Implement Health Savings Accounts (HSA) (6 Merged Votes)

rgumpertz

Please implement HSAs, similar to Keoghs and 529s, but different

Eric

Although an FSA is technically just like a savings account, it is locked to a single year. In addition, it starts out with a balance upon which to draw throughout the year, which is paid back to "0" by pretax payroll deductions.
Neither the Credit Card nor Checking Account versions work to accurately track, especially across a calendar year. You can continue submitting reimbursement requests up until March 31 of the year after the benefit year.
Using a credit card or checking account template is impossible to reconcile because of the lack of an end date. The only other option is creating a new FSA for each calendar year. That's inefficient.
It would be nice to have the template for FSA and HSA accounts as a New Account option.

Dazza

Eric,

What I do is create a "Property and Debt" account for my HSA.  Every month when I get my statement (in the mail or online), I reconcile that account.  You should also link your paycheck to this account too.  

NotACPA

I've had my wife's HSA account in Q for 5 years.  It's set up as a Savings account, with the proper tax attributes set.

Other HSA accounts, that I've red about on this forum, are set up as Investment accounts, with the proper tax attributes set.

SO, what would you expect Q to do that it's not already doing?  An HSA account isn't a specific "type" (like checking, savings, investment), so how could Q do things differently?

rgumpertz

When you look at Edit Account Details, whet do you see for the Account Type? For IRAs, the Account Type is IRA. For a 529 Plan, it is "529 Plan". Why is there no Account Type for HSAs? (They would be similar to but subtly different from Roth IRAs.)

What do you mean by "with the proper tax attributes set"? What attributes did you set and where? If you are referring to the "Tax Schedule" sub-menu of Edit Account Details, what did you choose for each of "Transfers in" and "Transfers out"?

For contributions made between January 1 and April 15, how do you record whether the contribution is for the current year or the preceding year (as is implemented by Quicken for IRAs)?

NotACPA

Retracting a bit of my earlier comment.  I have NO tax attributes set for her HSA ... this is because all of the Transfers IN come from her paycheck (where they're set as "Pre-Tax Deductions") and there are no Transfers OUT (the expenses paid from the HSA go to an "HSA Expense" category that has no tax attribute. 

And since all of her contributions to the HSA come from her paycheck, they get recorded in the same year as the paycheck, and in the same manner as is reported on her W-2. So  1/1 to 4/15 isn't an issue for us.

Thomas Poag

2020 and the 8889 is still not available. What is to be done?

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: Why isn't there a tax line item for HSA contributions (form 8889) in Quicken 2014?.

K.O. (Win-Premier)

There are many missing tax line in Quicken (unfortunately).

Quicken - If you aren't going to update the tax lines please allow us to enter our own tax lines and map them to categories.

gwiljr

HSAs (Health Spending Accounts) are becoming more and more prevalent. Would you please consider the implementation of HSAs as a part of Quicken's functionality. I have attempted to implement a HSA and corresponding transactions as best as I can, but cannot get the correct reporting, nor can I get the summarized data to transfer to TurboTax as needed for my yearly tax return. I will be glad to provide whatever information/experience I can to help in the study and development of HSA functionality in Quicken and the successful transfer of data to TurboTax.

NotACPA

There is NOTHING about an HSA that setting it up properly, with the proper Tax Deferred status, can't handle.

AND, there is nothing special about an HSA account that can't be managed with the current options.

If I could, I'd vote AGAINST this idea.

Snoopy FC

Same thing applies to Quicken on Mac.  We could use an HSA Investment account setup too.  

sanden

HSA setup is not intuitive and I also would like HSA investment support in Q. HSAs don't have to be like a savings account.

NotACPA

Like an HSA savings account, an HSA investment account is just a regular investment account with special tax attributes set.

It's NOT a unique account type.

I'd vote against this idea also.

rgumpertz

An HSA is tax exempt, not tax deferred. Normal (health-related) distributions and (helath-related) transfers do NOT incur any tax liability.

So please tell me what are the "special tax attributes" that should be set?

Yes, it should be easy for Quicken programmers to implement as a variant of IRAs, but it is not easy for the end-user.

NotACPA

rgumpertz said:

An HSA is tax exempt, not tax deferred. Normal (health-related) distributions and (helath-related) transfers do NOT incur any tax liability.

And that can all be set via the Tax Attributes of the account.  STILL, no HSA type needed.

Also, any non-health related expenditures from the account ARE taxable.  So, it's not entirely tax-exempt.

rgumpertz

So please tell me what are the "special tax attributes" that should be set?

NotACPA

Payroll transfers into the HSA are recorded, in Q's Paycheck Wizard, as "Pre-Tax Deductions".

Payments from the HSA are recorded to a special Category that I created "HSA Expenses".

It's that simple.

rgumpertz

My HSA is funded directly by me, not by an employer, so "Pre-Tax Deductions" is irrelevant. Instead, transfers to my HSA need to be HAS Contributions (analogous to IRA contributions). The earnings in my HSA have to be marked as tax-exemp (again, like an IRA). Transfers out of my HSA to reimburse my eligible expenses have to reduce my total Medical Expense tax deduction. (There are probably a few other details that I haven't thought of on the fly!)

How do I do all that with a normal account without using at least a few kludges?

NotACPA

On what line of your Federal tax return do you report HSA contributions?

There's no "Tax Exempt" setting in Q.  You'll need to settle for Tax Deferred.

On what line do you report those HSA expenses?

rgumpertz

HSA contributions are reported on Form 8889 and then go to Schedule 1 (Form 1040) Line 12.

Actually, Quicken does have a provision for Tax Exempt earnings for Roth IRAs. HSAs could be implemented similarly to:
- traditional IRAs for contributions
- Roth IRAs for earnings
- Roth IRAs for qualified distributions
I don't remember whether Quicken implements non-qualified distributions for Roth IRAs; I vaguely recall that it does not. If it does implement them, however, then HSAs would be implemented analogously.

HSA distributions are reported on Form 8889

imdcareys

HSA contributions have an Annual Maximum Limit that can be made. The limit can be different depending on the taxpayer's situation. You can contribute to an HSA through payroll deductions (before tax). You can also contribute with after tax dollars from 1/1 of the current year through 4/15 of the next year. So, you do need a way to show all three of these for proper preparation of the 8889. You could have categories for "current year HSA contributions" both for payroll deductions and direct contributions and "contributions for prior year HSA (through 4/15)". These three could be exported for tax return data with their own Tax Related Category. You should be able to export from the subsequent year contributions based on the date of your contribution entries.

HSA Distributions and HSA Qualified Expenses are two different things and are not necessarily equal. Distributions that are not also Expenses are taxable, so both of these would need to be tracked separately (i.e. with Tax Related Categories).

This is all reported on Form 8889 (see attached 2018 form). If an HSA Deduction is computed there, it goes to Form 1040 Schedule 1, Line 25. If a Taxable HSA Distribution is computed there, it goes to Form 1040 Schedule 1, Line 21. There is also a potential 20% additional tax which you can refer to Form 8889 for details.

I have upvoted this idea.

AaronD

I would also appreciate this feature.

GPO

I believe is a needed feature. It's a different type of account, pre-tax, limitations, different tax info to report, saving and brokerage as you can invest in mutual funds.

Richard Murphy

Thumbs up for this idea. An HSA has a unique set of implications that would be best handled by its own account type. This account should have cash in and out capabilities, and include the ability to invest utilizing brokerage account features. Although I'm posting this in the windows section, I'm using Premier 2020.

gjeffhall

HELLO Quicken! YES, let's get this done. Keep Quicken as the premier financial software and give the customers what they are asking for and need.

johan peeters

I agree and believe in the benefit to have this type of account options, specially if the HSA is setup with investment options

Chris_QPW

As I read through this thread one thing jumps out at me, and that is in fact there isn't any such thing as a "HSA account type".  Just in this thread alone I see at least a three different kinds of HSA accounts.  Some people "savings accounts", other "investment accounts" others talk about accounts that seem to be a mix of the two.

What's more there is the talk about things that are completely outside of just the account type.  As in the limits and tax ramifications.

If I have an IRA or 401K account they certainly have limits, but there isn't anything in Quicken that is going to limit these.   And the tax ramifications are "carried out" more in the reports and tax planner, life planner and such than actually in the account itself.

What's more again just going by what was stated in this thread (I don't have any of these accounts and haven't looked up all the rules), but looking at this post:

"HSAs could be implemented similarly to:
- traditional IRAs for contributions
- Roth IRAs for earnings
- Roth IRAs for qualified distributions"

That sounds extremely complicated to implement, and I don't even know all the places that it might come up.  It is easy to state that this is like that and that is like that, but when you are picking an choosing different "like thats" for different parts that strike me as a programmer a lot of "custom code" for this account type in lots of places.

pklocke

in a way, it is really an investment account, or perhaps more specifically, an asset account (which is how I use it). My accounts get very minimal interested quarterly, thus my point on investment. But as an Asset account, the combination of transactions using my old Accounting 101 mindset, how do you handle:

1) Contributions to the account during your working years (if a retiree savings account)
2) Payments to providers
3) Reimbursements sent to me from the account, when I file paper work, and ...
4) How do I manage this from a budgeting perspective?

For example, as a retiree, I have budgeted my monthly (hopefully planned) best guess at what my medical costs might be. But, if I am getting reimbursed from my asset account, does this make it an expense, or....????? (that is offset)?

Example:
1) Go to dentist and he charges you $100. I enter this transaction on my credit card account with category of Dental (I set this when I see it on my credit card download)
2) I get my copy of dentist bill and file for reimbursement
3) I get a deposit in my checking account (or could have been a check). What Category do I use for this? Dental?

In the example, I have shown against my budget the $100 Spend for Dental, but when I am reimbursed, if I "credit" the Dental item, I am back to zero $ spend. Does not reflect what is happening.

Meanwhile, my HSA is not changing at all. So I am manually entering an adjustment to match the reduction, but this seems "so not right" in my old Acct 101 "T-Accounts" mind.

Pat

mehranmoss

Obviously and surely adding a HSA account type in Quicken is possible and wouldn't take years!

kformella

Adding the HSA feature to Quicken is most helpful for me because of the different tax treatment in my STATE. I can set up a Roth IRA account or some other round-about method of tracking contributions and withdrawals accurately enough for my FEDERAL return, but my STATE does not handle them the same way. Without being properly characterized for both federal and state returns, there it no way to accurately import my Quicken data into Turbo Tax and I'm always concerned about the accuracy of my numbers when I have to adjust some of them once their imported to TT.