Hello, I am trying to prepare our taxes and help my college student kids with their taxes. (1) If a person is not eligible for federal income tax credits, can you just omit entering the information on the 1098-T in Turbotax and your tax return for both the parents and kids? (2) if you have determined that part of the earnings for the QTP distribution are taxable because your distribution exceeds the cost of attendance estimate of the college (due to off campus lodging expenses that exceed the college's cost of attendance estimate), I am wondering how you enter the calculation in Turbotax and your return? For example, $17,000 gross distribution (Box 1), $2,000 earnings (Box 2) and $15,000 basis (Box 3). Let's say $1,000 above cost of attendance so 50% of the earnings are taxable and 50% tax-free earnings. The only thing I see in TurboTax are fields to enter the figures from Box 1, 2 and 3, but not a field to enter your calculation on how much is taxable as illustrated in IRS publication 970 of how to calculate. If I enter these 3 fields on my kid's taxes, Turbotax calculates the gain on the full Box 2 Earnings. I feel like I should enter these 3 fields to match the 1099-Q which is also sent to the IRS. Very confused! Thank you for reading my question and any guidance is truly appreciated!
