Hello fellow Mustachians!
I joined a new company in September 2016 and began contributing to an HSA (first HSA option for me). I set my per paycheck contribution to equal the total of $3,350 annual amount. Today, I realized I only contributed about $800 in 2016, but can retroactively put in the other $2,500 manually on my own and deduct it as long as I contribute by April 18th, much like an IRA.
My real question is this: can I claim the full deduction and file today but wait several days to actually make the contribution? TurboTax specifies that this is fine for an IRA contribution, but it's not so clear on HSA contributions.
The only reason I ask is that my HSA provider is going to take some time to verify my banking info before allowing me to make the manual contribution for 2016. I would just wait the 4 or 5 days it takes to verify the banking info with my HSA provider and make the contribution, then file my tax return, but I'm leaving the country for work and would like to submit the return before I leave.
Any thoughts?
