Pay Stub question- HSA

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jerome99
Posts: 212
Joined: Tue Jan 10, 2012 7:38 am

Pay Stub question- HSA

Post by jerome99 »

on my most recent paystub, (we have a payroll provider now) their is a new line in deductions for HSA.

in addition to the deductions for cost of the insurance and my contribution to the account, there is a deduction for the equal amount of what the company contributes to the account. Is this normal?

The amount contributed by the company is list down below under "benefits' with the 401K match. However, I feel like I am not really getting the HSA employer contribution because an equal amount is being deducted. Any help is appreciated
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fangfish
Posts: 43
Joined: Wed Aug 07, 2013 10:12 pm

Re: Pay Stub question- HSA

Post by fangfish »

That does seem a little strange. When my husband used to have an HSA to which his employer contributed, the employer portions was listed in the Earnings section, not with the other deductions.
Even though the amount contributed by the employer is listed with other deductions from your pay, have you checked with a calculator that it is actually being deducted from your pay?
Topic Author
jerome99
Posts: 212
Joined: Tue Jan 10, 2012 7:38 am

Re: Pay Stub question- HSA

Post by jerome99 »

i have checked it and it is being deducted from my pay
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fangfish
Posts: 43
Joined: Wed Aug 07, 2013 10:12 pm

Re: Pay Stub question- HSA

Post by fangfish »

One other idea I have....if it is listed in the benefits section and also in the deductions section, they might cancel each other out. However, the actual employer contribution might be getting deposited in your HSA (you'd have to check with whatever bank your HSA is held by). Maybe this is just the way it is displayed on your paycheck. Because I don't think you should be getting it in your net pay AND your HSA, know what I mean? It should be going into your HSA only. So maybe they show it as a benefit and a deduction just for display purposes. Check w/ your HSA bank.
cleosdad
Posts: 307
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2008 8:32 am
Location: Littleton Co

Re: Pay Stub question- HSA

Post by cleosdad »

jerome99 wrote:on my most recent paystub, (we have a payroll provider now) their is a new line in deductions for HSA.

in addition to the deductions for cost of the insurance and my contribution to the account, there is a deduction for the equal amount of what the company contributes to the account. Is this normal?

The amount contributed by the company is list down below under "benefits' with the 401K match. However, I feel like I am not really getting the HSA employer contribution because an equal amount is being deducted. Any help is appreciated
Interesting. I took our return to our CPA yesterday. Our HSA statement was different than wifes W2. My CPA said the HSA was the correct one to use and it had a higher amount to deduct. Maybe Alan.S will chime in.
HouseStark
Posts: 324
Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2012 2:31 pm
Location: Minneapolis, MN

Re: Pay Stub question- HSA

Post by HouseStark »

If an amount for an HSA contribution appears on a W-2, it should be listed in Box 12 with a code of W. Any amount in Box 12 is not going to be a deduction on the tax return because it is either 1) an employer contribution without employee salary reduction, or 2) it is an employee contribution by salary reduction. Both of those types of contributions are included in the amount for code W. The amount of employee contribution by salary reduction would not be a deduction for an HSA contribution since that amount would be excluded from the amount of taxable income in the W-2 Box 1 (plus excluded from Boxes 3 & 5 for Social Security and Medicare). In other words, it's a pre-tax contribution, like a regular 401(k) employee contribution, so no deduction would be taken on the tax return since taxable W-2 income has already been reduced. If the code W amount is wrong, it doesn't necessarily follow that there would be an additional HSA deduction to claim on the 1040.

However, if an employee with such an HSA contribution amount on the W-2 also makes a direct contribution to their HSA without going through the employer, assuming they have eligibility to contribute additional amounts, then that employee would get a deduction for that amount on the HSA deduction line of the 1040.
111
Posts: 211
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2012 4:20 am

Re: Pay Stub question- HSA

Post by 111 »

My Box 12 had contributions made by salary deductions. At the end of the year I was $200 short of the limit, so I contributed that directly and took it as a deduction.

Turbotax kept including the amount in Box 12 as part of my taxable income, so they were saying that I owed like $800 while TaxAct said I was due a $400 refund. They also kept trying to force me to pay for the Deluxe version, so maybe if I did that they would have corrected it, but treating it incorrectly in the first place takes away all confidence I have in their product so I just went with TaxAct.

edited to correct: Box 12 only listed my contributions by salary deductions. Premium pass through contributions weren't listed anywhere.
HouseStark
Posts: 324
Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2012 2:31 pm
Location: Minneapolis, MN

Re: Pay Stub question- HSA

Post by HouseStark »

111 wrote:My Box 12 had contributions made by salary deductions. At the end of the year I was $200 short of the limit, so I contributed that directly and took it as a deduction.

Turbotax kept including the amount in Box 12 as part of my taxable income, so they were saying that I owed like $800 while TaxAct said I was due a $400 refund. They also kept trying to force me to pay for the Deluxe version, so maybe if I did that they would have corrected it, but treating it incorrectly in the first place takes away all confidence I have in their product so I just went with TaxAct.

edited to correct: Box 12 only listed my contributions by salary deductions. Premium pass through contributions weren't listed anywhere.
Without knowing the details of the operations of either TurboTax or TaxAct, a ready guess why the program would try to include the HSA contributions in Box 12 in taxable income would be that your eligibility to contribute to an HSA had not been established somewhere in the interview or input process.
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