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Don’t Forget to Empty Out Your Flexible Spending Account

If you have a tax-saving flexible spending account (FSA) with your employer to help pay for health or dependent care expenses, there’s an important date coming up. You may have to use the money in the account by year-end or you’ll lose it (unless your employer has a grace period).

As the end of 2023 gets closer, here are some rules and reminders to keep in mind.

Health FSA 

A pre-tax contribution of $3,050 to a health FSA is permitted in 2023. This amount will be increasing to $3,200 in 2024. You save taxes in these accounts because you use pre-tax dollars to pay for medical expenses that might not be deductible. For example, expenses won’t be deductible if you don’t itemize deductions on your tax return. Even if you do itemize, medical expenses must exceed a certain percentage of your adjusted gross income in order to be deductible. Additionally, the amounts that you contribute to a health FSA aren’t subject to FICA taxes.

Your employer’s plan should have a list of qualifying items and any documentation from a medical provider that may be needed to get reimbursed for these expenses.

FSAs generally have a “use-it-or-lose-it” rule, […]

By |2023-12-05T17:30:27+00:00December 5th, 2023|Health care, hsa, year-end|0 Comments

No Parking: Unused Compensation Reductions Can’t Go To Health FSA

Among the many lasting effects of the pandemic is that some businesses are allowing employees to continue working from home — even now that the most acute phases of the public health crisis seem to be over in some places. This decision is raising some interesting questions about fringe benefits.

For example, in IRS Information Letter 2022-0002, the tax agency recently answered an inquiry involving a qualified transportation plan participant whose employer now lets him work from home permanently. To avoid losing dollars he’d previously set aside for parking, the participant asked whether he could transfer unused compensation reductions to his health Flexible Spending Account (FSA), which his employer offered through its qualified cafeteria plan.

No cash refunds

The letter explains that, under an employer’s qualified transportation plan, unused compensation reduction amounts can be carried over to subsequent plan periods and used for future commuting expenses. Caveat: employees can’t receive benefits that exceed the maximum excludable amount in any month.

By |2022-04-27T21:37:40+00:00April 27th, 2022|Health care, irs|0 Comments

COBRA Provisions Play Critical Role in COVID-19 Relief Law

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees and their families have lost group health plan coverage because of layoffs or reduced hours. If your business has had to take such steps, and it’s required to offer continuing health care coverage under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), the recently passed American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) includes some critical provisions that you should be aware of.

100% subsidy

Under the ARPA, assistance-eligible individuals (AEIs) may receive a 100% subsidy for COBRA premiums during the period beginning April 1, 2021, and ending on September 30, 2021.

An AEI is a COBRA qualified beneficiary — in other words, an employee, former employee, covered spouse or covered dependent — who’s eligible for and elects COBRA coverage because of a qualifying event of involuntary termination of employment or reduction of hours. For purposes of the law, the subsidy is available for AEIs for the period beginning April 1, 2021, and ending September 30, 2021.

Extended election period

Individuals without a COBRA election in effect on April 1, 2021, but who would be an AEI if they did, are eligible for the subsidy. Those who elected but discontinued COBRA coverage before April 1, 2021, are also eligible if they’d […]

By |2021-03-24T21:18:41+00:00March 24th, 2021|covid-19, Health care, New Tax Laws|0 Comments

The Latest on COVID-Related Deadline Extensions for Health Care Benefits

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently issued EBSA Disaster Relief Notice 2021-01, which is of interest to employers. It clarifies the duration of certain COVID-19-related deadline extensions that apply to health care benefits plans.

Extensions to continue

The DOL and IRS issued guidance last year specifying that the COVID-19 outbreak period — defined as beginning March 1, 2020, and ending 60 days after the announced end of the COVID-19 national emergency — should be disregarded when calculating various deadlines under COBRA, ERISA and HIPAA’s special enrollment provisions.

The original emergency declaration would have expired on March 1, 2021, but it was recently extended. Although the agencies defined the outbreak period solely by reference to the COVID-19 national emergency, they relied on statutes allowing them to specify disregarded periods for a maximum of one year. Therefore, questions arose as to whether the outbreak period was required to end on February 28, 2021, one year after it began.

Notice 2021-01answers those questions by providing that the extensions have continued past February 28 and will be measured on a case-by-case basis. Specifically, applicable deadlines for individuals and plans that fall within the outbreak period will be extended (that is, the disregarded period will last) until […]

By |2021-03-12T17:53:12+00:00March 12th, 2021|covid-19, Health care, New Tax Laws|0 Comments

Setting Up a Health Savings Account for Your Small Business

Healthcare and medical business concept

Given the escalating cost of employee health care benefits, your business may be interested in providing some of these benefits through an employer-sponsored Health Savings Account (HSA). For eligible individuals, HSAs offer a tax-advantaged way to set aside funds (or have their employers do so) to meet future medical needs. Here are the key tax benefits:

  • Contributions that participants make to an HSA are deductible, within limits.
  • Contributions that employers make aren’t taxed to participants.
  • Earnings on the funds within an HSA aren’t taxed, so the money can accumulate year after year tax free.
  • HSA distributions to cover qualified medical expenses aren’t taxed.
  • Employers don’t have to pay payroll taxes on HSA contributions made by employees through payroll deductions.

Who is eligible?

To be eligible for an HSA, an individual must be covered by a “high deductible health plan.” For 2019, a “high deductible health plan” is one with an annual deductible of at least $1,350 for self-only coverage, or at least $2,700 for family coverage. For self-only coverage, the 2019 limit on deductible contributions is $3,500. For family coverage, the 2019 limit on deductible contributions is $7,000. Additionally, annual out-of-pocket expenses required to […]

By |2020-09-03T20:03:35+00:00October 14th, 2019|business, Health care, hsa|0 Comments
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