The Health and Dependent Care (DepCare) Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) both let you save on your taxes by taking money from your paycheck each month to cover certain expenses. They have different rules and deadlines, though, and a big one is coming up: April 15, 2022, is the deadline to file 2021 Health FSA claims.
You have more time to file DepCare FSA claims for 2021: the grace period has been extended until December 31, 2022.
Understanding FSA rules and deadlines
Health FSA
The Health FSA allows you to pay for eligible medical expenses for you and for your eligible family members.
Claims for 2021 expenses must be filed by April 15, 2022. If you don’t use all your funds during the plan year, you can carry over funds (up to a designated maximum) to the next year.
For participants who had an active FSA on Dec. 31, 2021, pandemic relief provisions of federal law allowed the full remaining balance of unused Health FSA funds to be carried over from the 2021 plan year to the 2022 plan year. Continued enrollment in the FSA is not required to access carryover funds in 2022, but balances less than $25 have been forfeited if you didn’t continue enrollment in 2022.
Please note: For the 2022 plan year, the balance that can be carried forward to your Health FSA for 2023 will be limited to $570.
DepCare FSA
The DepCare FSA allows you to pay for eligible expenses for the care of your child (up to age 13) or eligible adult dependent while you work.
If you participated in the DepCare FSA in 2021, under pandemic relief provisions of federal law, the grace period has been extended until December 31, 2022. This means that funds contributed in the 2021 plan year can be used for reimbursement of claims incurred in calendar years 2021 and 2022, as long as you remained an active participant in the plan through December 31, 2021. The deadline for submitting claims is January 31, 2023.
Log in to your WEX Health account to get immediate access to your FSA activity, account balance and reimbursement information.
For more details, see the Flexible Spending Accounts page.