Hi, I have two questions. My wife and I are fresh out of college and had a baby right before the new year. We both have jobs (mine new, hers 5 years), but during open enrollment I picked up a Dependent Flexible Spending Account. I was only making $50 every two weeks for contributions (Day Care backup if needed). The plan was to have her mom watch the baby during the day while we were at work.

Well all was good until February. My mother-in-law found out she has breast cancer!!! She is doing good after surgery and chemotherapy. So we had to take the baby to daycare starting in February. The contributions I was making didn't cover really anything for Day Care of an Infant.

Then my wife landed a new Job related to her degree. We compared our insurance plans and did a life change and took her insurance and I bumped my Dependent Flexible Spending Account to the Max.

The two questions?
1. Can I re-imburse myself for Day Care Charges that I had to pay out of pocket before the life change because my Dependent Flexible Spending Account had a zero balance because I wasn't putting enough money into it, but now I am?

(Grandma had stated she wants to start coming over again and I think she wants to baby-sit in time, but this makes it difficult to plan for because if she does they will be putting money into the flex account because I can't change it now, but if I could use the money for old out of pocket expense then this would work out)

2. My wife and I went with her HSA in lue of my PPO. Can you use the HSA for Bills that were encurred before we got the HSA? I don't think you can because we didn't have the HSA we had the PPO.

for qualified expenses ? money you paid for services that enable you to work, such as at-home care (a nanny or babysitter) and care outside the home (such as daycare or after-school care). Because this is a "pretax" deduction, you won't have to pay federal, social taxes, or state taxes on the amount.however, in the case of child tax credit, the IRS offers a 20 to 35% kickback on up to $3K of qualifying childcare expenses you accrued. If your AGI is igher thn a a cetaim amount , then, the figure drops to 20 %.




2. My wife and I went with her HSA in lue of my PPO. Can you use the HSA for Bills that were encurred before we got the HSA? I don't think you can because we didn't have the HSA we had the PPO.=======>I guess you need to contact the plan admin for more accurate info in detail.