plan withdrawals.

SajbelTed — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 15:28:24 GMT

Can confirm the 2/7/26 update still did not fix this.. Super frustrating. My wife is asking me to call Intuit about this. Would that help at this point? It's keeping us from filing, and we are getting a refund we want to wrap back into our 529.

Re: Turbo Tax is not allowing me to input qualified education expenses from my 529 plan withdrawals.

spotted2 — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 17:24:04 GMT

Very disappointing. I have used Turbo Tax for years. This is not the way to keep customers.

Re: Turbo Tax is not allowing me to input qualified education expenses from my 529 plan withdrawals.

Hal_Al — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 17:29:43 GMT

Q. My wife is asking me to call Intuit about this. Would that help at this point?

A. Probably not. They might be able to walk you thru manually entering the info on the student worksheet. but some users have reported problems with that technique.

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: Turbo Tax is not allowing me to input qualified education expenses from my 529 plan withdrawals.

Chrisgmitchell — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 23:18:32 GMT

The bottom line is that Turbo Tax NEEDS to fix this. If it’s happening to us then it’s happening to thousands of other customers.

Re: Turbo Tax is not allowing me to input qualified education expenses from my 529 plan withdrawals.

talltodd — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 13:47:20 GMT

When entering information on the student worksheet directly it will not save your changes.

The interview is not complicated. It’s like one screen with four or five input boxes. It worked fine last year.

Re: Turbo Tax is not allowing me to input qualified education expenses from my 529 plan withdrawals.

talltodd — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 13:39:58 GMT

Issue still not fixed with latest update (2/12/26). Very disappointing.

Re: Turbo Tax is not allowing me to input qualified education expenses from my 529 plan withdrawals.

Chrisgmitchell — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:52:15 GMT

Turbo Tax just installed an update and it appears to have been fixed. There are now inputs for things like Room & Board, etc. that were not present before.

Re: Turbo Tax is not allowing me to input qualified education expenses from my 529 plan withdrawals.

anonymouse1 — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 01:39:52 GMT

When did they issue the update? I installed 2 updates at 9am this morning and deleted my 1099-Qs then put them in again and still no interview questions about qualified expenses.

Re: Turbo Tax is not allowing me to input qualified education expenses from my 529 plan withdrawals.

anonymouse1 — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 01:42:39 GMT

Continuing the Star Wars theme, I think "This is the way." If this isn't fixed tomorrow I'm deleting my 1099-Qs and filing without them. Do I need to keep the 1098-T to show that our 22 year old is a full time student so qualifies as a dependent (for the $500 credit)?