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Our company was recently acquired. I'll call it Company A acquired Company B.

I have an HSA account with Company B. There is around $6,000 in there. Company A acquired Company B and now we have a new HSA. The Company A HSA sponsored plan doesn't allow investing of the HSA monies.

I was going to consolidate the HSA money from Company B to Company A but if I cannot invest it, I don't want to combine them.

Tax wise, can I contribute to my Company B HSA account and ignore the Company A sponsored account? I would prefer to put my $3,600 in there this 2021 so I can invest it.

When contributing to my employer plan, the money is taken out pre-taxed. If I was to contribute to Company B's plan this would be after tax money. Can I recoup the taxes on this money when I file my taxes next year?

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  • Does your new employer ("A") contribute anything to the HSA on their behalf? If so, that would count towards your annual limit.
    – Nosjack
    Commented Feb 24, 2021 at 13:52
  • Yes, they do. I would subtract that. They contribute regardless if I do or not, which is nice. Commented Feb 24, 2021 at 13:59

3 Answers 3

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You have to consider a couple of things:

  • Money taken from your pay check and put into the HSA is tax free, and also skips Social security and Medicare. Money you put into the old account from your bank account will save you income tax, but not FICA.

  • Sometimes you current company pays a monthly fee to the company running the plan, you will have to pay that that fee if you have an account with company B. It could be a flat amount, or a percentage. Check the rates before you decide.

  • If your employer makes a contribution in to your HSA, they might not make that payment if you don't have an HSA line on your pay stub. My old employer made a $1000 contribution in January each year. You might have to make a small contribution to get it. Check the company paperwork. Don't forget that this also counts as part of the total contribution.

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Because Company A is willing to contribute to Account A, that's a great reason to set up Account A. Because you can invest in Account B, that's a great reason to keep Account B (assuming the fees are low).

If you can stay organized and keep track of two accounts, the best option may be to use both accounts while you are employed by Company A.

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You can also transfer assets from Company A's HSA to another one as often as you want. Looks like the proper one is called "Trustee-To-Trustee" transfer. https://medium.com/@livelyme/hsa-rollovers-and-transfers-demystified-a757c9d7fc4e. Since it involved a physical letter for me (HealthEquity -> Fidelity), I only did it twice a year.

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