How to apportion a family HSA deduction, 50/50 or 100/0?

[kenc295]

How should a family HSA deduction be apportioned?  This is an after tax self contribution, no employer.

I am over 55 so can deduct $8100 per year for my wife and I as a family deduction. I declared it in turbotax as $4050 for me and $4050 for my wife.   I see $8100 appears on 1040 line 10a, but on form 8889 line 2 (etc) only $4050 is declared, and $8100 appears nowhere.   Should I have declared $8100 for myself and $0 for my wife rather than $4050/$4050?

[BillM223]

"I declared it in turbotax as $4050 for me and $4050 for my wife."

I take this to mean that your spouse had her own HSA, right? HSAs are owned by an individual, not jointly.

"I see $8100 appears on 1040 line 10a"

Really, it's on line 12 of Schedule 1 (1040), which flows to line 10a on the 1040.

"but on form 8889 line 2 (etc) only $4050 is declared"

Yes, that is the 8889 for one of you. If your spouse also had an HSA, then there should be 2 8889s, one for each of you. And both of them, in this case, will have $4,050.

However, into which HSA did you actually make the contribution? Since you appear to have two HSAs, then you should have entered the dollars into the HSA where you actually made the contributions.

So if your spouse didn't have an HSA, come back and tell us, because we'll need to fix something.

[kenc295]

No, I just opened one HSA for the both of us.  Hopefully, that wasn't incorrect?

[Opus 17 · Accepted solution]

An HSA only belongs to one person.  If you want to allocate contributions between spouse’s, each spouse must have a separate HSA.  Otherwise, report the contributions to the person who owns the HSA.  

[Opus 17]

@kenc295 

an HSA is an individually owned account. If you want to contribute money to both spouses, then both spouses need accounts. Note that this will increase your eligibility slightly if you are both over age 55.

The overall family limit for you and your spouse if you are covered by a family HSA is $7200 for 2021, or $7100 for 2020. There is a $1000 per year catch up provision for each person who is age 55 or older. The $7100 or $7200 family limit can be split between HSA‘s in any way that you want, but the $1000 catch-up provision can only be contributed to the persons specific account.

So if you and your spouse are both age 55 or older, your real maximum is $9100 for 2020 or $9200 for 2021. You can still make retroactive contributions for 2020 if you open an HSA and make the contribution before May 17. Remember that the $1000 catch-up provision is individualized, so if you have two accounts and you’re both age 55 or older, you can contribute $1000 to one account and $8100 to the other account, or $4550 to each account, but you can’t contribute $9100 to a single account.