Benefits Handbook

You select an amount to contribute for the plan year. In general, you and your spouse are each limited to the maximum contribution allowed by the IRS and, if less, your respective employer's plan. For the Plan, you can contribute between $120 and $5,000 if you are married and file a joint tax return, or $2,500 if you are married and file separate income tax returns, subject to the minimum income limit.

Any amount you may have contributed to a Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account with a former employer in a calendar year counts toward that year's maximum. For example, if you:

Since you will forfeit any amounts that you do not use for expenses incurred by December 31 and you cannot change the contribution election once you make it unless you have a qualified family status change or your dependent care provider (e.g., child's day care provider) or eligible expense changes, you should carefully estimate your eligible expenses before deciding on an amount to contribute.

You have to contribute to the Plan to be reimbursed for eligible expenses you incur during the plan year. You cannot be reimbursed for services that are provided before your coverage begins or after your coverage ends.

Once your election is made it cannot be changed unless you have a qualified family status change and then any changes must be due to, and consistent with, the qualified family status change.

Additionally, although not a qualified family status change, you can change the amount you contribute if your dependent care provider (e.g., child's day-care provider) or eligible expense changes during the year.

The Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account cannot be used for health care expenses incurred by any of your family members or tax dependents, so do not include health care expenses when you are calculating your Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account election. If you enroll by mistake in the Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account, you cannot transfer the balance to a Health Care Flexible Spending Account or cancel the account during the year.

No, the Company does not make contributions to your account.

You can contribute a minimum amount of $120 per plan year to the Plan.

In general, you and your spouse are each limited to the maximum contribution allowed by the IRS and, if less, your respective employer's plan. You can contribute up to a maximum amount of $5,000 per plan year to the Plan if you are married and file a joint income tax return or $2,500 if you are married and file separate income tax returns. Any amount you may have contributed to a Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account with a former employer in a calendar year counts toward that year's maximum. If both you and your spouse work for the Company, together, you and your spouse can contribute up to a maximum of $5,000 per year to the Plan.

Tax law and IRS rules require that the Plan meet certain non-discrimination tests. Failure to meet such tests will result in the elections of higher-paid participants be reduced or capped. You will be notified if you are affected.

You and your spouse are each limited to the maximum contribution allowed by the IRS and, if less, your respective employer's plan. You can only submit a claim once and only to one dependent care flexible spending account.

Also, according to IRS rules:

If both you and your spouse contribute to a Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account, you can only be reimbursed once for any eligible expense.

The contribution limits that the Plan imposes on married couples are the same as the IRS limits for married couples. Together, you and your spouse can contribute up to a maximum of $5,000 per year to the Plan. For each expense, you can only submit a claim once and only to one Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account. If you and your spouse each contribute to a Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account, you can only be reimbursed once for any eligible expense.

Your contributions will be deducted on a before-tax basis each pay period and will be credited to your account.

When you first enroll as a newly eligible employee or as a result of a qualified family status change, your contributions will begin in the next available pay period after your enrollment is processed.

If you enroll during the Annual Enrollment period, your contributions will begin with the first pay period of the new plan year.

No, the IRS requires that this Plan and the Health Care Flexible Spending Account remain separate. You cannot transfer money between accounts or use money in one account to be reimbursed for expenses related to the other account.

In accordance with IRS rules, you will forfeit any account balance that is not used to pay eligible expenses incurred between January 1 and December 31 of the plan year if they are not submitted by March 31.

Example: If you have a $1,000 balance in your Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account on December 31, 2024, the $1,000 balance will be forfeited unless you submit by March 31, 2025 claims for eligible expenses incurred in 2024.

If your participation ends during the plan year, you will not be reimbursed for expenses incurred after the date your participation ends (for example, after your employment ends). You will, however, have until March 31 of the following plan year to submit for reimbursement for eligible expenses you incurred during the plan year while you were participating.