529 Defunding as Child attends school

No, treatment is the same for need based and merit scholarships.

For distributions made from 529s that aren’t used for qualified expenses, the earnings portion is taxable and a 10% penalty applied (with some exceptions to the 10% penalty). Scholarships are one of the exceptions.

Check out pub 970, the page I noted above. It’s pretty clear once you read it through I think.

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