W-2 Box 10 is Empty but Wife contributed to Dependent Care FSA - Help?
My wife contributed $6,200 in pre-tax money from her paychecks into a Dependent Care FSA through her job (they use ADP Benefits as the administrator). We had about $9,300 in total daycare costs for our two kids this year, so we should be able to use the remaining $3,100 for the child care tax credit. Here's the problem - when her W-2 arrived, Box 10 (Dependent care benefits) is completely blank instead of showing the $6,200 she contributed! I've been trying to get this fixed for over 3 weeks but her company's HR department is ghosting us completely. What's the right way to handle this for our taxes? Should we: 1. Just manually write in the $6,200 in Box 10 ourselves when entering the W-2 info in TaxAct, then claim our full $9,300 in childcare expenses (with $3,100 eligible for the credit) 2. Enter the W-2 exactly as received with Box 10 empty, and only claim $3,100 as our qualifying daycare expenses (since the $6,200 FSA portion isn't eligible for the credit) 3. Something else entirely? I'm really stressing about this because I don't want to mess up our return but also don't want to lose out on the credit we should be getting!
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Ethan Wilson
I've dealt with this exact situation before. You should never manually adjust information on your W-2 when entering it into tax software. The correct approach is actually option 2 - enter the W-2 exactly as you received it with Box 10 empty. However, you should still report the full $9,300 in child care expenses on Form 2441. In Part III of this form, you'll enter the $6,200 that was contributed to the Dependent Care FSA. The software will then correctly calculate the credit based on the remaining $3,100 of expenses. The IRS reconciles this information during processing. Even though Box 10 is empty, when you report the dependent care benefits on Form 2441, the tax calculation will be correct. Your employer's error won't impact your ability to claim the proper credit amount.
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Aisha Abdullah
•Thanks for the response! So just to be clear - I should enter the W-2 exactly as is (with Box 10 empty), and then TaxAct will have a separate section where I can manually enter the $6,200 FSA contribution when filling out the child care expense section? And the software will handle the calculations properly even though the W-2 doesn't show that amount? Also, should I be concerned that the IRS might flag this as a discrepancy since my W-2 doesn't match what I'm claiming was contributed to the FSA?
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Ethan Wilson
•Yes, you'll enter the W-2 exactly as provided with Box 10 empty. When you get to the child care expenses section in TaxAct, there will be a specific question about contributions to a dependent care benefits plan. That's where you'll enter the $6,200 FSA contribution amount. You don't need to worry about the IRS flagging this as a discrepancy. Form 2441 is specifically designed to handle situations where the W-2 reporting might be incomplete. The IRS looks at the complete tax return, not just the W-2. As long as you accurately report both the total expenses and the FSA contribution on Form 2441, your return will be processed correctly.
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Yuki Tanaka
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Carmen Diaz
•How does that work exactly? Do you talk to an actual person or is it all automated? I'm having a similar issue with my HSA contributions not showing up correctly on my W-2.
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Andre Laurent
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Yuki Tanaka
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Carmen Diaz
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AstroAce
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Zoe Kyriakidou
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Andre Laurent
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AstroAce
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Andre Laurent
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Jamal Brown
My wife actually works in payroll for a large company, and she says this happens all the time. The problem is that many employers outsource their FSA administration to third parties (like your Navia), but then the communication between that third party and the payroll system that produces W-2s breaks down. The correct thing to do is exactly what the first commenter said - report the W-2 as is, but make sure you account for the FSA contributions separately on Form 2441. As long as you have documentation from the FSA administrator showing your contributions (check your online account or year-end statement), you're fine. If you get audited (super unlikely for just this issue), you'd just show them the FSA documentation.
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Aisha Abdullah
•That's really helpful context, thanks! Do you know if we should be getting any kind of tax form from the FSA administrator directly? We have the enrollment confirmation and can see the contributions on my wife's paystubs, but I didn't receive any year-end tax statement from the FSA company.
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Jamal Brown
•Most FSA administrators don't send a specific tax form. The paystubs showing the contributions and the enrollment confirmation should be sufficient documentation. You might also check your online account with the FSA administrator - many of them provide a year-end summary of contributions that you can download. Keep all this documentation with your tax records for at least 3 years. While there's no specific form you need to attach to your return, having this documentation is important if questions ever arise.
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Mei Zhang
I'm a bit confused. If the W-2 doesn't show the FSA contribution in Box 10, how does the IRS know you even had an FSA? Couldn't someone theoretically claim they had FSA contributions even if they didn't, just to get a bigger child care credit?
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Ethan Wilson
•The IRS has multiple ways to verify this information. First, your employer reports all benefits they provide, including FSA plans, separately from your W-2. Second, the FSA administrator typically reports distributions to the IRS. Third, if you were audited, you would need to provide documentation of both the contributions and the eligible expenses. Falsely claiming FSA contributions would be tax fraud and could result in penalties and interest. The risk isn't worth it because the IRS has systems to cross-reference this information, even if it's not on your W-2.
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