# Tax question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tax-question/752673>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 19, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tax-question/752673 "2016-04-19T20:44:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![FirstLoser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@FirstLoser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FirstLoser)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tax-question/752673/1 "2016-04-19T20:44:21Z")

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I’m not looking for official advice regarding my taxes, and I intend to consult my company’s payroll department.

I finally got around to doing my taxes this past weekend (via TurboTax)

I have a Health Savings Account to which my employer contributes $100/month, and I contribute $30/paycheck (bi-weekly)

On my W-2, the HSA contribution of $1980 has a code that indicates the entire amount as “employer contribution”.  
Out of curiosity, I changed the information in TurboTax to an “employer contribution” of $1200, and a “self-contribution” of $780…and my refund increased by approximately $50.

Is this an error on my W-2?

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**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2016, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tax-question/752673/2 "2016-04-19T21:00:37Z")

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All Box W contributions are reported as “employer contributions” regardless of whether they are a benefit from the employer or withheld from regular wages/salary. The important factor is that they are pre-tax contributions.

Self-contributions (for W-2/1040 purposes) are those you make outside your paycheck, so they are made with already taxed income. That’s why your refund goes up: the IRS thinks you’ve already paid taxes on them so they reduce your overall amount of tax owed.

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**Author:** ![BorgHunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@BorgHunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BorgHunter)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2016, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tax-question/752673/3 "2016-04-20T19:23:10Z")

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According to [Publication 969](https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p969.pdf):

> [@](#):
>
> 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

Therefore, no, this is not an error in your W-2, assuming your taxable income was also reduced by the correct amount. Be sure to check this, because if your taxable income was already reduced by $780, you can’t take that $780 out a second time.