Can I Make a Prior-Year HSA Contribution?
You can make a prior-year HSA contribution until the tax filing deadline. Understand the key rules for eligibility and how to report it for a tax deduction.
An HSA is a savings account that allows you to set aside money on a pre-tax basis to pay for qualified medical expenses. This structure provides a tax deduction for the contributions made, lowering your taxable income for the year. You can fund your account for the previous year up until the tax filing deadline of the current year.
Deadline and Eligibility for Prior-Year Contributions
The final day to make a contribution for the 2024 tax year is the tax filing deadline, which is April 15, 2025. It is important to confirm the exact date each year, as holidays or other factors can sometimes shift the deadline by a few days. This cutoff is firm, and contributions made after this date cannot be applied to the prior year.
Eligibility to make a 2024 contribution hinges entirely on your circumstances during 2024, not your status in the current year. You must have been covered by a qualifying High-Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) during 2024.
You could not have been enrolled in any other non-HDHP health coverage. This includes being covered by a spouse’s traditional health plan, being enrolled in Medicare, or receiving certain VA medical benefits. You also must not have been claimed as a dependent on another person’s 2024 tax return.
Calculating Your 2024 Contribution Limit
For 2024, the contribution limit for an individual with self-only HDHP coverage was $4,150. For those with family HDHP coverage, the limit was $8,300. These figures are the total that can be contributed to your account for the year, including any amounts contributed by an employer.
An additional amount, known as a catch-up contribution, is permitted for older individuals. If you were age 55 or older at the end of 2024, you could contribute an extra $1,000 to your HSA. This catch-up amount is a fixed figure and does not change based on the type of HDHP coverage you have.
Your contribution limit must be prorated if you were not eligible for the entire year. The annual limit is divided by 12, and you can contribute for each month you were eligible as of the first day of that month. An exception is the “last-month rule,” which states that if you were an eligible individual on December 1, 2024, you are permitted to contribute the full annual amount. To utilize this rule, you must remain HSA-eligible throughout a “testing period,” which runs until December 31, 2025, to avoid taxes and a penalty.
How to Make and Report Your Contribution
To make a prior-year contribution, you must directly communicate your intent to your HSA administrator. When making the deposit, you must explicitly instruct the administrator to apply the funds to the 2024 tax year. Failing to do so will result in the contribution being automatically applied to the current year. Many administrators provide an online portal where you can select the contribution year from a dropdown menu; if paying by check, you should clearly write “2024 Prior-Year Contribution” on the memo line.
After making the contribution, you must report it on your 2024 tax return to claim the deduction. This is done by completing IRS Form 8889, Health Savings Account (HSA) Contributions. On this form, you will calculate your total HSA deduction based on your contributions and eligibility. The final deductible amount from Form 8889 is then transferred to Schedule 1 of your Form 1040.
Your HSA administrator will send you Form 5498-SA, which reports the total contributions made to your account for the year. Because you can make 2024 contributions well into the next year, this form may not arrive until after the tax filing deadline. You do not need to wait for this informational form to file your taxes, as long as you have accurate records of your contributions.