Question

My W2 lists an HSA contribution for 2021 but the software is marking it for 2020

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
February 21, 2021
1 reply
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My W2 lists an HSA contribution for 2021 but the software is marking it for 2020. My 2020 W2 contains $500 in box 12 but it is not for 2020 rather was a contribution towards 2021. I did not have an HSA in 2020 so I'm not able to complete my taxes. It keeps telling to pick Self-Only or Family for HDHP but I never had an HDHP for 2020. I have one for 2021 and a PPO for 2020. This is preventing me from efiling my taxes. TurboTax already took $80 from my bank account so I need to complete filing my taxes. How should I proceed?

B

BillM223

What I hear you saying is that your employer made a contribution to your HSA in tax year 2020 when you didn't even have an HSA yet nor were qualified to have one.

This is just an error. You can't make contributions for HSA in future years.

Did your employer actually make this contribution during 2020, or did they make the contribution in early 2021 and thought that they should put it on your W-2 for 2020?

Either way, your employer made a mistaken and owes you a corrected W-2.

My guess is that your employer jumped the gun and made a contribution before the end of 2020. If so, rather than you having to fix their mistake, your employer is allowed by the IRS to reach into your HSA and obtain the return of the contribution if they subsequently realized that you were not eligible and therefore should never have made the contribution.

Then it would be logical for the employer to issue you a corrected W-2 with no entry of Code W in box 12.

Talk to your employer about a corrected W-2.

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A

akunaAuthor

Thank you so much for your response.

Yes, I did not have a HSA account in 2020 and the contribution was made for 2021 HSA account. My payroll coordinator said that because their system is set up in such a way that for the week ending on 2nd Jan 2021 employees got paid on 31st Dec 2020. Since the payroll was deducted on 2020, it is a part of 2020 W2.

They did jump the gun and withdrew the amount earlier for a future contribution. Is there any way to proceed if my employer cannot correct my W2? What are my options?

Before posting my initial question here, I asked my employer and they were vague about it gave the above response. I have reached out to them again asking for a new corrected W2 based on your response.