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If you could have unspent cash in your health-care versatile spending account, now’s the time to make a plan to make use of it earlier than you lose it. 

Health-care FSAs let employees stash away pretax {dollars} for qualifying bills. However, they often are “use-it-or-lose-it” accounts: Unless your organization supplies a grace interval or permits you to carry over some funds into the subsequent yr, the usual deadline to spend the cash is Dec. 31 of the yr during which you make the contributions.

The excellent news is that even when you do not have medical must spend the funds on — i.e., physician’s appointments or pharmaceuticals — an estimated $1,600 is spent by households every year on health care merchandise that would in any other case be bought utilizing FSA {dollars}, in accordance with FSAStore.com. This means it is possible you’d discover a strategy to spend the cash on stuff you’d find yourself shopping for anyway.

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“We urge all FSA users to check their balance today and make plans for spending their remaining funds before time runs out,” mentioned Shawna Hausman, chief advertising and marketing officer of Health-E Commerce, guardian firm of FSAStore.

The contribution restrict to FSAs this yr was $2,850, and in 2023 will probably be $3,050.

Even with carryover or grace interval, forfeitures occur

About a 3rd of corporations, 36%, present a 2.5-month grace interval to spend the cash, and 42% help you roll over a restricted quantity to the subsequent yr, in accordance with the Employee Benefit Research Institute. At the remaining 23% of corporations, you forfeit funds remaining in your account after Dec. 31.

However, being allowed to roll over funds — a restrict of $570 this yr — or getting a grace interval doesn’t essentially translate into avoiding forfeiture.

Among employees who’re allowed to roll over cash, 49% find yourself forfeiting all or a part of it, in accordance with EBRI. For these with a grace interval, that share is 37%. Additionally, 48% with a conventional Dec. 31 deadline forfeit cash, as properly, EBRI has discovered.

 “Account holders are at risk of forfeiting an estimated $1 billion … to the Dec. 31 deadline,” Hausman mentioned.

A wide range of merchandise qualify for FSA cash

The listing of eligible bills that qualify for FSA cash is longer than it as soon as was, because of congressional motion in 2020. For starters, over-the-counter medication now not want a prescription to qualify. This consists of issues resembling chilly medicines, anti-inflammatories and allergy drugs.

Additionally, menstrual care merchandise at the moment are eligible, as are gadgets which have grow to be pertinent through the pandemic: at-home Covid checks, masks, hand sanitizer and different private safety tools used to fight the virus.

Other merchandise that qualify embody sunscreen, thermometers, eyecare merchandise, child displays and being pregnant checks. FSAstore.com has a list of eligible items in case you are unsure whether or not one thing would qualify.

Be conscious that the IRS does not allow stockpiling, which typically means you’ll be able to’t purchase extra of a product at one time than you should utilize in that tax yr. The specifics, although, are decided by FSA directors.

If you are unsure what the principles are to your FSA, attain out to your organization’s human assets division. Alternatively, you’ll be able to test your on-line FSA portal (if your organization has one) for data. There additionally ought to be a telephone quantity on the again of your FSA debit card you could name.

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