HSA Shoebox Calculator

See what happens if you pay medical bills out of pocket, keep the receipts, and leave your HSA invested. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.

Receipts you could reimburse

$40,000

You can take this out of your HSA tax-free whenever you want, if you can show the records.

HSA balance from those dollars

$73,571

What the money could grow to if it stays invested for 20 years.

Tax avoided on the growth

$5,036

Compared with reimbursing now and investing in a taxable account, if the growth goes to qualified medical bills.

What lost records could cost

$16,800

Income tax plus the 20% additional tax on $40,000, if you're under 65 and can't show the withdrawals qualified.

The same bills over time

After	Receipts	HSA balance	Tax avoided
5 years	$10,000	$11,274	$191
10 years	$20,000	$26,362	$954
15 years	$30,000	$46,552	$2,483
20 years	$40,000	$73,571	$5,036
25 years	$50,000	$109,729	$8,959
30 years	$60,000	$158,116	$14,717

Keep those receipts somewhere you can still find them in 20 years

Shoebox reads and stores your HSA receipts. It's free for 30 days with no card, then $60/year if you keep it. A folder and a spreadsheet can work too, if you'll keep them up.

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How to read the results

Receipts you could reimburse is the total of your bills. This is the part you can take out tax-free for any reason, because IRS Notice 2004-50, Q&A 39, sets no deadline for reimbursing a qualified expense, as long as it came after your HSA was established and you keep the records.

HSA balance is what those dollars could grow to. Only the receipts come out tax-free with no strings. The growth above that stays tax-free only if it goes to qualified medical expenses, like future care or Medicare premiums after 65.

Tax avoided is the number we'd pay attention to. You could also reimburse yourself today and invest the money in a regular brokerage account, where it would earn the same return but owe capital gains tax. So the benefit of waiting isn't all of the growth. It's the tax you skip on the growth.

What lost records could cost is the downside. If you can't show a withdrawal paid for a qualified expense, Publication 969 says it counts as income, with an additional 20% tax unless you're 65 or older, disabled, or the distribution is made after death.

When waiting isn't worth it

You'd have to carry a credit card balance or skip other savings to pay the bill in cash.
Your HSA sits in cash or has high fees, so there's little growth to protect.
You won't have enough medical expenses to use the growth. After 65, withdrawals for anything else are taxed as income, which can be worse than capital gains in a brokerage account.
You won't keep the records. The whole strategy depends on them.

How we calculate this

We assume the same bills at the end of each year, and that both your HSA and a taxable account earn the same return. The HSA balance is the future value of those yearly amounts. Tax avoided is the growth multiplied by your capital gains rate. We ignore tax on dividends along the way, which makes the taxable account look a little better than it would be. Returns aren't guaranteed, and this doesn't adjust for inflation.

This is an estimate for planning, not tax advice. Shoebox sells HSA receipt software, so factor that in. New to this? Start with what the HSA shoebox strategy is, then see what records to keep and how long to keep them.