Flex Spending Account

[Eden]

What I just read said gym membership could be covered, but only if prescribed by a doctor as a treatment for an illness/disease. I suppose you could work a bike in there somehow - rehab for a knee or something?

[Irulan]

I've been using FSA and now HSA plans since they first came out. Anything is possible if you have accountants and lawyers who are sleazy enough and know how to work the system.....

See page 16. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p502.pdf IRS Publication 502 on allowable medical expenses.

"Health Club Dues
You cannot include in medical expenses health club dues or amounts paid to improve one's general health or to re- lieve physical or mental discomfort not related to a partic- ular medical condition."

[malkin]

Prescription sunglasses with interchangible lenses, and as many pairs of lenses as it takes to empty the account.

[Skippyak]

FOr sure, but if it is fitness equipment, and that is allowable, why not a bike? If people pay for treadmills they use to hang clothes on or gym memberships to places they never enter, why not?.

[Irulan]

...only with prescriptions. And it's a pretty sleazy doc that's going to write a prescription for fitness equipment.

[kajero]

you can only use the flex account for medical related things. You can't buy anything that you can't get a medical prescription or receipt for. Hospitalizations, therapies, prescriptions, co-pays, deductibles, crutches. . . that kind of stuff. No over the counter stuff, gym memberships, mileage to doctor's appointments, etc.

[thekarens]

That's not exactly true. I know ours specifically allows for supplies for a first aid kit, which is OTC.

Ours does not allow gym memberships, sports equipment, etc.

[Irulan]

The IRS publication (502, I posted the linke earlier) on HSA/FSA expenses is easy to read. It sounds like some of you should read it.
Mileage, page 15 specifically says you can use mileage.
OTC drugs are now excluded ( this changed is 2011, they did used to be an allowed expense) page 17
but you can still buy supplies like bandages, page 6

[OakLeaf]

...only with prescriptions. And it's a pretty sleazy doc that's going to write a prescription for fitness equipment.

If it is "primarily to alleviate or prevent a physical or mental defect or illness," as the IRS requires, why is that sleazy?

[Irulan]

Well, ok,.... maybe I'm being harsh but I'm thinking of the person who would be," hey, write me a scrip so I can buy a bike" vs someone who is chronically ill that needs/uses a treadmill for rehab.

[Skippyak]

...only with prescriptions. And it's a pretty sleazy doc that's going to write a prescription for fitness equipment.

That right, because their job is just to write out anti depressant prescriptions and refer to their fave bariatric guy. Define sleazy? Sunglasses are OK but a bike is not? It is a strange world for sure.

[Irulan]

Prescription sunglasses are well within IRS requirements, non-disputable. Bottom line is if your accountant approves of how you use you HSA funds, who am I to argue?

[Skippyak]

The real bottom line is that this is your money that you paid in, and unless TE is some kind of peculiar demographic, not many posters here will be taking that much of a tax benefit anyway. I would like to see tax benefits cut for excessive breeding and increased for healthcare spending and optimal education of (less) children, so who I am to argue indeed. Sacred cows are untouchable, right. Of course the real issue as we and Apple are cognizant of, is that pesky tax code, not the nuanced interpretation of said code by ones accountant or the media.

[Eden]

Sleazy.... I don't think a doc that writes a prescription for a bike should be called sleazy...... if more people could be encouraged to exercise regularly we'd have less illness in the first place...

If getting a bike and getting some exercise could alleviate someones typeII diabetes, obesity, mild depression, arthritis etc, I would find it far worse to not give the person the option to do it rather than simply medicating them....