BillM223
Expert Alumni

Get your taxes done using TurboTax

Well, it looks like I am going to have to explain the last-month rule after all - this is the source of the line 18 and onward entries.

 

The Tax Code allows you to take advantage of the "last-month" rule - that is, if you have HDHP coverage on December 1 of the year, you are permitted to use the full annual HSA contribution limit (otherwise the limit would be pro-rated by month).

 

The catch is that if you use the last-month rule to artificially inflate the annual HSA contribution limit, then you have to stay under HDHP coverage for the entire "testing" period, which means all the next year.

 

So, if you used the last-month rule on December 1, 2019 (and you did), then you had to stay under HDHP coverage for all of 2020.

 

Your results are consistent with you not indicating that each of you had HDHP coverage for all of 2020.

 

If you failed the testing period, then TurboTax asks you a series of questions to determine how much of an annual HSA contribution you would have been allowed had it not been for the last-month rule. Any HSA contributions over that would be considered in excess.

 

So, let me ask you:

1. You said that each of you had an HSA in 2019 and I presume 2020.

2. You had Self-only coverage for 7 months in 2019 then each of you went under a Family plan for the last 5 months.

3. Did you both have an HSA for 2020?

4. If so, what HDHP coverage did you indicate for each of you for 2020? I ask because the symptoms are that one or both of you did not indicate that you had HDHP coverage for the entire year of 2020.

5. Did you see the question, "What type of Hight Deductible Health Plan coverage did [name] have on December 1, 2019?" You may have seen this question for one or both of you. What were your answer(s)?

6. You should have seen question #5 only if you did not enter that each of you had HDHP coverage for all of 2020, which takes us back to #4.

 

Please tell me what your coverages were for each of you in 2019 and 2020, and let's figure this out.

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