Flexible spending account

[GotUm]

Guys,

I have a question about my flex spending account I was putting money in to. I just found out that when I left my old job if I hadn't used the money I had already put in it was now not available to me after that date. Does that sound correct? I thought that when you put the money in you had to spend it by the end of the year. Looks like I'm out a $1000. Any thoughts?


Jeff

[Reel-tor]

You can claim any valid medical expenses (I'm assuming you had a Medical FSA) PROVIDED that the expense was INCURRED prior to your leaving the company. So, if you ordered RX's before you left the company, you could submit a claim on that expense. However, if you bought RX after you left the company, you CANNOT claim on FSA. Another way to put it is that you can claim expenses for any month in which you made a contribution. The AMOUNT you can claim is limited only by your annualized contribution total and not by the amount contributed to date of quiting. (NOTE: this rule doesn't work for Dependent Care FSA's).

for example: you signed up for $100/mo for your Medical FSA. $100 times 12=$1200. You can spend $1200 in January even though you only contributed $100 in January.

One exception: if you COBRA your FSA (i.e. contribute to the FSA after you quit-there are time frames you must meet & other rules) then you could still submit claims for any month in which you made a contribution. Please note that your contribution after you quit is paid in after-tax money (ie, you don't get to deduct your contribution from taxable income).

Otherwise, you are outa luck!