529 plans and meals

BrewCrew82
Tue, 08 Nov 2016 00:57:35 +0000

I know that there have been several threads that have come and gone and gone on this site and I apologize for starting another one. However, I was not really able to find an answer to this question and have doing many searches on the internet, including the IRS site, I still can’t find a definitive yes or no to this question.

My son is currently a Freshman living in a dorm that requires a meal plan. My understanding is that under this situation, I can use 529 money to pay for his meals. However, he very much would like to move into “off campus” housing next year and I thought that I did read somewhere at some point that we would not be able to use 529 money to pay for any meals that were not part of a required meal plan. Can anyone confirm this (or hopefully tell me that this is not true!)?