<p>We have a health savings account that the funds in that (if there were any) can only be used for qualified medical expenses. For the purpose of "cash on hand/savings/investments, etc" on FAFSA/CSS, would we include the balance in this account (if we had one) ?</p>
<p>For fafsa:</p>
<p>Health savings accounts
Health savings accounts (HSAs) resemble
tax-deferred pension and savings
plans more than flexible spending arrangements;
for example, the balance in
an HSA persists from year to year, while
that in a flexible spending arrangement
must be spent on qualified expenses by
the end of the year. Therefore, treat taxfree
contributions to an HSA as untaxed
income; these will appear on line 25 of
the 2011 IRS Form 1040. The balance in
the account does not count as an asset,
nor would distributions from it count
as untaxed income when they are used
for qualified medical expenses. Distributions
not used for qualified expenses
are subject to income tax (and a possible
penalty) and will be counted in the
adjusted gross income.</p>
<p>Page 19:</p>
<p><a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/attachments/1213AVGCh2.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/attachments/1213AVGCh2.pdf</a></p>
<p>Don’t know about CSS but I would think it would be how a 401k is handled by CSS.</p>
<p>HSA is sort of a health care IRA.</p>
<p>[The</a> Health-Care IRA. Are you ready? - Sep. 22, 2004](<a href=“http://money.cnn.com/2004/09/22/pf/saving_HSA_0410/]The”>The Health-Care IRA. Are you ready? - Sep. 22, 2004)</p>
<p>Yeah, but distrbutions from the IRA count as income. HSA distribuitons used for the purposes intended are not.</p>
<p>You indicate the amount of the HSA deduction on line PI202-B of the CSS profile. I did not include it as cash on hand since I had to claim it on the income portion. If I did it wrong some one please let me know.</p>
<p>It seems to me that you did it correctly though I do not know line item numbers on PROFILE. Unless directions say otherwise, I would include what you contributed to a HSA in income just as one would do a 401K or IRA contribution. What FAFSA is saying is that though those contributions are deducted from taxable inocme by the IRS, the finnacial aid process gives no such deduction for them. However, they are not included in assets for FAFSA. For PROFILE, retirement account values are to be reported and I would guess those values would be too, in the same section. Though reported they are not used in the financial aid analysis most of the time, in fact hardly ever. For HSAs distributions used for allowable expenses are not reported as income on FAFSA. </p>
<p>You may want to call a financial aid officer of a PROFILE school to be sure. Though for FAFSA, the treatment of HSAs are spelled out on the form, so there is no question how they are to be treated, that is not the case for PROFILE, and guessing what is logical is not always corrrect when you go down the rabbit hole of FInancial Aid Land.</p>
<p>I was working on my CSS today and typed HSA into one of the searches. It told me that if the HSA savings was put in after tax to put it into line PI202 if it was before tax it goes into PI225 other untaxed income and benefits. I also included all medical expenses that I paid out of the HSA in line PE 120A. Good luck.</p>
<p>On the CSS Profile, I tried to put the amount of our HSA deduction ($8200) on PI202B and it wouldn’t take that figure. A message popped up saying that $5000 was the limit. Anyone else run into this? Is that question new this year? I sent an email to College Board, but haven’t heard back yet. Also, since the HSA is part of our adjustments to income (question PI-103C) is it being counted twice?</p>
<p>I did the same. But, I found out that CSS had the following instruction:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I just called college board and the assistant told me the 5000 limit on question PI-205 (IRS 1040 line 25) is a glitch and that I should enter the 5000 max. and then note correct amount on explanations/special circumstances at the end.</p>