Health Care and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts

SAS offers a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) Plan, an account that allows employees the ability to set aside money to pay for certain out-of-pocket health care and dependent care expenses with pre-tax dollars. The biggest advantage of an FSA Plan is tax savings.

The SAS FSA Plan consists of two kinds of accounts:

• Health Care FSA for reimbursement of out-of-pocket health care expenses for the employee and eligible dependents.
• Dependent Care FSA (full-time employees only) for reimbursement of dependent care expenses such as day care.

Participation is optional. Employees decide how much they want to contribute, in total, for the year. These contributions are deducted over the course of the year in equal increments from each paycheck.

Once the FSA contribution election amount(s) have been determined for a calendar year, employees cannot change the election until the next annual Open Enrollment period. It's important to carefully estimate the amount(s) the contribution to the FSA plan before enrolling for the year as the IRS requires that any unused amounts remaining in either account at the end of the year be forfeited.

When an eligible expense is incurred, the employee pays the bill and submits a receipt, along with a completed Flexible Spending Account Claim Form. The employee receives tax-free money from the FSA account as reimbursement for those expenses. The deadline to file FSA claims each plan year is March 31 of the following calendar year.

E-mail the SAS Benefits Department or request assistance by phone at 919-531-9090.