The REAL Truth Behind An HSA - Life Changing Benefits

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Welcome everybody to a live broadcast, a live discussion on how incredible one of the most unknown tax strategies on the planet. And for Americans and small business owners and investors, you have got to know about this and it's called the Health System Savings Account. And I want to break down eight secrets, eight facts that many, many CPAs, enrolled agents and attorneys don't even know. And they're helping clients maybe sometimes on their healthcare topic, maybe not at all. And I want advisors out there, ucpas and enrolled agents, tax lawyers, financial advisors. I want you to be better versed on the Health Savings Account. It's better benefits, how to use them, how to use them strategically. I think I even got. I'm just thinking of another one. I might be up to 10 by the time we're done today. So this is incredible. So I really want to make sure we go over these today. I have a webinar in a week you can click click on it below. It's free. And I'm going to unpack these eight to 10 tricks, including others. We got to talk about HRAs. We're going to talk about FSAs and writing off health insurance. I've got three hours of content on this, but we're going to expand upon it even more in a webinar next week. Date for that. I know Robbie in the studio. The webinar next week is going to be on the 14th, so. Or we'll figure it out. 14th or 15th, we'll make sure everybody knows when it is. So please pay attention, make sure you're ready to roll on this. Excited to have you with me today. I'm a CPA attorney, best selling author, podcaster, YouTuber, and I'm just out there trying to represent the accounting industry with street smart tax strategies that are honest, ethical, that makes sense and are practical. And I want to put it in plain English. So let's talk about the Health Savings Account. The Health Savings Account is the bedrock to me of a good healthcare strategy. You might have a small business and you're already writing off your health insurance. You might have a day job or your spouse and you've got benefits and they're giving you great health insurance. You don't have to be a small business or to have a business owner to have an hsa. You don't have to work for someone else to have an hsa. You just have to have high deductible health insurance. Once you have an HSA qualifying plan, you can open up an HSA anywhere. That's going to be number one, number one is you can open up an HSA. That's a. Think of it like an IRA or a 401K for your health care. You can open it up, however, wherever you want. Just because your employer has an HSA doesn't mean you can't open up the account somewhere else. You just have to check the box that you can have a high deductible plan. So you can open up the account anywhere. It's your account, it's portable. If you lose your job, you take your HSA with you. You can invest in an hsa, put money in an HSA and have your employer paying the health insurance. Or you might be a small business owner or just have independent health insurance. The requirement is, again, you have to have a high deductible plan. If you're one of those numbers that for a single individual, that's a deductible of $1,400. If you're a family or head of household, that's 2,800. Now let's talk practically here. Some of you may be like, Mark, I don't want a high deductible plan. I want to go to the doctor's office, give them $5. Or you're so healthy you don't even own. I mean, you don't even use your health insurance plan. So why don't you own the account? Why don't you take over and take control of your health care? So if you've got great insurance and you're not even using it, get a high deductible plan because you're not even going to the doctor anyway and sock money away in this hsa. The number one reason for bankruptcy in America is to pull out money for health care costs. They go into bankruptcy because they don't have enough health care and they're going into debt for health care. But if I have an hsa, I can pull out money out of my HSA and hopefully avoid bankruptcy. That sound a little confusing the way I said it, but the number one reason for bankruptcy in America are medical costs. So let's protect ourselves. Let's build an account we can dive into and grab money if we need it. So you can open an account anywhere. Here's the number. Oh, these are so good. Number two, you can take a tax write off. A tax write off on the front page of your tax return for an HSA at any income level. It doesn't phase out. The richest people in America can do it. The poorest people in America could do it. You can put money in your HSA this year for single people, it's $3850 and married or head of household, so you've got a kid that's a dependent in your home is 7750. So I'll put 7750 or 3850. That's your write off this year. If you are going to put money into an hsa, you get a tax write off to put the money there. Number two, I mean number three here on the list, it grows tax free. You can, you can invest it in anything you want. We're going to come to that as one of the other benefits. But it grows tax free and if it grows tax free, and number four, it comes out tax free and you don't have to wait till you're 55 or older. You can put the money in this week and pull it out next week. It's like a Roth IRA on steroids. Gross tax free comes out tax free and you get a tax write off to put the money in there. They're incredible. This is why I talk about the the secrets are the real truth about HSAs. They are this incredible. They are freaking amazing. President Obama loved them and it made them better. President Trump loved them and made them better. They've gotten so good with legislation over the last 10 to 15 years. Under Obamacare they were tailed as important. And under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Trump talked about them. So I don't care if you're Democrat or Republican, the HSA is incredible and we have to take advantage of it and build that. Now here's what's cool too. You can put your deduction in up until April 15th. You can wait until next year to put it in for this year. You just have to have a high deductible health care plan. Remember that? That's the rule. You just got to have one of those. The next thing is you can invest it in anything you want. You can buy real estate, you can buy notes, you can invest in your friend's small business with your health savings account. My health savings account has done crypto mining. It's held real estate, it's bought cows because I love Yellowstone and I want to be like John Dutton. My HSA is owned cows. I want to do turo business in my hsa. People, you can do any type of small business or real estate or investing in your HSA or Wall Street's not going to tell you that. And if you want to invest your HSA however you want, go to directed ira.com directed ira.com and you can open up an HSA right now and start funding it as long as you have a high deductible plan and get a tax write off to do it right now. All right, we're number six. Number seven, you can have an hra, an HSA, and if fsa. Now, the flexible spending account is the use it or lose it plan. The HRA is a health reimbursement arrangement. As a small business owner, you might be using that. You can have all three. Now, you can't write off the same medical expense three times, but you can take advantage of these three different ways of writing off medical expenses or building wealth. Now let me throw this out too. I'm going to bring this down for these last ones. What's really cool here is with the HSA you can save up receipts and reimburse yourself in years to come. You may say, I'm going to put that money in my hsa. I had some medical expenses, but I'm going to let it keep growing. I'm going to keep investing it. And someday, five years from now, you can reimburse yourself for health care and take the money out tax free for any receipt for valid medical expenses while you have the hsa. So you open up an HSA now, start keeping those receipts on co pays, deductibles, dental, eyes, chiropractic, massage therapy and physical therapy. Anything that is qualified and the list goes on and on. Save the receipts now and you can pull the money out tax free, anytime you want, anytime in the future, tax free. It's incredible. Next you can Did I put the deadline? April 15th. And number nine, what I love is your spouse inherits your HSA or your kids can inherit your HSA. It'll fall into your kids IRAs or your spouse's HSA. So you can inherit an HSA or leave it in your will. For example, it's going to be through the beneficiary designation. But just think of it like that. I can leave my HSA to my family as I build it up. People, these HSAs are incredible. And they're only one part of what I call Kohler Care. We can write off health insurance. We can use the flexible spending account. We can use the health reimbursement arrangement. There is so much to do with good quality healthcare planning, but no one's talking about it. Your health insurance agent doesn't have time for that. They don't pay him enough. Your lawyer, your banker, maybe your accountant. So again, if you're an enrolled agent, a cpa, a financial advisor, a certified tax advisor under my program. Oh, you got to hear about it. It's incredible. @markjkohler.com we're certifying advisors around the country on this and 70 other strategies. So, so, so important. So these are the topics of just the HSA. And again, at my webinar on the 14th or 15th, please sign up for that. I'm excited to go through that webinar with you and we're going to dive even deeper into it. So, Robby, but let's take a few questions now. Any questions come in from our listeners today.

Yes, we've got a question from Shabam. She says, can we use an HSA to get medication?

Oh, yes, your HSA can pay for all of your prescription drugs. Not over the counter meaning Advil, Tylenol, Motrin, whatever, but only prescribed prescription drugs. So anything at the pharmacy, your HSA can pay for it tax free. So you put money in, get a tax deduction, invest it if you want, or just pull it out. You this is what surprises so many young people too, is a lot of people think, well, don't I get a write off for my medical expenses anyway? No. 97% of Americans don't even write off their medical because they phase out under the stupid Schedule A rules. So if you want to write off your medical, you've got to use the hsa, the HRA, or the fsa. And the HSA Health Savings Account is the easiest of them all. Next question.

Robbie, Ms. Tama, she wants to know is it beneficial for me to open an HSA at 61 years old? She has a Roth and a traditional IRA.

This is a technical term, forgive me. Hell, yes, it is. Yes, do it because at age 61, you can put in an extra thousand for the next four years. So between age 55 and 65, you get to even put in more money and you get a tax write off to do it. You can invest it like your Roth ira. So over the next four years, you could put away, if you're just single even, you could put away almost $16,000. And that's just growing tax free. And you can pull it out anytime you want for medical. And you may say, well, I need it now for medical. Put it in, take it right back out. Or you may say, oh, I can let it ride. So it's like a Roth IRA for medical. You can put away probably against 15 to 16 thousand dollars in the next four years. Do it. Get on it next Question, Robbie.

Okay, we got a question from Scott. He has a culinary insurance well in Las Vegas and he wanted to know if he qualified for an hsa. I have seen the rules. He says, do I need to ask the insurance provider?

I think I saw this question in our Main street tax pro training earlier today. Scott I don't know what culinary insurance is. Does that mean you're a chef and you work for a restaurant and they give you health care? Is that how you took it?

Robbie yeah, that's how I interpreted it. Right. Is that he's got some or we have culinary insurance. So he's got some kitchen or a restaurant or something like that.

Yeah. The first thing I would say, Scott, and don't be offended with my bluntness, you call it landscaping insurance, culinary insurance, screen actors guild insurance, attorney insurance. It's health insurance. And you're just happen to be in the culinary industry. So that's what I think you're saying, how can I be. I don't care what industry you are in, people. I don't care if your health insurance is a Blue Cross, Blue Shield, United Benefits, H this, P that, L that. I don't care. The only thing that matters, Scott, is a high deductible HSA policy. Is it a high deductible plan? So all you have to do is call your insurance carrier and go, is this an HSA qualifying plan? And they may go, no, you didn't ask for one. You know why they didn't want you to ask for one? Because they make less money. They don't want you to be in control of your health care. They want you to be sheep. Health insurance companies are evil. Just start with that premise and it's going to make it a lot easier. So go to your health insurance company, go, that's not an HSA plan. I want a freaking HSA plan. And they'll go, oh, well, your auto enrollment or this or your enrollment's that, or you're going to have to wait until this date, say, fine, when that day comes, I want a freaking HSA plan. And they're not going to ask, are you in the limo business or culinary business or law? Business is health insurance. And you just want to get a qualifying high deductible plan. Then you can go open your HSA wherever you want. Wells Fargo used to have one. I think Chase has one. We have1@directra.com because I want you to buy stocks, mutual funds or at bare minimum, but I'd rather have you invest that HSA and your brother in law's small business. He's opening a restaurant across town. Now, your HSA can invest in his restaurant. Lots of options, Robby. Next question.

Okay, Kansas City here asks, can the HSA be owned by a living trust?

No one owns an hsa. You have a grantor, the person that created the hsa, and it's for your benefit. So then you're going to designate a contingent beneficiary, meaning when you die, where's it go? Typically, you're going to name your spouse, and then you could name your revocable living trust. And when you die, your trustee might split up your HSA amongst your kids, third, third, third, or whatever. So just remember, there's not an owner of an hsa. It's called the beneficiary of the hsa. You're going to be the lifetime beneficiary. And when you die, on the HSA form, you would appoint your spouse. And if you're not married, then your trust, and they're going to be the beneficiary. So you're kind of right. And I like that your living trust is in the mix, but it's called the beneficiary and typically the contingent beneficiary. Robbie?

Yes. I got a question from Kerry here. And do all HDHPs qualify for HSA?

Good question. No. Now this is where it gets to be a little edgy. A qualifying HSA policy should have some features that are required under Obamacare, meaning there are some of these minimum standards that need to be a part of a health insurance plan. Now, under the Affordable Care act, which I think is great, it was like fighting against Satan himself to get Obamacare passed against all these insurance companies. They lobbied a billion dollars to stop Obamacare. Why would the health insurance companies lobby and spend a billion dollars to not have Obamacare? Because they make less money when you control your freaking health care. So what they do is, oh, yeah, Obamacare increased the cost of all the premiums. That's because they're evil and they got to still make money. Sorry, don't get me started on conspiracy theories. I hate it. It's not even a conspiracy theory. It's a freaking fact. So anyway, you have to have a high deductible plan that meets the minimum criteria under Obamacare for a HSA qualifying plan. Now, I'll tell you the question that's required when you go open an HSA everywhere. Is this a high deductible plan? If it's got a high deductible? And that's the question they Ask. Check the damn box. If they go, is this an HSA qualifying plan with all these other features? Well, you better make sure it's an HSA qualifying plan. So I know some clients that will look at the letter of the law on what's asked by the HSA provider and then go and look at their plan and check the box or not. But it should be. There should be extra criteria in the HSA plan that makes it HSA qualified. They're not a big deal. They're good things. But it wouldn't hurt to ask your insurance company, is this an HSA qualifying plan? That's the better question to ask. Not, is it high deductible? That would be the way to go. I'm mincing words here because some people will push the envelope a little bit on that next question. Robbie.

Okay, Mark, this is going to be our last question today. It's Isabel. She wants to know, how long do I have to reimburse herself?

Until you die. It's crazy. You could, but you got to keep the receipts. So once you open the HSA and you start funding it and you're like, I'm going to let it ride. I don't know if that's craps or what game in Vegas says let it ride. But that's what you want to do. You want to let that money invest and grow. But you keep a file, and this file is golden, and it could be digitized. You just scan those receipts, put them in a folder, don't lose them. But all the receipts for your medical expenses, you want to keep those. And then someday, when you want to pull that money out of your hsa, pull it out tax free. Now, here's another benefit, and this is number 10. I'm going to put this as number 10. If you don't use it for health care. A lot of people ask that, what happens if I don't use it for health care? It comes out like an IRA if you don't use it for medical. So it's like a traditional IRA. So when you turn 59 and a half, you can start pulling the money out like a regular IRA if you want, and use it for retirement. You may be like, I'm so healthy and I've got tons of money sitting in my HSA, I'm just going to pull it out like an IRA. You can do that, too. So there's 10 benefits of how an HSA is, in my opinion, and I think I can argue it, one of the least known, best tax strategies for Americans today that just people don't know about. It's incredible. So check it out. Keep studying. And I will be on a webinar again next week. Register below, where I'm going to unpack even more on this topic of healthcare. And if you're an advisor in tax industry, you really need to be there. I know September 15th is coming up. It's a big day. Try to set aside an hour on the September 14th to just hone in on some of these medical strategies. Thank you, Robbie, for running the studio. We good to go?

We're good to go. Mark, thank you for coming to us from New York.

All right. Thanks, everybody. And live from New York. I should have said that at the beginning.