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February 14, 2024
Question

Confusion about Prior HSA Excess Contributions

  • February 14, 2024
  • 1 reply
  • 0 views

I made excess contributions to an HSA in 2021 in the amount of $3400 and just paid the 6% excise tax in 2022 ($204).

 

Then in 2023, I got married. My wife *also* had her own HDHP+HSA for every month in 2023, and both of us made the maximum contributions to our individual HSAs hrough our employers ($3850). No excess.

 

In TurboTax Desktop, when entering the information for this, it all got pulled in from our W-2s correctly (category W in box 12), and I made sure to enter $0 for additional contributions. I also made sure to enter that we were both covered by our own self-only plans for all months of the year.

 

But when reviewing the final data and forms (Form 8889, and the TurboTax EasyStep as well), it is saying there are now $6800 in excess contributions instead of $3400, and it lists a $3400 excess for tax year 2023. It seems to be *copying* the excess from back in 2021 into tax year 2023, even though no excess contributions were made in 2023. Our collective through-the-employer contributions were 3850*2, which is under the maximum for two self-only HSA plans.

 

Is this a bug, or am I misunderstanding something related to both of us having our own self-only plans?

 

FWIW, I aim to "resolve" the excess situation in tax year 2024 by under-contributing by $3400 to what is now a *Family* plan for both us on a merged HDHP. But obviously if the $6800 is real I might need to do that twice...

 

Thanks!

    1 reply

    Employee
    February 14, 2024

    This is a result of a bug introduced with the February 8, 2024 update to 2023 TurboTax.  Intuit is aware of the problem.

     

    https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/insurance-medical-benefits/turbotax-desktop-2023-doubling-2022-excess-hsa/L72P4rWEt_US_en_US?uid=lsm9v2k5

    jhupAuthor
    February 14, 2024

    Wow, thank you!

     

    I wondered. Kept digging around in form 8889 and thinking "this makes no sense". But I called TurboTax and the person on the phone didn't seem to know about this bug, even after spending ~20 minutes checking...

     

    Thank you for saving me some time!