Harlan Lunsford wrote:
- quote -

Poor choice of words on my part. I established the HSA in
2004, but forgot to put it in TurboTax on my first pass
through TurboTax as TurboTax never asked me about it!

Ed was correct in his answer to my 1st post, i.e., that the
instructions and forms aren't yet finallized. I finally
found the section of the interview that asks about HSA's via
the pull-down menus and the screen I was brought to said
more or less the same thing. However, I think that's poor
programming on TurboTax's part. The interview should at
least ask the question "did you have an HSA in 2004?" even
if the IRS hasn't got its act together. At least that way
there's less chance of the deduction being overlooked
completely as I did in the first pass.

Tom Young

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Harlan Lunsford wrote:

- quote -

Ah, but you can. http://www.irs.gov/publications/p969/ar02.html#d0e108
"You can make contributions to your HSA for 2004 until April
15, 2005." "For 2004, if you establish an HSA by April 15,
2005, you can receive tax-free distributions for qualified
medical expenses incurred on or after the first day of the
first month you became an eligible individual."

As long as you had an HDHP in 2004, you can do the HSA
portion until April 15th.

Phoebe

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TomYoung wrote:

- quote -

Caveat: I cannot speak to problems with TurboTAx.

However, did you actually have an HSA during 2004? Can't
just "take advantage" of it after the fact.

ChEAr$,
Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA
Thu, 6 Jan 2005

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The problem is that the IRS hasn't published instructions
for form 8889 and the form itself is still in Draft form.

ed

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Just finished another quick run-through of my 2004 return
using preliminary figures. I've decided to take advantage
of the new Health Savings Account. Only thing is, TurboTax
never asks about the possibility you have a HSA in the
interview process!

The line on the Form 1040 for the deduction is there, along
with the supporting Form 8889, but I can't see anyway to
give TurboTax the information short of just filling out the
forms "by hand" (so to speak).

Has anybody else noticed this?

TIA.

Tom Young

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