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Do You Have Accrued Paid Time Off or Vacation Hours, and FSA Account?
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Do you know how much are your accrued Paid Time Off (PTO) or vacation hours and the balance in your Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)?
Any vacation or paid time off (PTO) you earned and accrued is considered part of your wages. As such, your employer is obligated to pay all your earned hours at the rate equal to your final rate of pay. Check your final pay record and make sure you were fully paid for these hours you have accrued. These should be included in your final pay check. What is a Flexible Spending Account (FSA)? FSA is an employer sponsored program offered to employees to pay for eligible out-of-pocket health care and dependent care expenses with pre-tax dollars. Through participation in this program, employees are able to reduce their taxes by spending their pre-tax dollars to pay for eligible health care and dependent care expenses. There are three types of FSA's: Health Care Flexible Spending Account, Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account and the Limited Expense Health Care Flexible Spending Account (LEX HCFSA). Do you have a Health Care Flexible Spending Account (HCFSA)? Health care flexible spending account is an employer-established benefit plans that reimburse employees for specified medical expenses (such as co-pay for doctor's visit or prescriptions) as they are incurred. The employee contributes funds to the account through a salary reduction agreement and is able to withdraw the funds set aside to pay for medical bills. The salary reduction agreement means that any funds set aside in a flexible spending account is excluded from both income tax and Social Security tax. If you participated in your former employer’s Health Care Flexible Spending Account, check the balance in your account. FSA has a “use it or lose it” rule. This means that whatever balance you have in your account cannot be carried over to your new employer’s plan. However, there is a grace period of up to 2 ½ months at the end of the plan year for you to use for any qualified medical expenses from the balance in your account at the end of the previous year. What this means is any qualified expenses you incurred January through March 15 of the following year can be submitted against your prior year's balance. Do you have a Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account (DCFSA)? What is DCFSA? Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account is used to pay for eligible dependent care expenses such as child care for children under age 13 or day care for anyone who you claim as a dependent on your Federal tax return who is physically or mentally unable to care for self, allowing you or your spouse (and your spouse, if you are married) to work, look for work, or attend school full-time. Limited Expense Health Care Flexible Spending Account (LEX HCFSA) is only available to employees who enroll in a Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program under a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) with a Health Savings Account (HSA). Don't leave your company without checking your Flexible Spending Accounts. Make sure you spend the money for qualified expenses. There is no sense to leave your money on the table when you are out of a job! |
