I have been contributing to a dependent care pre tax this entire benefits year, however since our child is under my wives insurance I was not able to use any of it. She maxed out her contributions and I have this money sitting in a random account set aside. How do I access the money, and what are my next best steps here before I lose all of it?

I reached out to our HR and surprisingly were completely unhelpful about this

You go to the website of the account manager (likely your health insurance company), make a claim, and provide receipts from your childcare provider. They send you a check for the amount you saved assuming you spent more than that on childcare.

That doesn't sound right that you can't use it for day care expenses. I do the same for my company but my kid is on wives insurance. I've never had an issue cashing out the money that I contribute each year. As above poster said, just get receipts from daycare upload them to the FSA company and they refund you however much you've contributed. I'm assuming max of $5k, we use Wage Works and it's super easy and they direct deposit the funds usually within 3-5 business days.

I apologize I wasn't clear, my wife maxed out the annual limit so my money is not able to go towards dependent care even though I set additional money aside like a dummy.

My HR is telling me to try to expense it anyways however during tax time I will likely just be taxed on that money and they will treat it as income however there is a chance if they deny the claim I just lose all of the money.

Ok that makes more sense. Yea I'd reach out to a tax person or I'm sure someone will come along and be able to advise you.

ForeverAg said:

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I apologize I wasn't clear, my wife maxed out the annual limit so my money is not able to go towards dependent care even though I set additional money aside like a dummy.

My HR is telling me to try to expense it anyways however during tax time I will likely just be taxed on that money and they will treat it as income however there is a chance if they deny the claim I just lose all of the money.

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This sounds like a good approach, but a critical piece of this would be to get a copy of the plan document and summary plan description (SPD). These are the legal, governing documents that describe how this plan works and what provisions exist that allow you to access it. Your employer is required to provide this at no charge on request.

Wife's

Consult with your CPA. IIRC, the limit is per family, not per person. You maxed out on your wife's contributions. You can pull it out… it's taxable. But check with your CPA.