September 1st, 2009
Pay for Lasik with a Flex Spending Account
San Diego Lasik eye surgery can be expensive. Many people pay for Lasik Eye Surgery using their companies flex spending account (FSA). An FSA allows an employee to withhold a percentage of each paycheck. That money can then be used to reimburse the employee for certain types of expenses, Lasik Eye Surgery is generally included.
The advantage to using an FSA over paying for it out right is that FSA money is tax free. No income tax is deducted before you pay for the procedure. Based on your income tax bracket, this can save you anywhere from 15 to 45 percent.
A disadvantage to using FSA to pay for Lasik eye surgery is the amount of preparation and planning it takes. At the beginning of the year you must set aside a certain amount. You should set aside almost as much money as the Lasik procedure will cost. If the entire balance that is set aside is not spent, is will be lost. If you decide later not to go through with the Lasik procedure, all moneys set aside in the flex spending account will be lost. Finally, FSA will only reimburse how much you have put into it to date. It will then send you a check every pay period for the amount withheld until the debt if settled. This means, if $1200 is withheld, $100/month is taken out of your pre-tax paycheck. If you have a $1200 surgery in February, you will only be reimbursed $200. From then on, each month you will get $100 more dollars until you have recovered all $1200 in December. With this in mind it may be wise to have the San Diego Lasik procedure done later in the year.