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flex-spending

The Benefit of a Budget

Having a budget can be an integral part of ensuring your financial success. And it doesn’t have to be a burden, it can turn into a fun process!

Flex Spending “Use it or Lose it” is a Thing of the Past

If you have a Flex Spending Account (FSA) for healthcare expenses through your employer, you are familiar with the “use it or lose it” concept.  Each year during December, it’s a mad dash to get that last-minute eye exam, or fill prescriptions, or what-have-you to use up the Flex Spending money before the end of the year.  That tradition will, for many folks, be a thing of the past if their employers adopt the carryover rule now allowed by IRS. Traditionally, with a Flex Spending Account (FSA) for healthcare expenses you arrange with your employer to withhold a certain amount of money out of each paycheck and then as you incur expenses for healthcare throughout the year, you can be reimbursed for those expenses up to the amount of your annual withholding for FSA.  The money withheld for the FSA is pre-tax, so it’s to your advantage to take part […]

A Few Upcoming Tax Changes to Keep in Mind

As 2013 draws ever nearer, we need to keep a few potential tax changes in mind.  These items are subject to change – they’ve changed in the past at the last minute, so there’s no reason to believe they won’t change again – but if they don’t we should be planning ahead. Flex-Spending Health Accounts If your employer provides you with a Flex-Spending Account for healthcare expenses, there will be some changes coming up in 2013.  This is the kind of account where you set aside a sum of money each payday, pre-tax, that can be used throughout the year on deductibles, non-covered medical expenses, and co-pays. Beginning in 2013, these plans will be limited to a total of $2,500 per year in salary deferral.  This comes about as a part of the Obama-care legislation.  Currently there is no cap on contributions to these plans, although some employers place a […]

March 15 is the Deadline for FSA Claims

If you’re a participant in your employer’s Flex-Spending Account plan (FSA), whether for health-care or dependent care cost reimbursement, you have a limited amount of time to claim the monies that have been set aside in your plan. The way these plans work is that you voluntarily decrease your income by a certain amount, generally paycheck by paycheck, and that amount is placed in a separate account.  Over the course of the calendar year, you can request reimbursement from your FSA funds for qualified expenses that you’ve incurred. If it’s a health-care FSA account, you can request reimbursement for your healthcare deductibles, co-payments, and co-insurance costs – literally any health-care expense that is not covered (paid) by other insurance.  There are limits, though: beginning with 2011, you cannot be reimbursed for non-prescription (over the counter) medications. If the FSA account is for dependent-care expenses, you can request reimbursement for your […]

Over-The-Counter Drugs via Your Flex-Spending Account

In case you missed it when I wrote about Guidance from the IRS on Flex Spending Plans – one of the changes you’ll have to deal with beginning with 2011 is that you can no longer use your Flex-Spending Account (FSA) to reimburse yourself for over-the-counter drugs like you’ve been able to do in the past. However, there is a way to get the over-the-counter (OTC) drugs that your physician recommends and use your FSA funds to pay for it… if your physician gives you a prescription for it.  Even though the IRS has disallowed the use of FSA funds for OTC drugs, if your physician gives you a prescription for the OTC drug, your FSA can be used to pay for the drug. There are some rules though:  first, the prescription has to provided to the pharmacist prior to the purchase, and the pharmacist must dispense the drug just […]