• Welcome to OGBoards 10.0, keep in mind that we will be making LOTS of changes to smooth out the experience here and make it as close as possible functionally to the old software, but feel free to drop suggestions or requests in the Tech Support subforum!

Family Care FSA

Stan Gable

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 1, 2011
Messages
2,392
Reaction score
229
Location
Adams College
Any advise for having a newborn? How easy is it to reimburse yourself for services that are our of pocket (baby sitters/nannies etc). My understanding is that whomever you pay will need to declare the income. Obviously, a large part of these services are under the table. I am allowed $5,000 pre tax contribution but lose it if not used. Will I regret maxing this out if I can't pay for ad hoc child care that may be off the books?

Thanks
 
We have one through my wife’s job. Pretty easy to run up $5K with daycare costs in Atlanta.

We just started using a part-time nanny since we pulled him out of daycare almost a full year ago, but we set up payroll and everything is managed by a third party service.
 
FSAs are super easy to use these days. Most adminstrators do self attestations. Fun fact....The annual contribution is available to you day 1 and if you quit your job and have already spent the $, your employer eats it (just as they keep any unused finds).
 
FSAs are super easy to use these days. Most adminstrators do self attestations. Fun fact....The annual contribution is available to you day 1 and if you quit your job and have already spent the $, your employer eats it (just as they keep any unused finds).

That is not a fun fact for us small employers who have had to eat that cash in the past! :rulz:
 
That is not a fun fact for us small employers who have had to eat that cash in the past! :rulz:

Easy fix...Just stop driving folks out the door. Hope you guys are well. Need to catch up.
 
Very easy to do for me, but we have daycare. I ask for an invoice every couple months covering the months I haven't yet claimed. Scan or photo it and send it in. Turnaround is usually a few days. If you need the money sooner than that, just get an invoice every month. The daycare should be used to such requests for FSAs. We hit that 5k cap within 6 months.

I did a medical account this year, but only made it for 1k and have only claimed $88 so far. Time to get some new glasses, I guess.
 
FSAs are super easy to use these days. Most adminstrators do self attestations. Fun fact....The annual contribution is available to you day 1 and if you quit your job and have already spent the $, your employer eats it (just as they keep any unused finds).

Not for a family care FSA. It is accrued throughout the year.
 
We did this for both kids (one left daycare as the other started).
A couple of things:
* The person needs to declare it as income (any licensed day care would be fine, but paying someone under the table would probably not allow you to get reimbursed).
* As someone stated earlier, you can only spend it as you accrue it. What we did though was, submitted the paperwork once (whenever we hit the 5000 mark), then every 2 weeks we got reimbursed, so we didn't have to hound for receipts and submit it.
* If you don't use it, you lose it. I don't think it carries over from year to year.
 
I'm just not sure how much sense it makes for an infant that isn't at a daycare or watched by someone who doesn't declare income. ANy other large expenses that I am not thinking of?
 
If you’re not using a daycare and your plan is to pay someone under the table, then yeah an FSA is probably not for you.
 
I agree that if you don’t have significant and predictable qualifying expenses, just don’t do it.

If you do, go for it.

We never had fixed/predictable qualifying expenses and I think I did a smallish amount for a few years and then quit. Possible benefit wasn’t worth the risk or hassle.
 
Back
Top