I use it. At allows you to allocate 5K in daycare costs to be paid with pretax income. For some (most?) folks that is a very helpful since it reduces what they would pay in taxes. You childcare must be on the books since you have submit reimbursement forms.
So if my job has no HR and no real benefits, I don't get to do this, right?
Well, you just take the child care tax credit at the end of the year. Same thing, you just get a lump sum back on taxes vs. getting it periodically reimbursed throughout the year.
So you get the money deducted from your pay check pre tax and it goes into the flex account. And you can't use any of them until it hits your max then you can be reimbursed? So I actually will be "paying" twice as much for child care until I get reimbursed?
Or can you be reimbursed every time you pay for child care? Even if its weekly?
Will the daycare need to work with me on this or is this only between me and my job?
It's a little different for teachers around me as we are contracted certain days and sign up for benefits in the fall. I figured how much daycare is per day and took it times my contracted days of work and divided it by 12(how many times I get paid a year) to sign up for how much is taken out each month. You don't get reimbursed as pp said until money is deposited so I have to request back almost a full month. But I also don't have to pay 5k in daycare expenses in one year so I didn't want to request too much and lose it.
So if my job has no HR and no real benefits, I don't get to do this, right?
Wow you ladies are helpful!!
I still don't understand. Lol.
So I have to put in 5k until I can get that back? I pay $500 a month for 10 months until the cap and then get that money back - after I submit the daycare receipts?
So if my job has no HR and no real benefits, I don't get to do this, right?
Wow you ladies are helpful!!
I still don't understand. Lol.
So I have to put in 5k until I can get that back? I pay $500 a month for 10 months until the cap and then get that money back - after I submit the daycare receipts?
I guess I need to go talk to our controller. LOL.
You accumulate a certain amount per paycheck into your flex account.
-You can submit receipts on a regular basis throughout the year to get reimbursed as the money comes into your account. - Or you can wait until you've accumulated 5k of expenses, submit the documentation, and you'd get reimbursed whatever had accumulated so far. For the rest, you'd automatically get reimbursed each paycheck as you had already submitted receipts to cover it. - Or you can wait until the end of the year to claim it all at once. Lots of people do that and use it for Christmas money.
I used to process daycare flex claims at a large insurance company :-)
So if my job has no HR and no real benefits, I don't get to do this, right?
Wow you ladies are helpful!!
I still don't understand. Lol.
So I have to put in 5k until I can get that back? I pay $500 a month for 10 months until the cap and then get that money back - after I submit the daycare receipts?
I guess I need to go talk to our controller. LOL.
You can apply immediately for the money after it gets in your account. Do if you get paid every two weeks, you can apply every two weeks for the amount that was put in there or what until it's a more sizable number (multiple pay checks) and submit a larger receipt.
Post by MamaMaui24 on Mar 20, 2014 21:23:30 GMT -5
Yes, worth it.
I get paid monthly, took full $5k. Each month I submit my daycare receipt to the Flex account and am direct deposited (reimbursed) $416.67 for 12 months.
You can apply immediately for the money after it gets in your account. Do if you get paid every two weeks, you can apply every two weeks for the amount that was put in there or what until it's a more sizable number (multiple pay checks) and submit a larger receipt.
That's not how it works for me. The money is deposited on the 1st (when I get paid), but I can't submit to be reimbursed until I've used the service - since we pay monthly, that means at the end of the month. So I'm always getting reimbursed a month behind when the money was deposited into the account. (Does that make any sense at all?)
Yes you are right, I am a teacher so mine is weird since we start benefits in September including FLex money. I have to pay sept daycare costs at the start of month out of pocket, get paid on 20th and request back for those days in sept I already have paid daycare so I can pay for October. In June and July, I will request for April/May dates of daycare as I have figured for exactly the days I work daycare expenses divided among 12 monthly pay checks.