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Reporting Contributions on Your Return: Health Accounts and Taxes (2025 IRS Guide)

This guide covers “Reporting Contributions on Your Return” within health accounts and taxes. The following material presents the IRS treatment of this topic, including the qualifications, exceptions, and examples in the source section. Read the rules alongside the facts of your own situation before deciding what to report, deduct, or document.

Adapted from Publication 969 (2025), Health Savings Accounts and Other Tax-Favored Health Plans, published by the Internal Revenue Service. This guide retains the source edition’s years, amounts, deadlines, and examples. It is guidance for that edition, not a statement that the same figures apply to every tax year.

Context for these rules

Any eligible individual can contribute to an HSA. For an employee’s HSA, the employee, the employee’s employer, or both may contribute to the employee’s HSA in the same year. For an HSA established by a self-employed (or unemployed) individual, the individual can contribute. Family members or any other person may also make contributions on behalf of an eligible individual.

Contributions to an HSA must be made in cash. Contributions of stock or property aren’t allowed.

Reporting Contributions on Your Return

Contributions made by your employer aren’t included in your income. Contributions to an employee’s account by an employer using the amount of an employee’s salary reduction through a cafeteria plan are treated as employer contributions. Generally, you can claim contributions you made and contributions made by any other person other than your employer on your behalf as a deduction.

Contributions by a partnership to a partner’s HSA that are treated as distributions to the partner are not deductible by the partnership and do not affect the distributive shares of partnership income and deductions. These distributions are not included in the partner’s net earnings from self-employment. The partner, if an eligible individual as defined in section 223(c)(1), is entitled to deduct the amount of the contributions made to the partner’s HSA during the tax year as an adjustment to gross income on their federal income tax return. For more information, see Notice 2005-8, A-1, available at IRS.gov/irb/2005-04_IRB#NOT-2005-8.

Contributions by a partnership to a partner’s HSA for services rendered to the partnership that are treated as guaranteed payments are deductible by the partnership and are includible in the partner’s gross income. Because the contributions are guaranteed payments that are derived from the partnership’s trade or business and are for services rendered to the partnership, the contributions are included in the partner’s net earnings from self-employment. The partner, if an eligible individual as defined in section 223(c)(1), is entitled to deduct the amount of the contributions made to the partner’s HSA during the tax year as an adjustment to gross income on their federal income tax return. For more information, see Notice 2005-8, A-2, available at IRS.gov/irb/2005-04_IRB#NOT-2005-8.

Contributions by an S corporation to a 2% shareholder-employee’s HSA for services rendered are treated as guaranteed payments and are deductible by the S corporation and includible in the shareholder-employee’s gross income. The shareholder-employee can deduct the contribution made to the shareholder-employee’s HSA.

Form 8889.

Report all contributions to your HSA on Form 8889 and file it with your Form 1040, 1040-SR, or 1040-NR. You should include all contributions made for 2025, including those made from January 1, 2026, through April 15, 2026, that are designated for 2025. Contributions made by your employer and qualified HSA funding distributions are also shown on the form.

You should receive Form 5498-SA, HSA, Archer MSA, or Medicare Advantage MSA Information from the trustee showing the amount contributed to your HSA during the year. Your employer’s contributions will also be shown on Form W-2, box 12, code W. Follow the Instructions for Form 8889. Report your HSA deduction on Form 1040, 1040-SR, or 1040-NR.

Excess contributions.

You will have excess contributions if the contributions to your HSA for the year are greater than the limits discussed earlier. Excess contributions aren’t deductible. Excess contributions made by your employer are included in your gross income. If the excess contribution isn’t included in Form W-2, box 1 you must report the excess as “Other income” on your tax return.

Generally, you must pay a 6% excise tax on excess contributions. See Form 5329, Additional Taxes on Qualified Plans (Including IRAs) and Other Tax-Favored Accounts, to figure the excise tax. The excise tax applies to each tax year the excess contribution remains in the account.

You may withdraw some or all of the excess contributions and avoid paying the excise tax on the amount withdrawn if you meet the following conditions.

  • You withdraw the excess contributions by the due date, including extensions, of your tax return for the year the contributions were made.

  • You withdraw any income earned on the withdrawn contributions and include the earnings in “Other income” on your tax return for the year you withdraw the contributions and earnings.

Deducting an excess contribution in a later year.

You may be able to deduct excess contributions for previous years that are still in your HSA. The excess contribution you can deduct for the current year is the lesser of the following two amounts.

  • Your maximum HSA contribution limit for the year minus any amounts contributed to your HSA for the year.

  • The total excess contributions in your HSA at the beginning of the year.

Amounts contributed for the year include contributions by you, your employer, and any other person. They also include any qualified HSA funding distribution made to your HSA. Any excess contribution remaining at the end of a tax year is subject to the excise tax. See Form 5329.

Using the guidance

Keep the documents that establish the dates, amounts, and circumstances described above. References to other chapters, forms, worksheets, or earlier and later sections refer to the linked IRS publication. Check the full publication and its updates before relying on a rule for a different tax year or a situation not addressed here.

Sources and further reading

The cited U.S. government text is in the public domain. Source accessed October 28, 2026. Fynoptic has organized this material for educational use and is independent of, and not endorsed by, the IRS.

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