The Health and Dependent Care (DepCare) Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) both let you save on your taxes by taking pre-tax 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, 2023, is the deadline to file 2022 Health and DepCare FSA claims.

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As you may have read elsewhere, the IRS has extended the tax filing deadline to Oct. 16, 2023, for California taxpayers in disaster areas. Please note that this extension does not apply to the deadline for filing 2022 FSA claims.

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 2022 expenses must be filed by April 15, 2023. If you don’t use all your contributions for expenses incurred in 2022, you can carry over up to $570 of your balance to use in 2023. Balances less than $25 have been forfeited.

Continued enrollment in the Health FSA is not required to access carryover funds in 2023.

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.

There is no carryover feature in the DepCare FSA. However, the plan has a grace period, which means that unused funds contributed in one plan year can be used for the reimbursement of claims incurred through the grace period of the following year (as long as you were enrolled in the plan on December 31 of the initial plan year). For 2022 DepCare FSA participants, the grace period ended on March 15, 2023.

Claims for expenses incurred in 2022 and during the grace period of January 1 – March 15, 2023, are due by April 15, 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.