Health Care FSA

If you enroll in the PPO 1500 or PPO 750, you can open a Health Care FSA and contribute up to $3,050 tax free from your paycheck to reimburse yourself for out-of-pocket expenses, such as your portion of the medical deductible, prescription drugs, and eligible dental and vision expenses. The full amount you elect during enrollment is available, so you can start reimbursing yourself for eligible expenses from this account immediately. Plan carefully — if you don’t use all the money in your FSA to cover 2023 expenses, you will lose money remaining in your account at the end of the year. However, you can roll over up to $640 of unused funds from 2024 to 2025 if you have at least $40 in your account. Any amount under $40 will be forfeited.

Dependent Day Care FSA

The Dependent Day Care FSA allows you to set aside up to $5,000 if married filing jointly (up to $2,500 if married filing separately) tax free for eligible day care costs for children under age 13 or disabled dependents. This account cannot be used to reimburse health care expenses for your dependents — only to reimburse the cost of day care for your eligible dependents. Day care expenses include nursery schools, day care centers, adult day care centers, in-home providers and before- and after-school care.

You can contribute up to the IRS maximum through payroll deductions. Unlike the Health Care FSA, you can only be reimbursed with money actually in your account. This means you may want to wait before submitting your expenses until you have accumulated enough money in your account.

Please note: The IRS limits the amount highly compensated employees can contribute to the Dependent Day Care FSA. If your annual pay is $150,000 or more, your contributions will be capped at $750 in 2024.

Regardless of your income, consider consulting your tax advisor on how to get the full child care tax credit on your tax return.