There are three people on my return:
Myself (Parent, primary taxpayer)
Child A - with Coverdall ESA and low college expenses
Child B - with 529 and higher college expenses
When I use the questionnaire to complete the associated questionaires, I indicate that I am the recipient of disbursements for both Child A and Child B. The program generates two 1099-Qs, but puts the wrong recipients:
1099-Q #1 - ESA - Child B as recipient, Child A as beneficiary
1099-Q #2 - 529 - Myself as recipient, Child B as beneficiary
I really don't want to sound rude, but have the students make the distributions, that's the way it was intended.
If more convenient, have the funds distributed directly to the school, that way the 1099-Q will be issued to the student as was intended.
You can always re-allocate expenses at the end of the year even if the distribution was sent to the school. (re-allocate to Room and Board and/or supplies) but that way it is clear as to which student used which distribution.
In TurboTax, always enter the 1099-Q first, before the 1099-Q. The TurboTax program might allocate up to 10,000 towards a credit if the 1098-T is entered first, which could cause issues after the 1099-Q is entered.
Wow!
I submit a legitimate bug report, and I get an official response from a TurboTax employee of "you should have handled money different last year"...
I thought the goal of your product was to generate an accurate tax return given my tax situation - not to tell me how to manage my finances...
That was not only not helpful, but rude! And it still leaves the original issue (TurboTax's questionnaire passing off incorrect information to the forms) unaddressed...
@KrisD15 Perhaps you can tell me this:
Is the 1099-Q that Turbotax generates included in the submission to the IRS, or is it only informational for my records?
If the latter, then perhaps this bug is immaterial, and I can keep a corrected copy in my records...