How much can my wife and I can contribute to an HSA for 2020? We are both over 55, were covered by a HDHP all year through my job. My wife began Medicare Part A in Oct.

[BillM223]

First, whose HSA is it, yours or your spouse's?

Second, what type of High Deductible Health Plan do you have: Self-only or Family?

If this is your HSA, then you can contribute $8,100 to your HSA for 2020 - even if you don't have the HSA yet - you can ask the HSA custodian to create it and make your contribution.

***Note: Normally you would have to make this contribution by April 15th. Last year, this was extended to July 15th along with everything else, but I have not heard what they are doing this year, so just make sure that you make the contribution before April 15th.

***NOTE NOTE: when you make the contribution make SURE that the HSA custodian knows that the contribution is for the year 2020, or else by default, they will apply it to 2021.

If the HSA belongs to your spouse, you can contribute 9 months worth of the $8,100, which is $6,075. But, really, make it your HSA since she can no longer contribute to an HSA.

Make sense?

[NCperson]

@BillM223 - can we please review the math? 

leaving the Medicare out of the equation for a moment, if She has Family and He has Self (which is permitted) as they are both over 55,  She can go as high as $7100 for Family plus $1000 for being over 55 and then He can contribute $1000 as Self because he is also over 55...... So it's really $9100, if you do it right.....

and those numbers include anything the employer may be contributing.  

then that has to be adjusted as you noted for the Medicare situation ( 9 months.) for Her.  So is the best strategy for Him to do Family @ $8100 and she does Self @ $1000 * .75???????  

[Opus 17]

@NCperson 

No, the wife’s catch-up is limited to $750 (9/12 of $1000).

@jeremy36 

If you are covered by a family HDHP, then your maximum contribution is $8100, your spouse’s maximum contribution is $6075, and your overall maximum is $8850.  Remember that each HSA is owned by a single person, and the over-55 catch-up contribution can only by added to that person’s own account.  

If you were covered by separate individual HDHPs, then your individual limit for 2020 is $4550 and your wife’s maximum is $3412.   

[BillM223 · Accepted solution]

"if She has Family and He has Self " - that isn't the terminology. If one spouse has Family HDHP coverage, then they both do, in terms of calculating the annual HSA contribution limit, no matter what their individual policies may say.

The $1,000 "bonus" is not a function of Family or Self but belongs to the HSA owned by someone who is 55+ and covered by some (any) sort of HDHP without conflicting coverage.

"So it's really $9100, if you do it right....." No, as Opus points out, if you have 2 HSAs in the mix, the max is in toto $8,850.

Having said that, I admit I was fixated on one HSA. Why? Because of "How much can my wife and I can contribute to an HSA for 2020?" Being a literal man, I thought in terms of one HSA.

But, even worse, I took this to mean that they had no HSA for 2020 at all. They might not for all I know and are just asking how to create and populate an HSA for 2020.

I presumed that if they had an HSA that he have it. I had the advantage of answering the identical question from Jeremy but for 2021, which was considerably easier since his spouse was not eligible to make any contributions at all in 2021.

So I carried over that "one HSA" thought to this question, which I answered subsequent to the 2021 question.

To your collective calculations, we agree that the maximum that he can contribute to his HSA is $8,100. Then as you two point out, if you add another HSA to the mix (and I still don't know if she has one or not, but she could create one retroactive to 2020), the maximum she could contribute to her HSA in this case is $750 (9 months of the $1,000 bonus).

This brings us to Opus's $8,850, although NCperson would have arrived at the same number had the calculation of "$1000 * .75???????  " been completed.

However, please note that in this case, it is absolutely irrelevant if the spouse had Self-only coverage from a different HDHP policy or was under his Family coverage. The moment that he had the Family coverage, they shared the $7,100 for the year.

It is true that you could not contribute more than $5,325 + $750 to her HSA, which would leave him $1,775 + $1,000 for his HSA, so $6,075 for her and $2,775 for him, which again adds up to the $8,850.

No matter how you allocate the $7,100 Family coverage, they must contribute at least $1,000 to his HSA and $750 to her HSA.

Thanks for bringing up the thought of a second HSA (if Jeremy was even thinking of it 😉 ) - not having that would have left $750 on the table.

[jeremy36]

Thank you all!!

I followed the responses as they came in and they all made sense, each in their own way, and they all got me to the same answer.  Which is great because math should do that - get to the same answer different ways.

To clarify my situation, since I was not as clear as I could have been (and knowing more now that I have seen your responses):

- My wife and I were both covered by my family HDHP for the entire 2020 year.

- My wife and I each have our HSA account

Net:  For 2020, I can contribute 8100 to my HSA (based on family plan and including my catch up) and my wife can contribute 750 to hers (9/12 x 1000). 

Thanks again, really appreciate everyone's time and advice!!!  And thank you to Bill for summarizing it all.

[NCperson]

@Opus 17 @BillM223 - I agree with what you now wrote; I was just trying to highlight that with the right strategy the maximum for this couple could really be $8850 (I execute this same strategy my self).

[Opus 17]

@jeremy36 

there are other ways that you and your spouse could split the contributions, but you have identified one of the correct ways that maximizes the benefit to you.