Folks love health savings accounts, and why not? A tax deduction or exclusion on the way in, tax-free growth, and then tax-free withdrawals when used for qualified medical expenses or reimbursements of qualified medical expenses.
Tastes great and less filling!
Considering the HSA is less than 20 years old (as of this writing) and contribution limits are relatively modest, inherited HSAs have not been much of an issue in the personal finance world. I suspect that will soon change, as HSAs and their account owners age and HSA balances grow.
HSA Planning
There is something very fundamental one must keep in mind: planning for traditional retirement accounts and Roth retirement accounts is two sided. There is planning that owners should do for those retirement accounts prior to death and there is planning that inheriting beneficiaries should do after the owner’s death.
HSA planning, as you will see below, is mostly prior to the owner’s death. Other than a spouse, anyone else inheriting an HSA has relatively few planning opportunities.
Spousal Beneficiaries
The tax rules generally favor spousal beneficiaries, and the world of HSAs is no different. Section 223(f)(8)(A) has a very specific rule that changes the HSA account owner to the spouse as of death. This means the continuation of HSA account status, and thus continued tax free growth and future tax free withdrawals for payments of qualified medical expenses and for payments of previously unreimbursed qualified medical expenses (what I refer to as PUQME, pronounced “puck-me”).
As Notice 2004-50 Q&A 39 makes clear, there is no time limit on PUQME reimbursement. Thus, inheriting spouses should, generally speaking, be able to reimburse themselves for built up PUQME unaffected by their spouse’s death. For example, the surviving spouse should be able to reimburse him/herself tax and penalty free from the HSA for medical expenses of the decedent spouse incurred on their deathbed.
Obviously, HSA tax-free carryover treatment is very favorable. It is difficult to imagine circumstances where a married HSA owner would want to name anyone other than their spouse as the 100 percent primary beneficiary of their HSA. In theory, leaving an HSA to a charity at the first spouse’s death could be neutral when compared to leaving to the surviving spouse, if the couple is both very affluent and charitably inclined. Even then, it’s hard to see much of a drawback to naming the spouse as the primary beneficiary.
Other Individuals
Section 223(f)(8)(B) has some bad news for an individual, other than the surviving spouse, inheriting an HSA. Sure, they get the assets in the HSA. But, (i) the account loses its status as an HSA, and (ii) even worse, the entire amount of the HSA is included in the recipient’s taxable income in the year of the original owner’s death.
This is the hidden HSA death tax. As the HSA is under 20 years old, and frequently owed by younger people, the issue of the hidden HSA death tax has not come to the forefront of the personal finance space. To my mind, this is a lurking issue that many aren’t aware of.
The tax hit from an HSA inheritance could be quite significant. Here is one theoretical example.
Jack and Meghan are married, both age 51 in 2023, file joint, and claim the standard deduction. Planning on having an AGI of approximately $155K for 2023, they each contributed $7,500 to a Roth IRA for 2023 on January 2, 2023. They have one child in college and thus plan on getting a $2,500 AOTC tax credit for tuition paid.
On September 2, 2023, Meghan’s widowed father died and left his HSA, worth $75K, to Meghan. As a result, their AGI increases by $75K. On March 1, 2024, informed by their tax return preparer they did not qualify to make the Roth IRA contributions, they withdrew the contributions and the earnings attributable to the contributions ($750 each based on 10 percent growth). They also lose the ability to claim a credit for the college tuition they paid.
Here’s the tax consequences of Meghan inheriting the HSA.
| Item | W/o HSA Inheritance | With HSA Inheritance |
| Ordinary Income (Initial) | $153,000 | $153,000 |
| Qualified Dividend Income | $2,000 | $2,000 |
| AGI (Initial) | $155,000 | $155,000 |
| HSA Inheritance | $0 | $75,000 |
| Roth IRA Earnings | $0 | $1,500 |
| AGI | $155,000 | $231,500 |
| Standard Deduction | $27,700 | $27,700 |
| Taxable Income | $127,300 | $203,800 |
| Tentative Tax | $18,481 | $35,572 |
| AOTC | $2,500 | $0 |
| Federal Income Tax | $15,981 | $35,572 |
| Federal Tax Increase | $0 | $19,591 |
| Effective Rate on AGI | 10.31% | 15.37% |
The tax hit on inheriting the HSA is almost $20,000! Jack and Meghan pay more federal income tax on inheriting the HSA than they do on the rest of their income! Further, because tax benefits such as being able to contribute to a Roth IRA and AOTC qualification are based on MAGI, and inherited HSA income increases MAGI, Jack and Meghan (i) lost their 2023 AOTC and (ii) had to withdraw $15,000 in 2023 Roth IRA contributions and the related earnings.
Deduction Planning: Yes, Jack and Meghan could potentially tax loss harvest (getting a current deduction of up to $3,000) and/or increase contributions to charities and/or donor advised funds to itemize their deductions in a year they are now in the 24% bracket. This planning is only marginally helpful (particularly in a high standard deduction world) and does not lower their MAGI sufficient to still qualify for the AOTC and to make most of the annual Roth IRA contributions. Further, if Meghan inherited the HSA late in the year, there may not be enough time to execute such planning.
Inherited HSA Tax Exception
There is a narrow exception to full income inclusion. The inheriting non-spouse beneficiary can reduce the inherited HSA income inclusion by the amount of medical expenses incurred by the original owner prior to death and paid by the inheriting beneficiary in the year after the death.
The Estate
In theory, an HSA could be left to the estate of the HSA owner if (i) the owner elected such treatment on the beneficiary designation form or (ii) they failed to file a beneficiary designation form with the HSA provider.
The original owner’s final income tax return must include the fair market value of the HSA in taxable income if the HSA is left to the estate. See IRS Publication 969, page 10.
Obviously, this is not a great result. In theory, if the owner is low income and the ultimate intended beneficiary is high income, one might want to name their estate as the beneficiary of the HSA. Considering that the are planning alternatives that can avoid anyone paying income tax on an HSA, this is not likely to be a good “go-to” planning option.
Charitable Beneficiaries
Many HSA owners are at least somewhat charitably inclined. The inherited HSA rules present a planning opportunity: leave HSA balances to charity if the HSA owner is not married. Charities pay no income tax when inheriting an HSA.
As discussed above, the optimal planning for a charitably inclined married couple is likely to be to name the spouse as the primary beneficiary. Only after the death of the first spouse would the primary beneficiary be changed to the charity.
Note that HSA owners should discuss naming a charity or charities as a primary or secondary beneficiary with their HSA account provider.
Later In Life HSA Planning
What could Meghan’s widowed father have done to avoid costing his daughter and son-in-law almost $20,000 in federal income taxes?
First, strong consideration should be given to bailing out HSAs during old age, particularly if the HSA owner is not married. HSAs will not be too difficult to deplete tax and penalty free. Reimbursements of PUQME can access thousands of dollars of old qualified medical expenses, and the elderly will have plenty of new qualified medical expenses, including final medical expenses of deceased spouses. Further, Medicare Parts B and D premiums qualify as qualified medical expenses, so even the healthy elderly should be able to reimburse themselves tax-free from their HSA annually for some qualified medical expenses.
Had Meghan’s father reimbursed himself tax-free for PUQME instead of leaving the money inside the HSA, Meghan could have inherited the money (now in a taxable account) income tax free.
Second, Meghan’s widowed father could have named a charity as the primary beneficiary on the HSA, and left taxable brokerage accounts, Roth retirement accounts, and even traditional retirement accounts to Meghan. Even the traditional retirement accounts would not have either created no taxable income to Meghan in 2023, or, at worst, would have required Meghan to take the RMD her father was required to take in 2023 (if her father died before taking it).
I recently wrote about strategic planning in this regard. If one is not married, accounts such as Roth IRAs and taxable brokerage accounts are great to leave to individual beneficiaries. HSAs are great for unmarried people to leave to a charity if one is charitably inclined.
Conclusion
HSAs are arguably the most tax favored accounts during one’s lifetime. This remains true when passing an HSA to a spouse. However, the tax advantage of an HSA can turn into a tax bomb if left to a non-spouse. I refer to this as the hidden HSA death tax.
Planning to avoid the hidden HSA death tax includes taking reimbursements of PUQME from the HSA later in life and/or naming a charity as the primary beneficiary on an HSA if the owner is not married.
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