I had an IRA account that was the roll-over of a previous employer's 401-K. It only had about $4K in it. My wife went back to school this year, so I closed it out to pay tuition...my understanding was that you could avoid the 10% penalty tax if your qualified tuition expenses were greater than the distribution. Am I right so far?

But then, during the first quarter, she was in a really bad car accident and never wound up going back to school. So total tuition payments for the year were only ~$2000.

So how do I go about reporting all this? I'm thinking form 8917 for the tuition and 5329 for the early distribution?

Don't know if it's relevant, but I'm also filing sched A, C, E, and SE.

Thanks!