Dependent-Care Spending Account       [Back to Previous Page]
A Dependent-Care Spending Account allows employees to pay for child-, elder-, or other-dependent-care from pre-tax dollars.

Employees who have worked for a full year by the beginning of the new Flex plan year (calendar year) are eligible to participate.

Employees may contribute a maximum of $5000 per year to their Dependent-Care Spending Account.*  The total dollar amount an employee opts to contribute is divided by 12, and that amount is deducted from the employee's pay every month before taxes and put in that employee's Dependent-Care Spending Account.   Then, as the employee incurs dependent-care expenses, s/he requests reimbursement from her/his Dependent-Care Spending Account.**

Please be aware: Dependent-Care Spending Accounts are "use it or lose it": any unused balance in an employee's Dependent-Care Spending Account at the end of the plan year is forfeited.

Also, please be aware that dependent-care expenses for which an employee is reimbursed from her/his Dependent-Care Spending Account may not be "deducted from taxes" when the employee "does" her/his taxes.

*Employees who establish Dependent-Care Spending Accounts may not change contribution amounts during that calendar year unless they undergo a qualifying event (birth, death, marriage, divorce, loss of job or that of spouse, change in employment status or that of spouse, etc.).

** The employee must pay the bill, then send the receipt/invoice to FLEX for reimbursement; "vouchers" to aid in this process are available in the forms bin outside the Human Resources Office.  (For many child-care providers, the "receipt/invoice" will be hand-written, but must include the dates of service; hours per day; provider's name, address, and phone number; per-hour charge; and total charge.)