Health Savings Accounts - Tax Question (HSA, paying, taxes, credit)

[CellarBelle]

Well, this is going to be a long one, but I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction... April 15 is around the corner, and I think I screwed up! Signed up for High Deduct Plan for insurance for 2007. Seemed like a great idea as the Good Lord has blessed us with good health. Well, health he may have blessed us with, but he can't do a whole lot with our insane free will choices. Husband had hockey accident (a middle-aged man playing hockey should have steered me from the HDHP from the get-go, but oh well), my daughter had her appendix out, and my son made a visit to the ER after a hockey accident. Funny, the one person in this family that decided to go with the HDHP is the one that was extra-healthy and managed to avoid an accident. Hmmm...

So anyway, you know how those bills start rolling in. I hate it, and I just wanted to get them paid ASAP so I didn't have to see a darned hospital or doctor bill everytime I opened the mail box. Well, I was good and patient at first, and paid for $3500 out of my HSA, but I got sick of mailing the HSA a check, waiting for it to post, and then paying Doc/Hospital whomever. So, I ran down the HSA (which was at $3500), and then I took matters into my own hands and just started writing checks directly to the docs and hospitals. Well, here I sit having spent $8k in med bills. $3500 of that came out of my HSA, the remaining $4500 was paid by me directly (can you imagine the vacation I could've taken for $4500 - yup, I'm a little bitter).

So, I'm taking my data to my tax preparer, aka Attila the Hun, and I'm starting to have heart palpitations... will I be able to deduct the $4500 ($8k less the $3500 from my HSA) on my taxes? Or... am I going to have to figure out how in the heck to get the difference between my max allowable amount and the 3500 into that account prior to April 15 to get the tax benefits. Does that make a bit of sense? Attila and I will be meeting on Wednesday and I'd really like to beat her to the punch so she doesn't lecture me about what an idiot I was to manage my finances so carelessly. But more than anything, if I need to get money into my HSA for '07 credit I've got to get a move on.

Oh, and yes, I signed up for the same stinkin' plan again this year... I mean really, how often does lightning strike the same place twice??? (Of course my husband does have 2 knees...).

Thanks to any tax/finance person that can answer the question. I know you are all working like dogs right now because of losers like me that wait until the last minute...