Withdrawing 529 plan funds for college? Here's what to know.

Maximize the amount you have stashed away for your education

529 College Savings Plan form with small graduation cap, spectacles, and a pen sitting on top of it
The 529 plan is a tax-advantaged savings account that can be used to pay for tuition
(Image credit: Andrey Popov / Getty Images)

A 529 plan is a great way to enjoy some tax advantages while you save up for college. But after all that hard work saving, you want to make sure you are smart about tapping those funds. Sticking to the rules for how and when you use the funds — and steering clear of common snafus in the process — can help you maximize the amount you have stashed away for your higher education.

Reserve withdrawals for qualified expenses

If you withdraw 529 plan funds for non-qualified expenses, be prepared to pay taxes and, in most cases, a 10% penalty on the earnings portion.

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Use distributions in the same year you take them

Another important rule of 529 plan withdrawals is that you want to take distributions "during the same year you paid for the qualified expenses," said Saving for College, a financial education blog focused on saving and paying for higher education.

This refers to the calendar year, which can get tricky since the academic year technically spans two calendar years. Say, for instance, you withdraw funds at the beginning of the school year and are planning to use them to cover the full year's tuition — "while you may have every intention of having the money ready to pay spring tuition, it won't look that way to tax authorities," said Bankrate.

As a result, it will be seen as a non-qualified withdrawal and "you may owe a penalty and tax on the earnings portion," said Saving for College. If you are not quite sure how much to take, it is better to play it safe; you can always make up the difference with a catch-up distribution at year's end to avoid student debt.

Stay on top of account information

Ahead of making a withdrawal, double-check that your account information is accurate and updated. If you have to make any changes later on, such as an update to your address, this "can result in delays to withdrawals" because of "fraud prevention measures" that are in place, said Saving for College.

Similarly, you can get a jump on potential problems down the road by hanging onto all receipts for your account. "Keeping these receipts will help you minimize the pain at tax time, because you'll have the documentation you need to justify your claims," Saving for College added. Receipts will also come in handy in case of an audit, said Bankrate, citing Logan Allec, CPA and the owner of personal finance site Money Done Right.

Becca Stanek, The Week US

Becca Stanek has worked as an editor and writer in the personal finance space since 2017. She previously served as a deputy editor and later a managing editor overseeing investing and savings content at LendingTree and as an editor at the financial startup SmartAsset, where she focused on retirement- and financial-adviser-related content. Before that, Becca was a staff writer at The Week, primarily contributing to Speed Reads.