Participating in an ABS Flexible Benefit Plan
is as simple as 1-2-3!
1. Anticipate
Carefully plan for next year’s out-of-pocket health related and dependent care expenses.
Estimate your annual medical expenses prior to enrolling in a flexible benefit plan. Take a look at this year’s health expenses, over the counter medicines, especially prescriptions, to estimate health expenses for the upcoming year. You can include unreimbursed expenses for spouse and dependents! Don’t forget day-care and qualified eldercare expenses also qualify for these tax-advantaged plans
Remember, you will not get your unused account funds back if you do not spend them in your plan year so… anticipate future expenses carefully.
Tip: Try to anticipate regular, predictable expenses like office and prescription co-pays and dependent expenses. Ask your drug store Pharmacist to run a total of your prescription medicine purchases for the year.
2. Deduct
Complete a flexible benefit plan enrollment form and indicate how much to deduct from your paycheck.
The annual dollar amount you determined is evenly divided by the number of paychecks you receive… then deducted from your paycheck and automatically deposited into your new flexible benefit account. This money you’ve set aside in your account is untaxed. The funds in your account are used to repay yourself for out-of-pocket health related expenses not covered by your regular health insurance and dependent care expenses.
3. Get Your Money Back!
Simply submit a completed flexible benefit claim reimbursement form for qualified expenses with receipts to ABS.
Watch how quickly you’re own money returns to you… in untaxed dollars.
Bonus Money!
But there’s more good news… because you’ve set aside money into your flexible benefit account on a pre-tax basis, your gross taxable paycheck is lowered by that amount. This means your employer will be taking out less federal, state, local and Social Security taxes… so your take-home income goes up. The increase may look small at first, but over the year it just keeps adding up. It’s like a getting a bonus in every paycheck.