@atrengr
Believe me that you are not the first taxpayer puzzled by the way HSA contributions are handled in different years, and like you, it turns out that they made direct contributions one year and not the next.
As a bonus, please note that when you contribute to your HSA through your employer as I noted, the code W amount is removed from Wages in boxes 1, 3, and 5.
This means that you not only do not pay federal income tax on the HSA contributions, you don't pay any Social Security taxes or Medicare taxes either.
You don't get this bonus when you make the contributions directly to the HSA (it's a deduction only from federal income tax).
For most people, the SS tax and the Medicare tax add up to 7.65% of your Wages, so that's saving you 7.65% of the amount of the HSA contributions!
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