Turbotax says excess HSA contribution - not true

[Mrerytr]

My husband and I both went on Medicare this year. We are both self-employed. 

We had a joint high deductible health plan in January.  February and March I had a high deductible health plan and he was on Medicare. In April-December we were both on Medicare. 

We jointly contributed $2325 to a single HSA.  Turbotax says he can contribute $775, so I gave him that share, leaving me claiming the remaining $1550.  Turbotax says my contribution could be $1663, which is more than I put in. 

Yet it says we contributed $609 too much.  I have tried starting over at the screen "Tell us about the health-related accounts you had in 2024" but it still says we had an excess contribution.  

[dmertz · Accepted solution]

HSAs are individual accounts, not joint accounts.  Your contribution cannot be made to your spouse's HSA and your spouse's HSA contribution cannot be made to your HSA.

In this case, the $775 contributed for your husband allocated to your husband all $692 of the family contribution limit for January eligibility plus his $83 catchup contribution.  For the two months that you had self-only HDHP coverage plus your own catchup for January through March, your maximum contribution to your HSA (not your husbands HSA) is $691 for self-only coverage plus your $250 catchup for a total of $941.  Your contribution of $1,550 exceeds $941 by the $609 that TurboTax reports.  $1,633 is the amount that you could have contributed had the $692 for January family HDHP coverage not been allocated to your husband's HSA.

However, assuming that all of the contributions were deposited into your husband's HSA, your husband has an excess contribution of $1,550 to his HSA and you have made no HSA contribution.

[Mrerytr]

Since I've been allowed to pay for my husband's or my expenses from the money I contribute - didn't realize we needed our own separate HSAs. I even called HSABank to ask what my max contribution could be and told them our situation.  They are the ones who came up with that number, but I'm thinking they steered us wrong. 

[dmertz]

If it's your HSA rather than your husband's HSA, the excess is different.  If that's the case, you've contributed $2325 to your HSA with only $1,633 being permitted, $693 is excess, and your husband has made no contribution.