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Based on this and this, as of November 6, 2023, the IRS still has not announced the health FSA contribution limits for the year 2024, even though most private employers have already begun their open enrollment period (as has every state's ACA exchange, even thought that fact is not directly relevant to employer-provided FSAs).

This seems crazy to me. How are people supposed to know how much to contribute to their health FSAs if the IRS hasn't even told them the maximum allowed contribution? Does the IRS typically wait until after open enrollment has begun to announce the next year's FSA limits? Is there some special circumstance that caused a delay this year?

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  • If you are targeting the maximum, I've often seen "maximum" as an option, along with a field for a custom amount. But you can also make contributions manually, instead of with every paycheck.
    – user26460
    Nov 6 at 22:55
  • This doesn't answer what happens if open enrollment has close but my company stated they would contact everyone who chose the current max amount if the IRS changed it.
    – mkennedy
    Nov 6 at 23:13
  • Last year they announced the amounts early December.
    – littleadv
    Nov 6 at 23:32
  • @littleadv: huh? rp-22-38 was on the website Oct 18 and before that rp-21-45 was Nov 10 (although each took about 2 weeks to get into IRB)
    – dave_thompson_085
    Nov 8 at 7:19
  • @dave_thompson_085 huh.... rp-22-38 doesn't show up in irs.gov/downloads/irs-drop...
    – littleadv
    Nov 8 at 7:32

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Someone who works in HR Benefits at my employer told me that "the IRS tends to announce FSA maximums after open enrollment closes." This is pretty crazy to me.

I guess that means that if an employee chooses to contribute an amount that is higher than the maximum limit that the IRS announces, then their employer will reduce the employee's contribution down to the announced maximum. This does not seem like a great system from the perspective of the employee's financial planning.

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  • 3
    The whole "open enrollment" and tying healthcare to a job doesn't seem like a great system, late IRS announcement is where you draw the line?
    – littleadv
    Nov 7 at 17:11
  • @littleadv Different strokes...
    – user26460
    Nov 8 at 0:05
  • The whole American health insurance system isn't great. I despair of ever seeing it fixed; too many citizens are scared of change, and the insurance companies have too much money to spend lobbying for protection if the status quo. And I'm going to stop before this turns into a rant.
    – keshlam
    2 days ago

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