Mistaken HSA contributions

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) have become increasingly popular over the past decade. When combined with a qualified high deductible health plan (HDHP), an HSA allows an individual to save money to be used on qualifying medical expenses at a later date. Employees may elect to contribute money to their HSA account on a pre-tax basis through their employer’s cafeteria plan. Employers aren’t required to contribute to employees’ HSA accounts, but many choose to do so as part of their health insurance program. 

Unfortunately, mistakes can and do occur when administering HSA contributions. Employers may think mistakes are easy to fix, but the HSA regulations are very particular about when (or even if) a mistaken HSA contribution can be recovered. Employers frequently can’t recover the funds even if the HSA holder/employee agrees to the recoupment. However, the IRS does allow an employer is allowed to recover the mistaken contributions in certain situations.  

Employee Was Never HSA Eligible 

If HSA contributions are made to an employee who was never an HSA-eligible individual, the employer can recover the amounts. The employer may request the bank administering the HSA to return the funds.  This option is not available if the employee was eligible for even one month during the year.

Administrative or Process Error

The IRS recently released General Information Letter 2018-0033 clarifying when and how to fix certain HSA contribution mistakes. If there is clear documentary evidence of an administrative or procedural error, the employer may request the HSA bank return the money to the employer so all parties are in the same position before the mistake was made. Examples of the types of mistakes that may be corrected include:

• Withholding and contribution of amount in excess of the employee’s HSA salary reduction election;
• Incorrect entries by payroll administrators;
• Excess amount due to duplicate payroll files being accessed;
• Employee payroll election change is not timely processed resulting in wrong amount being withheld;
• Incorrect HSA contribution amount calculation;
• Wrong decimal entry;
• Incorrect spreadsheet being accessed; and 
• Employee name confusion.

The above list is not exhaustive and only contains examples of administrative and procedural errors that can be fixed. Employers should maintain documentation to support their decision to correct a mistaken contribution. Documentation should include details on the type of mistake, how it occurred, the impact and the steps the employer took to correct the mistake. 

Employee Is No Longer HSA Eligible 

Another common mistake is for an HSA holder to continue contributing to their HSA when they are no longer eligible.  Individuals must be enrolled in a HDHP and have no disqualifying coverage (such as enrollment in Medicare/Medicaid or coverage under a general purpose FSA or HRA) to be able to contribute to an HSA account. 

The 2019 annual HSA contribution limit for those with self-only HDHP coverage is $3,500 and $7,000 for those with family HDHP coverage.  HSA holders who lose HSA eligibility during the year will have their annual contribution maximum pro-rated for the months in which they were HSA eligible. HSA holders who are eligible as of December 1st may contribute up to the annual maximum, regardless of only being HSA eligible for part of the year, as long as they retain HSA eligibility through the end of the following calendar year.1  

Corrective Distributions

If an individual makes or receives contributions in excess of their annual HSA contribution limit, including contributions received from an employer that the employer is unable to recoup as described earlier, they may be subject to a cumulative 6% excise tax for each year the impermissible contributions remain in the HSA. 

To avoid this penalty, the excess contributions must be distributed to the account holder before the account holder’s federal income tax return filing deadline for that taxable year (typically April 15th). HSA holders must also be careful also include the net income attributable to such excess contributions in their gross income for the taxable year in which the distribution was received. This is done by notifying the HSA bank of a need for a corrective distribution. The HSA bank will provide the account holder with the necessary forms and information to make the corrective distribution. We recommend HSA holders work with a tax advisor to correct any HSA errors.

[1] This is described in more detail in “Frequently Misunderstood Health Savings Account Issues” appearing earlier in this newsletter.