Student loan information - how to record one-time payment

[matto1]

I closed out a 529 for my oldest son, who graduated his last school last year. He's above age 24, so is not a dependent anymore.

I designated $10,000 of a withdrawal to pay back student loans.

In TurboTax Deluxe (desktop), the only place I found to record this is in the Student Information worksheet in the forms view, line 1 of the Student Loan worksheet area.

That worked, BUT... probably half the time when I exit the tax form, it does not save. When that happens, I have to find the worksheet and re-enter it all over again. And since that line isn't especially easy to find, I'm pretty annoyed by this.

Is there a better way?

[MonikaK1]

When you are ready to exit a TurboTax Desktop product, select File from the top bar menu and then select Exit from the drop-down menu that appears.

You will then see a pop up window that asks, "Do you want to save this file?". Select Yes if you want to save your progress. The other two choices are No if you don't want to save, and Cancel if you changed your mind about exiting the program.

[matto1]

I'm saving every single time I switch to another return.

If I'm in step view, that MIGHT work.

If I'm in firms view, it NEVER works. 

Either way, I should only have to enter and save that information once ever. I've probably entered it a dozen times by now, maybe more.

I need this to stop. I entered the 10k, it should stay. Or I need another place to put it.

[MarilynG1]

If your distribution from your 529 plan was less than or equal to the $10,000 lifetime limit available tax-free for student loan payments, you are not required to enter this information on your tax return.  The IRS only requires that information on a Form 1099-Q be entered on the tax return when there is a taxable distribution. 

Save your 1099-Q and student loan payment information with your tax records for at least three years in case of any inquiry from the IRS. 

For more information about 529 plan distributions and how they affect your taxes please see THIS article.  Here's more detail on 529 Distribution for Student Loan Payment.

@matto1 

[matto1]

Thanks.

I took a total of more than $26k out of the 529, and without the loan repayment some of it would have been taxable.

You're saying I don't have to file it at all?

[DawnC]

You do not enter any individual transactions from your 529 plan or student loan.  The administrator of the plan should send you a 1099-Q if you received distributions from the plan.   Contact the 529 plan administrator to get the 1099-Q if you believe it is taxable.   Only the earnings on the portion not used for qualified education expenses would be taxable, but you need those numbers from the 1099-Q to report anything.   Click the link below to verify this.  

Guide to 1099-Q

You will get a 1098-E to report any student loan interest you may have paid on your student loans. 

Can I claim my student loan?

[matto1]

Thank you, but I'm not asking how to report 529 withdrawals.

The issue I'm having is that TurboTax does not appear to be working correctly. Specifically, that the one time $10000 loan repayment entry - which in my experience I couldn't even find in the step by step view at all - was not reliably saved when I saved my work.

I believe this is a product defect.

My question is how to avoid that product defect so that my information, once entered, is always there.

[DoninGA]

@matto1 A student loan payment is not entered on nor deductible on a federal tax return.  If you paid student loan interest that is deductible on a federal tax return.

To enter student loan interest paid -

Click on Federal Taxes (Personal using Home and Business)
Click on Deductions and Credits
Click on I'll choose what I work on (if shown)
Scroll down to Education
On Student Loan Interest Paid (Form 1098-E), click the start or update button