Employers are much more likely to contribute to the health savings accounts of employees who earn more than $1 million per year than to employees who earn less than $75,000 per year, and the contributions for the millionaire employees are a lot bigger, according to a new HSA contributions report.

Alice Choy, a research assistant at the Congressional Research Service, and Ryan Rosso, a health care financing specialist at the service, prepared the report to show how HSA contributions correlate with taxpayers' income.

The researchers used data reported to the Internal Revenue Service on income tax returns from 2004 through 2022.

In 2022, about 13 million, or 8% of the 161 million returns reported an employer HSA contribution, and 2.1 million, or 1.3%, reported an individual HSA contribution.

More than 15% of the returns in every income category for returns showing more than $100,000 in 2022 adjusted gross income reported an employer HSA contribution.

In every income category under $100,000, fewer than 12% of the returns showed an employer HSA contribution.

Employers were much more likely to contribute to HSAs for employees with adjusted gross income over $100,000

Here's how the likelihood that a tax return would include an employer HSA contribution correlated with the taxpayer's adjusted gross income category:

Less than $10,000: 0.3%

$10,000 to $25,000: 1.2%

$25,000 to $50,000: 5.0%

$50,000 to $75,000: 8.9%

$75,000 to $100,000: 11.7%

$100,000 to $200,000: 15.7%

$200,000 to $500,000: 22.2%

$500,000 to $1,000,000: 22.9%

$1 million and over: 16.2%

Employer HSA contribution levels also correlated with taxpayers' income category.

The researchers presented charts without exact numbers for the employer HSA contribution amount data, but the charts show that, in 2022, employer HSA contribution amounts averaged about $6,000 for taxpayers with adjusted gross income ove $1 million, about $3,000 for taxpayers with income from $100,000 to $200,000, and less than $1,000 for taxpayers with income from $10,000 to $25,000.

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