FSA ?

cedenton

Soo...as I read my dependent care FSA it looks like, unlike the health one where you can use the money before it comes out of your paycheck, the money has to have already come out before you can use the dependent $.  Is that how yours works?

VERY inconvenient.  The bi-weekly amount doesn't cover two weeks of daycare. SO now we have to pay out of pocket some amount AND have the paycheck cut by $208. 

MrsWindyCity

Yeah, that's how ours works, too. I usually just get the reimbursement maybe 2-3x a year. It all winds up being the same (well, you save in taxes). The limit for our DFSA is nowhere near what we actually pay in daycare anyway (sadly).

QueSrah

By law, you can't pull money out of your dependant care account until you pay it in.

natalee36

My employer pre-funds 6 weeks worth of my contributions so that was a big plus. However, I can't claim the money until I have incurred the expense. For example, I have to pay daycare on Monday for the week. I can't claim that week until Friday when that week is over. That annoys me.

jenn_darrin1515

LibraryChica:

MrsWindyCity:

Yeah, that's how ours works, too. I usually just get the reimbursement maybe 2-3x a year. It all winds up being the same (well, you save in taxes). The limit for our DFSA is nowhere near what we actually pay in daycare anyway (sadly).

This, exactly. I wish there was a higher contribution limit, but I'll take it.

yup, this. the fsa barely amounts to 1/4 of dc costs for us. but every little bit helps...

cedenton

Thank, ladies.  It'll only be 1/3 -1/2 of our costs, but I assumed it was like the health FSA where you could take out the amount up to your election whether or not it had been taken out of the paycheck already.  I was wrong. Boo.

 

geosar

This is how mine works too, but we have the option of getting a debit card for the dependent care FSA account.  So, I end up paying one week's tuition out of the FSA using the debit card, then splitting the next week's into 2 payments - one for the rest of the FSA money and another out of pocket to cover the difference.

This is, of course, dependent upon the fact that my DC allows credit card payments online which IMO is awesome since I am not good at remembering to bring a check every Monday morning!

Next year, when the $5000 is spread over the whole year (I came back from leave in May this year), I will not even get one week's tuition out of one payroll deduction, so I will have to devise a new plan. 

kristinc01

I feel like my company doesn't do it this way.  I think I've claimed the entire 5k for refund to me but I'm taking $ out of each paycheck so I would think technically I won't have the entire 5k taken out until the last pay period of the year. 

I work for a small co. and although I don't think they are doing it right I'm not gonna say anything