Can I "remove" excess HSA contributions made in 2024 by having enough qualified medical expenses submitted for distribution in 2024?
I accidentally "funded" ie overfunded my HSA account in December. However I have taken distributions for qualified medical expenses throughout the year that exceed the over funding. So can I count those qualified medical expenses as removing the over funding?
No.
The best solution is to withdraw the amount of this excess, but you have to do this before April 15th of this year.
If you no longer have enough cash in the HSA to be able to do that, then the next best thing is to carry the excess over to next year. You will be dinged a 6% penalty. But next year (tax year 2025, so "this year"), the carryover will be applied as a personal contribution on line 2 on the 8889. So you need to reduce your HSA contributions so that the carryover can be included under the 2025 HSA contribution limit (or else the excess perpetuates).
Note that if you do not withdraw the entire excess on the screen on which TurboTax reports the excess, then TurboTax will automatically carry the excess to 2025's tax return.
Note that you do not need to tell your HSA custodian anything - this is your paperwork issue, not theirs.
If you are able to use up the carryover in 2025, then the excess will be gone.