Personal Finance & Money Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people who want to be financially literate. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
My child's care is $1,900 a month. If I sign up for a Dependent Care FSA, I'm told that the funds are immediately available for use in the coverage year.
Can you pay on January 1 2024, the full $5,000 in my DCFSA for child care services to be rendered in 2024?
My child's care is $1,900 a month. If I sign up for a Dependent Care FSA, I'm told that the funds are immediately available for use in the coverage year.
Can you pay on January 1 2024, the full $5,000 in my DCFSA for child care services to be rendered in 2024?
There is a important difference between the dependent care FSA and the health Care FSA: funds availability.
according to many sites, for example the Employee Benfits Corporation
I am contributing $2,000 to my Dependent Care FSA this year. May I use the full $2,000 prior to having the funds deducted from my paycheck?
You can only be reimbursed up to the amount of funds you have already contributed to your Dependent Care FSA through payroll deductions. This is different from a Health Care FSA, where you have access to your entire election right away at the start of the plan year.
So the service must have already been performed, and the money has to have been pulled from your paycheck and deposited into your FSA. To make the funds available quicker; you could specify to contribute the full amount, but put the amount per pay period very high so that you reach the maximum amount in a smaller number of pay checks. If you set it to $1000 per check all the money will be available after 5 checks.
Other sites with similar text include: Dartmouth , but they give the example that you can submit claims above the amount contributed, but the funds won't be immediately released until more contributions have been made.
Claims Reimbursement Process - Claims can be submitted in amounts up to the full annual election amount and/or remaining balance. Reimbursement will be made based on your available account balance. If the claim amount is higher than the amount available in the account, additional reimbursement payments will be made to you, as additional funds are added to the account, until the claim has been paid in full.
