How long do you have to reimburse yourself from an HSA?
There is no deadline. A bill from any time after your HSA was opened can be paid back tax-free years later, as long as you keep the receipt, and then keep it for at least three more years after filing that year’s return.
The rule
The IRS sets no time limit on taking money out for a medical bill. You can pay a bill yourself this year and take the money out of your HSA next year or decades from now, as long as the care came after the HSA was opened. Publication 969 says you don’t have to take money out each year.
What makes it tax-free is the record. You must be able to show three things: the money paid for qualified medical care, nobody else (insurance, an FSA, another account) already paid you back for it, and you didn’t also deduct it as a medical expense on any return.
So keep each receipt until you take the money out for it, then for as long as the year you took it out can be questioned. For most people that is three years from filing the return that reports it on Form 8889.
- What to keep
- The bill or receipt, what insurance paid, and the date and amount you took out for it. Reimburse keeps each one marked waiting or taken out.
- Watch for
- Without the record, money taken out is taxed as income, and before 65 a 20% additional tax is added unless you are disabled.
- An explanation of benefits from your insurer shows what it paid and what you owed, which answers the second question. Keep it with the bill.
Checked on October 2, 2026 against Publication 969, Health Savings Accounts, Notice 2004-50, Q&A 39, IRS, How long should I keep records? and Instructions for Form 8889. An estimate for your records, not tax advice.
Keep the receipt. Take the money out later.
Pay a medical bill yourself and Reimburse keeps the receipt, with who it was for, until you take the money out of your HSA tax-free.