Any contributions you personally made for HSA?

[BMcCalpin]

This is confusing for taxpayers.

In the eyes of the IRS, a "personal" contribution is one that you sent directly to the HSA custodian, i.e., not through your employer.

The contributions (if any) that you contribute by means of payroll deduction are part of what the IRS calls the "employer contribution".

That's OK, because you will get credit for it - the amount of the employer contribution is removed from Wages in boxes 1, 3, and 5 before your W-2 is printed. You don't see a deduction for the employer contribution because it was never in your income in the first place.

So if you made contributions to your HSA that were collected by your employer through payroll deduction, DO NOT ENTER THIS AMOUNT under "personal" contributions. You will make your form 8889 incorrect and likely get an excess contributions error message.