Question

HSA contribution Line 6 on form 8889 does not match line 5

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
April 1, 2023
2 replies
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My husband and I have been covered under a HDHP since a couple of years. He does have a HSA and has contributed to it through his employer (deductions from his wages). We did not use any of the money.

I am a bit confused that line 6 on form 8889 does not match line 5.

Line 6 states "Enter the amount from line 5. But if you and your spouse each have separate HSAs and had family coverage under an HDHP at any time during 2022, see the instructions for the amount to enter."

Line 6 does not give us the maximum family coverage from line 5 but only the amount that my husband contributed to his HSA. Is this how it should be in our situation? As I said above, we did not have separate HSAs, only my husband has one.

Thanks!

J

JohnW152

This doesn't sound correct, based on what you're saying. Go back into TurboTax and check your inputs.

With TurboTax open:

Type form 8889 into the search box in the upper right
Select the Jump to form 8889 link
On the Your HSA summary screen, select Edit
On the Tell us about the health-related accounts you had in 2022 page, make sure that only the box for your husband next to Health Savings Account is checked, then select Continue
Continue through the HSA screens
Answer Yes on the Was [husband] covered by a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) in 2022? screen. Then, answer the What type of HDHP coverage did [husband] have during 2022? Appropriately

Also, check whether any Form W-2 you have (as opposed to your husband) has a Code W and amount in Box 12. If so, that indicates that your company made HSA contributions for you. This could also be affecting what you're seeing.

If this doesn't address your issue, please post back.

M

McmargotAuthor

Thank you so much for looking into this, John!

I did everything of the above and it does not make a difference for line 6 of form 8889. Also, neither me nor my employer contributed to an HSA and my box 12d is empty and does not have a code W.

My husband did not contribute the maximum amount of 7300 dollar but only slightly above 3000 dollar through payroll deductions (which goes on line 9 of form 8889). Is this what causes line 6 to be that amount and not the full 7300 dollar?

As far as I understand it, as the amount on line 2 is 0 anyway, it does not seem to affect our taxable income because this makes our HSA deduction to remain 0.

B

BillM223

Line 6 is used by TurboTax to allocate the Family HDHP contribution limit between you and your spouse. Line 6 may or may not be the same as line 5, and it is not something to worry about.

"Line 6 does not give us the maximum family coverage from line 5 but only the amount that my husband contributed to his HSA. " This can happen as part of the allocation - TurboTax knows how much your spouse contributed so it allocates just enough of the Family coverage to cover that amount. The rest it allocates to you.

Essentially, you should not read the instructions for the 8889 and compare it to what TurboTax is doing, because the IRS instructions are discussing philosophy while TurboTax is handling the actual computation.

What's important is what appear in the final results for the 8889. Do you have any concerns about the final results for the 8889?

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M

McmargotAuthor

Ok, thanks, Bill, that explains a lot! I was only looking into this because when comparing my return from last year and the present return, I noticed the difference on line 6 (despite the situation being exactly the same). But in both cases, the end result on line 13 is a deduction of 0 dollars. So much ado about nothing, it turns out.

Thanks for reassuring me on this one!