Form 8889 is the IRS form for health savings accounts. It decides how much of your contribution you can deduct, whether any distribution is taxable and whether you owe an additional tax.
This guide explains who must file, the 2026 and 2025 limits, eligibility and the testing period, and the contribution and distribution sections, with two worked examples. It follows the Form 8889 instructions and IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-19.
You must file Form 8889 if you, your employer or someone else made contributions to your HSA, or if your HSA made a distribution. The IRS also requires the form if you failed to be an eligible individual during a testing period and must recognize income. If you or your spouse received HSA distributions in the tax year, you must file Form 8889 with your return even if you have no taxable income or any other reason to file. If you are married filing jointly and both of you have HSAs, each of you completes a separate Form 8889.
| Item | 2026 (Rev. Proc. 2025-19) | 2025 (Form 8889 instructions) |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum contribution, self-only HDHP | $4,400 | $4,300 |
| Maximum contribution, family HDHP | $8,750 | $8,550 |
| Additional contribution at age 55 or older | $1,000 (2026 draft instructions) | $1,000 |
| HDHP minimum deductible, self-only / family | $1,700 / $3,400 | $1,650 / $3,300 |
| HDHP maximum out-of-pocket, self-only / family | $8,500 / $17,000 | $8,300 / $16,600 |
Newer figures: Revenue Procedure 2026-24 (published in 2026) sets the 2027 limits at $4,500 for self-only coverage and $9,000 for family coverage, with a 2027 HDHP minimum deductible of $1,750 / $3,500 and a maximum out-of-pocket of $8,700 / $17,400. These apply to 2027, not to the 2026 return. The IRS has also posted a draft of the 2026 Form 8889 instructions (dated July 21, 2026) that repeats the 2026 figures above; it is a draft, so check the final version when it is released.
Your maximum contribution is reduced by any employer contributions to your HSA, any contributions to an Archer MSA and any qualified HSA funding distributions. Contributions made through a cafeteria plan salary reduction are treated as employer contributions. You cannot deduct contributions for any month you were enrolled in Medicare. Our HSA contribution limits guide covers the limits in more depth.
To have contributions made to your HSA you must be covered under a high deductible health plan (HDHP) and have no other health coverage except certain disregarded coverage. You cannot be enrolled in Medicare or be another person's dependent. For 2026, certain bronze and catastrophic health plans are also treated as HDHPs (Code section 223(c)(2)(H), Notice 2026-5), and an otherwise eligible person in a direct primary care service arrangement is not treated as having disqualifying health coverage if the monthly fees do not exceed $150 ($300 if the arrangement covers more than one person). Telehealth and other remote care coverage is disregarded coverage. Ask your plan whether it meets these rules. You must be an eligible individual on the first day of a month to take a deduction for that month.
The last-month rule lets you treat yourself as eligible for the whole year if you are eligible on the first day of the last month of the tax year (December 1 for most people). You are then subject to a testing period that begins with the last month of the tax year and ends on the last day of the 12th month after it (for 2026: December 1, 2026 to December 31, 2027). If you fail to remain eligible during it, other than because of death or becoming disabled, you must include in income the contributions that would not have been made except for the rule, and that amount faces a 10% additional tax. This is reported in Part III.
Part I figures your HSA deduction and any excess contributions. Employer contributions are on your Form W-2 in box 12 with code W, and they are entered on the form so that your limit is reduced by them. Excess contributions face a 6% tax under Code section 4973, reported on Form 5329, unless you remove them in time. The instructions explain how to figure the line 3 limit when your coverage type changed during the year.
Part II reports distributions shown in box 1 of Form 1099-SA. Distributions used to pay qualified medical expenses that are not reimbursed are not taxed. For HSA purposes these are generally unreimbursed medical expenses that could otherwise be deducted on Schedule A; nonprescription medicines other than insulin also qualify even though they do not qualify for the medical expense deduction. A distribution that is a rollover to another HSA goes on line 14b. See our HSA eligible expenses guide for the expense rules.
Distributions included in income are subject to an additional 20% tax unless an exception applies. The additional 20% tax does not apply to distributions made after the account beneficiary dies, becomes disabled or turns age 65; the form has a box for these exceptions.
Example 1: contribution limit. A 40-year-old with self-only HDHP coverage has an HSA limit of $4,400 for 2026. The employer contributes $1,500 (shown with code W on the W-2), so the most the person can deduct for their own contributions is $2,900. If the person contributes $3,400 instead, the excess is $500, which faces the 6% tax of $30.00 unless removed in time.
Example 2: taxable distribution. A 45-year-old takes $2,000 from the HSA and spends $1,200 on qualified medical expenses. The other $800 is included in income and, with no exception, faces the additional 20% tax of $160.00. Both examples use figures chosen for illustration.
Form 8889 attaches to Form 1040, 1040-SR or 1040-NR. Employer contributions appear on Form W-2, and distributions on Form 1099-SA. For a comparison with the flexible spending account see our FSA vs HSA guide, and for the wider rules see our HSA tax guide.
Instructions for Form 8889 (2025), IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-19, IRS Revenue Procedure 2026-24, IRS Notice 2026-5, Draft 2026 Instructions for Form 8889, IRS Publication 969.