---
url: https://thresholds.pages.dev/fsa/
title: "FSA deadline: when your money disappears"
updated: 2026-09-07
site: Thresholds
sources:
  - https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-25-32.pdf
  - https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-13-71.pdf
  - https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-05-42.pdf
  - https://www.irs.gov/publications/p969
---

# FSA deadline: when your money disappears

Your health or dependent-care FSA spend-by date, what carries over, what you forfeit, and the separate deadline for sending in receipts.

An FSA has three possible shapes, and which one your employer chose decides the date your money stops existing.

## The three shapes

- **Carryover** — up to $680 of what is left on the last day of a plan year beginning in 2026 moves into the next plan year. Everything above that is forfeited. Your employer may set a lower limit, or none.
- **Grace period** — you keep incurring new expenses with last year's money for up to 2½ months — the 15th day of the 3rd month after the plan year ends. Nothing carries over; whatever is unspent when the grace period ends is forfeited.
- **Neither** — strict use it or lose it. The last day of the plan year is the last day the money exists.

A plan may offer a carryover or a grace period — not both. A dependent-care FSA cannot offer a carryover.

## The run-out period is not a fourth shape

A run-out period extends the deadline for **submitting** claims for expenses you already incurred. It never extends the deadline for incurring them. Set by your plan — often 60–90 days after the plan year ends — the IRS sets no run-out rule at all, which is why this calculator leaves the field empty instead of assuming the 90 days that circulate online.

## 2026 figures

- Health FSA salary-reduction limit: $3,400 (Rev. Proc. 2025-32 (issued 2025-10-09))
- Maximum carryover into the next plan year: $680
- Dependent-care FSA exclusion limit: $7,500 ($3,750 if married filing separately) — Dependent-care FSA exclusion limit from 2026 — permanent and not inflation-indexed.
- 2027 health FSA limits: Not yet announced — expected October–November 2026

## What the calculator does

You give it the account type, the plan-year-end date, which of the three shapes your plan has, the carryover limit or grace-period end, your plan's receipt deadline if you know it, and your unspent balance. It returns the last day you can spend, the amount at risk, the amount that carries over, the receipt deadline as a co-equal output, a wall calendar with the cut-off day and the forfeited days marked, and a calendar file for both deadlines. Everything runs in your browser.

Calculator: https://thresholds.pages.dev/fsa/. Limits: https://thresholds.pages.dev/fsa/limits/.

## Sources

- [Rev. Proc. 2025-32 (issued 2025-10-09)](https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-25-32.pdf)
- [IRS Notice 2013-71](https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-13-71.pdf)
- [IRS Notice 2005-42 / Prop. Treas. Reg. §1.125-1(e)](https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-05-42.pdf)
- [IRS Publication 969 — health FSAs (the IRS sets no run-out maximum)](https://www.irs.gov/publications/p969)

---
Information, not advice. Figures verified 2026-09-07. https://thresholds.pages.dev/fsa/