Get HEALTH CARE And DEPENDENT CARE REIMBURSEMENT FORM ...

Your Dependent Care FSA is intended to help you pay for eligible dependent care expenses to allow you to work. Therefore, you cannot be reimbursed for expenses incurred while you are on a leave of absence from work. ... But please keep in mind that you need to incur all eligible expenses before your last day of work.

Unused funds go to your employer, who can split it among employees in the FSA plan or use it to offset the costs of administering benefits. Under no circumstances can your boss give the money back to you directly, according to IRS rules. Once the plan year is over, that money is gone.

What happens if there is unspent money in a dependent-care account at the end of the year? Leftover funds are usually forfeited by the worker to the employer, who can use them to pay for the program's administration.

An employer must still follow the "use it or lose it" rule for dependent care FSA funds. A dependent care FSA plan allows for a reasonable time for employees to submit claims after the plan year-end, but all dependent care expenses must be incurred by plan year-end.

As a rule, you can't change your Dependent Care FSA election amount during your plan year.

To be considered qualified, dependents must meet the following criteria: Children under the age of 13. A spouse who is physically or mentally unable to care for him/herself. Any adult you can claim as a dependent on your tax return that is physically or mentally unable to care for him/herself.

(Most FSA plans are operated on a calendar-year basis.) A health care FSA plan can allow employees to carry over up to $500 of unused balances from one year to the next. ... Dependent-care FSAs cannot allow the carryover privilege, but they can allow the grace period.

A Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account, or FSA, is a pre-tax benefit account used to pay for dependent care services while you are at work. The money you contribute to a Dependent Care FSA is not subject to payroll taxes, so you end up paying less in taxes and taking home more of your paycheck.

Once you have paid for expenses that qualify for reimbursement from the FSA you will need to complete a claim form provided by your employer and attach receipts or proof of payment with the form. The receipts must include specific information to prove that the payment was for qualified expenses.

Your employer manages your FSA, but the IRS sets the rules. ... You put money into the Dependent Care FSA account pre-tax to pay for things like child care. If you don't use it by a certain date, you lose it.