There was a problem with getting my Health Savings Account (HSA) funded because it says it can be funded with pre-tax dollars but the lady at the payroll office did not even TRY to help me out and just kept repeating that my company did not offer a HSA.
On the Chase website it clearly states that you can request that your employer fund your account with pretax dollars so I was pretty confused when the person in the payroll department said they did not do that.
After a few phone calls I spoke to someone at Chase who gave me a new routing number and my HSA account number told me all I had to do was get the payroll department to make pretax contributions to that account using that information. It was too late to get the payroll department back on the line at the time so I had to wait until the following week to speak to payroll.
I am actually going to wait until I get the documents from Chase concerning my HSA so that I do not have to do battle with payroll about WHY they need to do a pretax deduction….since the payroll person simply has no concept of how to fund the HSA because NO ONE ELSE has done it with my company.
I may be mistaken, but an HSA is not something every company offers (nor is required to offer) as part of its benefits package. I know mine is actually phasing it out because it is so unpopular. However, you can take a tax deduction for whatever you contribute (up to the limit) before April 15 of the next year, as long as the contribution is denoted for the tax year. I actually like the HSA plan, just don’t go the hospital with it because it is known as the rinky dink plan, with extremely high out of pocket expenses. If you are in good health, yes. If you go to the doctor regularly for anything, no go. I even get charged out of pocket for annual exam blood tests.
Why don’t you talk to someone in HR then?
I did speak to HR (as I mentioned in the post) and they are the ones who are saying it cannot be done…because they have never done it before.
Sorry. I didn’t realize payroll and HR are in the same department at your place of employment.
My wife and I owned an 148 unit apartment complex and we had 4 1/2 full time employees…The true definition of SMALL business. Although no one else in the area or industry was doing it we had company paid insurance and HSAs for each of our emploees.
Every month we would put $ 100 in the savings account towards their $ 1,800 deductible. Employees that stayed 18 months, without a medical claim, had enough in their account to pay their entire deductible.
We liked the HSA concept (thank you Pres Bush) and it allowed us to provide ins for employees that otherwise would not have coverage.
We also had profit sharing…Under the Obamby plan we’d be FORCED to provide ins and the higher cost would probably eliminate any profit sharing… You don’t get something for nothing!!!
I admire those writers who share the best of their knowledge in writing such articles. Keep up the good work and continue inspiring readers.Thank you so much.
Sounds like a frustrating situation. Just because nobody else has done this, they just don’t know how to do it. Hopefully the documentation from Chase helps.
It’s a shame that HR have been sop useless in this situation. Though from my experience in previous jobs ive worked in HR are generally pretty unsupportive. I wish you the best of luck in getting this sorted.