Paying for books and laptop with grandparent-owned 529 - is student reimbursement OK?

Paying for College
1

My daughter will start college this fall and we plan to cover about $5000 worth of qualified education expenses for her freshman year through a distribution from a 529 her grandparents generously established years ago.

Assuming her grandparents continue to be the owners of the account (I posted a question about a possible ownership change [url = <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/2003311-grandparent-owned-529-plan-change-ownership.html#latest%5Dhere%5B/url%5D”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/2003311-grandparent-owned-529-plan-change-ownership.html#latest]here), is it acceptable for my daughter to buy her books using her own money and then receive a distribution from the 529 as reimbursement? (Obviously, she would keep records and would not receive an amount greater than her actual QEE expenditures.)

Also, do I understand correctly that laptop computers used for classwork are now included as qualified expenses?

Thanks for any help!

2

Yes to both questions, as long as your daughter is the beneficiary of the 529 account, and the distributions from the 529 account take place in the same calendar year that the expenses were paid.

3

Thanks very much!

4

You might also want to use the 529 money for room and board rather than the scholarship money, and use the scholarship money for QEE. The daughter would not have to pay taxes on the scholarship money used for R&B