<p>You are not required to attach a 1099-Q to your tax return.</p>
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I believe the organization that creates the 1099 sends a copy of the 1099 to the IRS … at least that is true at the non-profit for which I volunteer.</p>
<p>“You need to report on the 1040 only if you withdrew too much money from the 529.”</p>
<p>I am new to this with a freshman. What is too much money? Exceeds college expenses? And are you sure you cannot pay off college loans with 529 funds? That doesn’t seem fair.</p>
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<p>Don’t the regs allow for a “90-day lookback”, i.e., money must be withdrawn by March 30 in 2013 for tuition/ed expenses in 2012? (That way you can prepare your tax return and know which credits count/don’t count.)</p>
<p>I do not find the IRS Pub 970 mentions any “90-day lookback”</p>
<p>@ #21, 22 brain fart! – I forgot you don’t actually send any 1099s!!</p>
<p>^ No, I don’t recall ever needing to reconcile college expense information with 1099s on 529 distributions. Of course, I use TurboTax and file electronically, so I may be missing some of the fine-grained details, but I’m pretty sure TurboTax just asks me if I took any excess 529 distributions, I click the box that says ‘no’ and that’s that. I assume the IRS gets a copy of the form I get from D1’s college detailing college expenses as well as the form from the company that manages my 529, and that they can easily match those two up and see that D1’s college expenses far exceeded my 529 withdrawals for that tax year. If the 529 withdrawals exceeded expenses and I didn’t report the excess withdrawals on my 1040, it might trigger an audit. But I believe I’m not required to reconcile those figures on my 1040 because the IRS already has all the information it needs.</p>
<p>For simplicity’s sake, we just pay the August tuition bill out of other, non-529 funds. We then pay the January tuition bill out of our checking account and, on the same day we write the tuition check, we direct an electronic fund transfer from our 529 to our checking account to partially reimburse ourselves. That gives us just one 529 withdrawal per year, and since it’s concurrent with the tuition payment it will be obvious to the IRS, should they ever inquire, exactly where the money is going. Record-keeping is very simple that way. Obviously if you’re taking more than a single semester’s tuition payment out of a 529, the record-keeping is going to get a little more complicated.</p>
<p>Our tax preparer usually includes the 529 earnings/qualified expense reconciliation in a statement that is sent with the 1040 (with other calculations), but maybe that is optional. I will see him this week and will try and remember to ask.</p>
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<p>No, IRS does not.
- IRS does not know your testbooks expenses.<br>
- 1098-T does not include the room & board expenses.
- 1099-Q could send to either the Beneficiary or the Participant.</p>
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<p>See above (1) - (3), you may need to reconcile before you click the box. You also need to keep all the paperworks</p>
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No; the school has no idea who “owns” the account. It’s simply made out to the school with the child’s name & student ID on it. The owner doesn’t even actually sign the check.
Yes. The issue is your taxes. Since you, as most individuals, are a “cash-basis” taxpayer, your income is based on when you receive the income (regardless of when you earned it) and your expenses are based on when you paid the bill (regardless of when the recipient cashed it).</p>
<p>4kidsdad,
In our case, as full-pays at an expensive private college, the amount we pay in tuition far exceeds what we take out of our 529. So for us, the IRS does have all the information it needs. By keeping exactly 2 forms, the 1098-T and the 1099-Q, along with the cancelled check to the college and the record of the electronic fund transfer from the 529 to our checking account, I have preserved all the records I will ever need. And there’s nothing to ‘reconcile.’ I just compare 2 figures; how much did I pay out of checking for tuition in that tax year, and how much did I transfer from the 529 to checking, As long as the latter is less than the former, I’m done. I don’t even need to add the twice-yearly tuition payments, because I make a single 529 withdrawal annually in January, and use it only to cover a portion of the January tuition bill. It makes record-keeping a snap.</p>
<p>But you’re right, for others it will be more complicated if part of the 529 withdrawal is going to something other than tuition, e.g., room and board and/or books, or if multiple 529 withdrawals are made in a single tax year which for most people will span 2 academic years.</p>
<p>re: lookback…it was a proposal floating around the IRS a few years ago, awaiting the rule-making process. Thus, still no (I guess).</p>
<p>Well, I can tell you what happens when the numbers the IRS receives on the 1099 and 1098 do not match up. At least I can tell what happened to us. The year I transferred everything from one 529 plan to another via check, the IRS only got the 1099s for the withdrawals. About a year after we filed (so for tax year 2012, this would happen most likely in the spring of 2014), we got a big tax bill for $6000. (We were not audited.) The bill and accompanying statement showed all the earnings amounts for the 529s and the bill was for the tax on those earnings and perhaps the 10% penalty. That year there was no 1098 because no one was in college yet. We did not have to pay the bill. We just sent documentation that the full amounts withdrawn were deposited in another company’s 529.</p>
<p>I am wondering if S will owe taxes on his 529 withdrawal this year. I used $$$$ of UGTMA to buy credits in the Private College (Independent) 529. He, of course, chose a nonmember college but he got a nice merit scholarship so he came out ahead. We did not touch the 529 for his first 2 years. This July, I requested the balance of his bill after the scholarship be paid directly to the college. When I checked the college account, he had $1600 credit above his expenses. It turns out that the 529 pays out the amount you request PLUS the interest that had accrued. Since his spring tuition, etc. was paid before 12/31/11, and his books for both semesters don’t total $1600 (yes, we are lucky), I guess I better do some calculating and perhaps talk to our accountant. Thanks again CC for making me aware of a potential problem.</p>
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Strange policy.
Formula is [gross distribution - qhee] / gross distribution x earnings = ordinary income</p>
<p>Also 10% exception: The distriution is made because the beneficiary received a tax-free scholarship, to the extent the distribution does not exceed the scholarship.</p>
<p>So, I saw our tax guy today, and he said that there is a form that you fill out for the 1040 where you compare the 1099-Q (529 withdrawal w/earnings) and 1098-T(?) (money reported spent on qualified expenses by college) and that if they don’t match and you made money on the withdrawal and didn’t spend it all on college expenses, it goes on the line ‘Other Income’ on the 1040. He said not doing it at all is “not the right way of doing it” even if there is no shortfall. He said that if there is a shortfall between what you spent and what you withdrew, typically, the tax plus penalty will be around 40% of earnings. (At least that is how I understood it. I am not really a money expert, more a health/science gal.)</p>
<p>Next year will be my first time to receive a 1099-Q. I’m confused. Doesn’t 1098-T only report the college tuition amount? The amount in my 1099-Q will definitely be greater than the 1098-T because I need to cover room and board and books too.</p>
<p>If yoy need to pay for room & board from 529, then your 1099-Q will be larger than your 1098-T.</p>
<p>Also, remember 1098-T does not include books expenses.</p>
<p>See
[Avoid</a> These 529 Withdrawal Traps](<a href=“Avoid these 529 withdrawal mistakes to maximize savings”>Avoid these 529 withdrawal mistakes to maximize savings)</p>
<p>LBowie, I have read Publication 970, and the only form mentioned regarding 529 money is 5329, which is for additional taxes on excess withdrawals. The instructions in 970 tell you how to reconcile costs and withdrawals with grants, tax credits, etc, but there is no form to send in to the IRS with that.</p>