What is your thinking about not using money in an HSA for medical expenses
if you can afford to pay from your other resources, to allow the HSA to
build up.  Assume a healthy, well off person, 50 years old, little medical
expenses or needs.  If they pay what little medical expenses they will have
out of pocket, their HSA will continue to build in value.

related questions:

once you are on Medicare, can you still have an HSA qualified insurance
coverage (like Medicare plus or some such thing) and still contribute to
HSA?

what happens to the HSA when you no longer need it?  Or when you die?

thanks.

I am anxious to see replies on these subjects.

once you are on Medicare, can you still have an HSA qualified
insurance coverage (like Medicare plus or some such thing) and still
contribute to HSA?

The general tax rule is "accelerate deductions,
defer income" - which appplies to a concept of
money that depreciates with time. When applied
to HSAs, that suggests spending tax-deducted
HSA dollars when you need to.

My thoughts-
Spend money in HSA now and get current tax deductions now.

The general tax rule is "accelerate deductions,
defer income" - which appplies to a concept of
money that depreciates with time. When applied
to HSAs, that suggests spending tax-deducted
HSA dollars when you need to.

jIM wrote:
My thoughts-
Spend money in HSA now and get current tax deductions now.

This might make sense, but spending the HSA money does not result in tax
deductions.  I tend to look at an HSA as another tax-advantaged savings
vehicle, so I would think that spending money out of pocket and keeping
the HSA intact would be beneficial.

Having said that, I have an HSA available to me and I opted for a PPO as
it appeared to be the better choice.  In addition, this particular HSA
has crappy investment options and high expenses meaning that depleting
the assets in the account as medical expenses come up might make more
sense anyway.

-Will

What is your thinking about not using money in an HSA for medical expenses
if you can afford to pay from your other resources, to allow the HSA to
build up. Assume a healthy, well off person, 50 years old, little medical
expenses or needs. If they pay what little medical expenses they will have
out of pocket, their HSA will continue to build in value.

jIM wrote:
My thoughts-
Spend money in HSA now and get current tax deductions now.


Money is deposited into HSA pre-tax (like a 401k)
Money is withdrawn from HSA pre-tax (like a Roth).

My thought is to avoid taxes on as much of my income and spending now
as possible.

"jIM" <noreplysoc...@hotmail.com> wrote in message

news:1ce83d8c-6307-459a-9a6d-02cd174939ef@59g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...

jIM wrote:
My thoughts-
Spend money in HSA now and get current tax deductions now.

Money is deposited into HSA pre-tax (like a 401k)
Money is withdrawn from HSA pre-tax (like a Roth).

My thought is to avoid taxes on as much of my income and spending now
as possible.

And because you have current large medical expenses which you will enter on
Schedule A, you will be getting another tax deduction this year, in addition
to the HSA contribution. Is that the trend of your thinking?

And because you have current large medical expenses which you will enter
on
Schedule A, you will be getting another tax deduction this year, in
addition
to the HSA contribution. Is that the trend of your thinking?


What makes you think I can deduct on schedule A? The medical bills
thus far for kids have been mostly covered by insurance. How much
expense would need to be out of pocket to put on schedule A?

Absent that...well you're missing out on a benefit of the HSA, which is
paying bills using before-tax dollars. In exchange you're able to leave
money invested tax-deferred, but on balance I think "immediate benefit"
wins out on this one. The medical expense is certain, the future
earnings in the account (relative to inflation, especially) is
uncertain.

I was thinking you were looking to get both the deduction for the
contribution to HSA and deduction for expense. How else would you be getting
a tax benefit for the expense?

Elizabeth Richardson
I was thinking HSA withdraws are tax free- so that is a tax benefit.

On Aug 20, 8:35 pm, Will Trice <n...@monitored.net> wrote:
jIM wrote:
My thoughts-
Spend money in HSA now and get current tax deductions now.
This might make sense, but spending the HSA money does not result in tax
deductions. I tend to look at an HSA as another tax-advantaged savings
vehicle, so I would think that spending money out of pocket and keeping
the HSA intact would be beneficial.

... I tend to look at an HSA as another tax-advantaged
savings vehicle, so I would think that spending money out of pocket
and keeping the HSA intact would be beneficial.

Tad Borek wrote:

Absent that...well you're missing out on a benefit of the HSA, which is
paying bills using before-tax dollars. In exchange you're able to leave
money invested tax-deferred, but on balance I think "immediate benefit"
wins out on this one. The medical expense is certain, the future earnings
in the account (relative to inflation, especially) is uncertain.

But a retiree is likely to have medical expenses also, no? So the money
in the HSA would still potentially be completely tax exempt.

Editorial: If Congress had wanted to do things right, it would not have
invented HSAs. Instead, they would have eliminated the 7.5% threshold for
anybody having a high-deductible health plan. That would have accomplished
the same objectives with far less bureaucratic rigmarole (IMO).

Editorial: If Congress had wanted to do things right, it would not have
invented HSAs. Instead, they would have eliminated the 7.5% threshold for
anybody having a high-deductible health plan. That would have accomplished
the same objectives with far less bureaucratic rigmarole (IMO).

But a retiree is likely to have medical expenses also, no? So the money
in the HSA would still potentially be completely tax exempt.

More than potentially...
It doesn't seem to matter if you have the expenses in 2008 and withdraw the
HSA money in 2025, using the 2008 expenses to offset the HSA withdrawal.