denvermitch wrote:

- quote -

From memory: The period of an FSA must be 12 months of
coverage with the following two exceptions:
1. First year of the plan can be a short year.
2. The plan year is being changed and the year becomes a
short year.

If the employer changed the plan year to Jan. to Aug. and
instituted a new plan year, then he could have cut-off the
plan at the end of August and provided that 90 day window to
submit eligible expenses. However, he would have had to
notify all affected employees of the plan change and the new
submission date.

If the employer just changed who administered the plan and
did not formally change the plan year, then he could not
implement an 11/30 cut-off date for submissions.

--
Alan
http://taxtopics.net

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I have participated in my employers dependant care fsa plan
for the last few years and the plan year has always been
from Jan-Dec. However, in 2003, my employer changed
insurance providers so insurance company#1 handled the FSA
plan from Jan-August and insurance company#2 handled the fsa
plan from September on(under a new plan year running from
September-August).

I had a total of $3300 deducted from Jan-August that I did
not seek reimbursement for until December. At that time I
was told the money was forfeited because the deadline to
seek reimbursement was November 30th.

The money was sent the money back to my employer and the
first answer I received from my employer about the return of
the money was that I was "out of luck".

Can a plan year consist of only 8 months? It seems to me
that the company should have kept the same plan
year(Jan-Dec) and had insurance company#2 finish out the
last 4 months.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

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