I made my HSA contribution for TY 2016 during 2017. What should I enter for 5498-SA box 2 for TY 2017?

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
June 5, 2019
2 replies
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I am self-employed and made my TY 2016 HSA contribution (max amount: $3350) while I was working on my taxes during 2017. My Form 5498-SA says that I contributed $3350 to my HSA during 2017, but I already took this deduction on my taxes for 2016. For TY 2017, I haven't contributed anything to it, although this might change.

If I enter $3350 for my contributions during 2017 again, my refund goes up significantly. But I think I've already taken the deduction for this contribution last year.

So instead of entering $3350 for 5498-SA box 2, should I enter $0 until I've made another contribution?

TurboTax Home & Biz Mac

Best answer by dmertz

Form 5498-SA box 1 is not for HSA contributions at all. Box 1 is for Archer MSA contributions. If you made an HSA contribution yet it appears in box 1, contact the account administrator.

Any HSA contribution made in 2017 should appear in box 2 of the 2017 Form 5498 regardless of whether the contribution was for 2016 or 2017. If this contribution was made for 2016, it should also be present in box 3 of your 2016 Form 5498-SA. The HSA contributions for any given year is the sum of the box 2 and box 3 amounts on that year's Form 5498-SA minus any amount in box 2 that represents a contribution reported in box 3 of the previous year's Form 5498-SA.

Since you are self-employed and do not receive a W-2, your HSA contribution would be reported as a personal contribution. Since Forms 5498-SA typically are sent after the due date of your tax return, one normally enters the contribution amount based on personal records.

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dmertzAnswer

Employee

Form 5498-SA box 1 is not for HSA contributions at all. Box 1 is for Archer MSA contributions. If you made an HSA contribution yet it appears in box 1, contact the account administrator.

Any HSA contribution made in 2017 should appear in box 2 of the 2017 Form 5498 regardless of whether the contribution was for 2016 or 2017. If this contribution was made for 2016, it should also be present in box 3 of your 2016 Form 5498-SA. The HSA contributions for any given year is the sum of the box 2 and box 3 amounts on that year's Form 5498-SA minus any amount in box 2 that represents a contribution reported in box 3 of the previous year's Form 5498-SA.

Since you are self-employed and do not receive a W-2, your HSA contribution would be reported as a personal contribution. Since Forms 5498-SA typically are sent after the due date of your tax return, one normally enters the contribution amount based on personal records.

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dolphinAuthor

Employee

@dmertz and @TurboTaxBillMc - My mistake, the 5498-SA form does tell me that it is $3350 for box 2. Box 1 and box 3 (Total HSA or Archer MSA contributions made in *2018 for 2017* [not 2017 for 2016]) are both blank. However, I logged into my HSA's website and my contribution is showing as being for 2016 (which from my intention is correct), not 2017. I don't have any forms for 2016 available on their website because I had reopened my account in early 2017 to make this contribution. I'll email the HSA administrator right now to see what I can find out.

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BillM223

When you made the contribution for your HSA in early 2017 (OK as long as it is before the due date of the return), did you specify to the HSA administrator that this $3,350 was for 2016 not 2017? If not, the default action by the HSA administrator would have been to apply it to 2017.

If they applied it to 2017, then you should not have taken the "deduction" on your 2016 return.

Since it has been a year since these events occurred, I think that it is too late to get the HSA administrator to change the 2017 contribution to 2016 as it should have been, so you will have to amend your 2016 return to remove that "deduction".

Don't change the entry for 2017, because that would be making two errors instead of one - although the net effect may be close to the same (it depends on your marginal tax rate among other things), if the IRS notices the discrepancies, they will make you amend both returns.

Just leave the contribution as is for 2017, and go back and amend your 2016 return. Note that interest is running on the amount that will be due on 2016, so don't put it off.

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dolphinAuthor

Employee

@TurboTaxBillMc On the administrator's website, the contribution shows up as being during early April 2017 for tax year 2016. This was when I reopened my HSA. However, the administrator never gave me tax forms for tax year 2016. It sounds like they need to give me a (corrected?) 5498-SA for TY 2016 and also correct the 5498-SA for TY 2017. I just emailed them about this. They had to send me the tax forms for 2016 by January 31st (2017), but I had until April 15th (2017) to make a contribution for 2016. Because that contribution was after January 31 but before April 15, do they need to send me a corrected form?