Your secure Virginia529 account recently received new features that may help you prepare for tax season and help ensure you take advantage of all deductions.

TRANSACTION HISTORY

Your transaction history has expanded sorting and filtering options by beneficiary and account, allowing you to view contributions into and distributions from your accounts in a variety of ways.

You also can generate a summary of transactions by calendar year to use for the Virginia individual income tax deduction. To create the summary, follow these steps:

1. Log in.
2. Select “View My Accounts,” then “Transaction History.”
3. Select the beneficiary, then account, then “Filter By Date.”
4. Enter the tax year of interest and “Apply.”
5. On the right side of the screen, select “Summary” to view total contributions and total distributions during that time period.
6. Repeat for each beneficiary and account.

IRS FORM 1099-Q

If you had distributions in 2016, you now have online access to IRS Form 1099-Q which summarizes annual distributions, contributions and earnings. Locate these under “View My Accounts,” then “IRS Form 1099-Q.” Remember, if you have qualified higher education expenses to support the distributions, then the 1099-Q is informational  only and the earnings are not reported as income on your tax return (although you may not use the same expenses for the federal tuition deduction or educational tax credits).

If a distribution was sent to you as the account owner, then the 1099-Q is addressed to you and you may view the form online. If distributions were sent to either a school or the beneficiary, the 1099-Q is issued to the beneficiary, who now also may view the 1099-Q online. Beneficiaries may create a secure online profile and view or print the 1099-Q issued to them. This online access does not provide access to other account data.