At first, I thought that using a medical flex account was a great idea. The company took some of my untaxed earnings, placed it into a non-interest-bearing account, and I could use it to pay any and all medical related expenses. The gamble was based entirely on my Nostradamus-like powers. At the beginning of the year, if I didn't correctly foretell exactly what my expenses would be for the next 12 months, I would lose all the money remaining in my account.
So last December, I've made my prediction, confident that I had underestimated what I would have to spend in 2010. And so far, my prophecies have had me considering the purchase of that "never work again a day in your life" lottery ticket. That was until a couple of weeks ago. That fatefull day, our company HR person gathered us together and said that, starting on January 1st, 2011, the IRS would no longer accept credit card receipts that show you paid for your doctor visit. Heaven knows that the Paperwork Reduction Act isn't worth all the papers that it was written on. So obviously, you need more paperwork from a doctor to prove that he wasn't charging you to sit around and discuss golf scores. Our HR person also told us that the IRS would also no longer allow our medical flex accounts to be used for the purchases of over-the-counter remedies of any kind. In other words, if you're going to try to cure yourself, you need to be charged income tax along with your sales tax. Obviously an effort to reduce cost of medical care.
Not this would be a problem because we were still in 2010. Or so I thought when I turned in my credit card receipt for June's visit to my doctor and my receipt for over-the-counter melatonin (which my doctor told me was cheaper and would work as well as prescription medicine). Today I received a letter from our medical flex company. They happily informed me that both receipts were rejected. Apparently those helpful regulations into effect on October 1, 2010. Leave it to the IRS to change the rules in the middle of the game without allowing you anyway of adapting to them.
Has anyone else experienced this little change in policy or am I the only one being scammed here?
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