Merritt Personal Lines Manual: Contributions to an FSA
You contribute to your FSA by electing an amount to be voluntarily withheld from your pay by your employer. This is sometimes called a salary reduction agreement. The employer may also contribute to your FSA if specified in the plan.
You do not pay federal income tax or employment taxes on the salary you contribute or the amounts your employer contributes to the FSA. However, contributions made by your employer to provide coverage for long-term care insurance must be included in income.
When To Contribute
At the beginning of the plan year, you must designate how much you want to contribute. Then, your employer will deduct amounts periodically (generally, every payday) in accordance with your annual election. You can change or revoke your election only if there is a change in your employment or family status that is specified by the plan.
Amount of Contribution
There is no limit on the amount of money you or your employer can contribute to the accounts; however, the plan must prescribe either a maximum dollar amount or maximum percentage of compensation that can be contributed to your health FSA.
Generally, contributed amounts that are not spent by the end the plan year are forfeited. See Balance in an FSA, later. For this reason, it is important to base your contribution on an estimate of the qualifying expenses you will have during the year.
Distributions From an FSA
Distributions from a health FSA must be paid only to reimburse you for qualified medical expenses you incurred during the period of coverage. You must be able to receive the maximum amount of reimbursement (the amount you have elected to contribute for the year) at any time during the coverage period, regardless of the amount you have actually contributed. The maximum amount you can receive tax free is the total amount you elected to contribute to the health FSA for the year.
You must provide the health FSA with a written statement from an independent third party stating that the medical expense has been incurred and the amount of the expense. You must also provide a written statement that the expense has not been paid or reimbursed under any other health plan coverage. The FSA cannot make advance reimbursements of future or projected expenses.
Debit cards, credit cards, and stored value cards given to you by your employer can be used to reimburse participants in a health FSA. If the use of these cards meets certain substantiation methods, you may not have to provide additional information to the health FSA. For information on these methods, see Revenue Ruling 2003-43 on page 935 of Internal Revenue Bulletin (IRB) 2003-21 at www.irs.gov/pub/irs-irbs/irb03-21.pdf, Notice 2006-69 on page 107 of IRB 2006-31 at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-irbs/irb06-31.pdf, and Notice 2007-2 on page 254 of IRB 2007-2 at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-irbs/irb07-02.pdf.
Qualified medical expenses. Qualified medical expenses are those specified in the plan that would generally qualify for the medical and dental expenses deduction. These are explained in Publication 502, Medical and Dental Expenses. Examples include amounts paid for doctorsâ fees, prescription and non-prescription medicines, and necessary hospital services not paid for by insurance.
You cannot receive distributions from your FSA for the following expenses.
- Amounts paid for health insurance premiums.
- Amounts paid for long-term care coverage or expenses.
- Amounts that are covered under another health plan.
If you are covered under both a health FSA and an HRA, see Notice 2002-45, Part V, which is on page 93 of Internal Revenue Bulletin 2002-28 at www.irs.gov/pub/irs-irbs/irb02-28.pdf.
You cannot deduct qualified medical expenses as an itemized deduction on Schedule A (Form 1040) that are equal to the distribution you receive from the FSA.
