Infinisource to Appear at IRS Hearing on Employer Comparable Contributions to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)

Infinisource, Inc. will present oral comments at an IRS public hearing on Thursday, February 23, 2006, on employers’ comparable contributions to HSAs. This hearing is being held in conjunction with the Proposed Regulations issued under § 4980G that were published as a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register on August 26, 2005.

Our goal is to recommend five areas where the IRS can provide employers with greater flexibility in offering HSAs than it did in the Proposed Regulations:

• The different coverage types for comparability purposes should extend beyond self-only and family.
• The different employee types for comparability purposes should extend beyond full-time, part-time, and former to include at least employees governed by collective bargaining.
• Affiliated companies should be empowered to offer differing levels of employer contributions.
• What constitutes “contributions through a cafeteria plan” should be further clarified. These contributions need not satisfy the comparability rules.
• Employers should be able to restrict their contributions to HSAs managed by an employer-designated custodian or trustee.

If you are interested in reviewing a copy of the Proposed Regulations, you may download a copy at: www.irs.gov/pub/irs-regs/138647004.pdf

If you have any additional areas of concern or questions related to this topic, please feel free to contact our Chief Compliance Officer, Rich Glass, directly at rtglass@infinisource.net or 866-350-3040, extension 1465. Mr. Glass will be speaking on behalf of Infinisource. The appearance is at no additional charge to Infinisource clients or agents/brokers and is performed as a service to advance our mutual interests.

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