Federal return rejected - unable to answer medicare/hdhp question

[DAuman]

My federal tax return has been rejected twice for an issue in the HSA & HSA topic:

to resolve, I've been asked to walk through the the topic in the Deductions and Credits section, Medical section, and review my selections regarding Medicare and HDHP coverage.  I do not have Medicare but I do have an HDHP.  There isn't a question within the section to attest to the fact that I don't have Medicare.  Please advise how to resolve this issue.

[BillM223]

Can you tell us what the exact reject code and message are? You are right that there is no place in the HSA interview where you can say "I do not have Medicare", but I can't imagine the situation in which the Review process would care.

So help me out please with additional detail so that I can help you.

[DAuman]

here is the message that I received:

TY25_HSA - There is a potential issue related to HSA, MSA Contributions.

the instructions from Turbo tax  for how to fix are:

There is a potential issue related to HSA, MSA Contributions

We've identified an issue in your federal tax return in HSA & MSA topic. To review and re-submit your return: 1) Navigate to the Deductions and Credits section in Federal. 2) Select the HSA, MSA topic under the medical section. 3) Walk through the topic and review your sections regarding Medicare and HDHP coverage. 4) Once you've reviewed your HSA & MSA entries and confirmed all of your information is correct, then proceed to Finish & File and re-submit your return.

I followed all of these steps and re-submitted the return. But the return was rejected a second time for the same reason.

[BillM223]

So did this happen in the Federal Review and not after you clicked on File now?

I don't know that I have ever seen this message and it certainly doesn't make sense to me. However, I don't want to leave you hanging over the holiday weekend...

Let's do this - on the assumption that there is an unknown something in your HSA data that is upsetting the Review, please do an HSA Reset to delete all of your HSA data so you can restart the process.

HSA RESET

***Reset***

1. make a copy of your W-2(s) (if you don't have the paper copies)

2. delete your W-2(s) (use the garbage can icon next to the W-2(s) on the Income screen)

*** Desktop/Windows***

3. Go to the upper right and click on Forms, and 

4. Select the desired form (1099-SA (if one), 8889-T, and 8889-S (if one)). Note the Delete Form button at the bottom of the form’s screen.

*** Desktop/Mac***

3. Switch to Forms Mode by selecting the Forms icon.

4. From the menu, select the form (1099-SA (if one), 8889-T, and 8889-S (if one)) you want to remove (if you don't see it, select Open Form at the top). From the Forms menu, select Remove [form name].

*** Online ***

3. go to Tax Tools (on the left), and navigate to Tools->Delete a form 

4. delete form(s) 1099-SA (if one), 8889-T, and 8889-S (if one)

5. go back and re-add your W-2(s), preferably adding them manually

6. go back and redo the entire HSA interview....

If we don't hear from you, we'll know that it worked 😉

[DAuman]

I followed the reset instructions, deleted and re-entered by W-2s and HSA form.  I re-transmitted my returns.  both the Federal and State returns were immediately rejected again within 10 mins for the same reason.  I'm not sure what to do to be able to file my returns.  I don't have Medicare.

[jrbunke]

Hello

I am having the exact same issue.  The error message in the email from Intuit is:

"TY25_HSA - There is a potential issue related to HSA, MSA Contributions."

I'm using the Windows desktop version. I followed your steps exactly to delete the W2 (I only had one W2), Forms 8889-T and 8889-S and 1099-SA.

My return was rejected for the 4th time with this exact same message.

My scenario is very simple.  I contributed to an HSA through my employer, I contributed the maximum of 5300 for my age. I reported what was on my 1099-SA in the interview.

I compared my entries to what I did last year which was exactly the same except for the 1099-SA amounts.  So, I don't think I'm making any mistakes.  As you can tell from the error message, there is nothing specific it is pointing to as an issue.

The federal review within turbotax completes and indicates there are no errors in my return.

Any help would be appreciated.

[AnnetteB6 · Accepted solution]

If you are getting the HSA_2025 rejection code when trying to electronically file your return, try using the following steps to clear the internal condition that is causing the rejection code.  These steps have worked for some users to be able to refile with acceptance of their returns.  

Also, please note that you should not check the box indicating that you are ‘covered by Medicare’ unless you are receiving Medicare benefits rather than having HDHP insurance coverage.  This question is also asking about 2025, not 2026.  So if you are covered by Medicare in 2026, this check box does not apply to you.

Use these steps:

1. Go to Deduction and Credits > Medical > 1099-SA, HSA, MSA and click Update
2. Continue through the HSA section until you reach the page that asks if you were covered by a High Deductible Health Plan in 2025 and answer according to your situation.
3. Next, check any appropriate boxes on the page that asks Do any of these situations apply to you? (This is where it is important to be accurate about whether you were receiving Medicare benefits during 2025).
4. The next page asks what type of HDHP coverage did you have in 2025.  Check the box that says ‘I had different plan types at different times of the year’, then click Continue.  
5. On the next page, select the type of coverage for each month of the year according to your situation.  (If you were covered by Medicare in 2025, indicate that you had Medicare or None for any month you had Medicare coverage.)
6. Continue through the process to answer the same set of questions for your spouse, if applicable.
7. Keep clicking Continue until you are back at the main Deductions and Credits page.

At this point, you can go through the error check process and refile your return.

@DAuman 

@jrbunke 

[jrbunke]

Thank You AnnetteB6

After following your steps, my federal return was accepted. The only difference between what I was doing and your steps was that instead of selecting having the same self only coverage every month of the year, I selected ‘I had different plan types at different times of the year’ and on the next screen, I manually selected "Self Only" for all 12 months of the year.

Seems like it should have worked the way I was originally doing it. Hopefully intuit will fix this bug so that others will not be affected by it.

Thanks again.