This year's product has a horrible workflow for entering the 1098-T and 1099-Q.
In the workflow the 1098-T comes first. During the data entry for the 1098-T the cell to enter Room and Board expenses isn't shown on the screen at all. That's understandable since the 1098-T doesn't list Room and Board. However, the Room and Board expense is very relevant to people with a 1099-Q because it's an eligible expense and accounting for that expense ensures that you don't have a taxable distribution from the 529 plan.
Logic would have it that when you enter the 1099-Q, TurboTax would ask you about Room and Board expenses. Nope. Instead when you enter the 1099-Q, TurboTax silently enables a Room and Board cell BACK on the 1098-T page that you've already visited and think you're done with. Worse, the workflow doesn't take you back there or even tell you to go back to that step and enter Room & Board. Worse YET, is that the help page on the 1098-T page tells you that room & board expenses aren't considered a eligible expense. Absolutely false for customers with a 1099-Q.
After you enter your 1099-Q you'll see your tax burden change negatively because TurboTax thinks you've got a taxable distribution. Only if you know to manually go back to the 1098-T yourself and find this newly enabled cell called Room and Board, are you able to correctly handle your tax situation.
This is a horrible situation.
