Health Insurance Reporting Requirement - Guidance form the IRS
Starting with the 2017 tax filing season, you - the taxpayer - must show whether you 1) had health coverage, 2) qualify for an exemption or 3) will make a shared responsibility payment.
If you file electronically the IRS will reject returns that don’t address your health insurance status. If you file a paper return and don’t address ACA, the IRS may suspend your tax return pending the receipt of your ACA information.
In no uncertain language, the IRS is clear that failing to give ACA health insurance status on your tax return can cause a delay in your refund.
Here again is your health insurance info the IRS wants:
- Answer whether you and everyone on your return had health insurance coverage, or
- Whether you qualified for an exemption from the health insurance requirement, or
- Whether you are making an individual shared responsibility payment.
If you don’t remember revealing ACA info when you filed your 2016 tax return it’s because the 2017 tax year is the first time the IRS will not accept tax returns that do not include the above information.
Do you need to file a return just to give your health insurance status?
As just described above, the ACA requires you and each member of your family have minimum essential coverage, qualify for an exemption, or make an individual shared responsibility payment.
But what if you’re not filing a tax return? Do you still need to file just to give the ACA health insurance coverage info?
The answer is no. You need not file a tax return solely to report your ACA health insurance coverage or to claim an exemption. So if for lucky some reason you are not required to file a 2017 tax return and don’t want to file a return then you need not worry about giving your ACA info to the IRS.
Have You Determined if You are Eligible for the Premium Tax Credit?
The premium tax credit assists individuals and families cover the cost of health insurance premiums.
This goal of the premium tax credit is to make health insurance more affordable for individuals and families. And like everything associated with tax credits, you must meet requirements to get the credit.
First off, you must buy your Arizona health insurance on the ACA Marketplace to be eligible. So if you didn’t buy on an exchange you can stop reading now.
If you purchased health insurance on the exchange you can discover if you are eligible for the premium tax credit by answering the yes-or-no questions and following the arrows in the following chart.
We obtained the above chart from the IRS’s ACA Individuals and Families page.
If you hate charts or can’t read the chart because you are reading this on a mobile device, you can follow this link to view the questions in text format.
Disclaimer
This blog is for health insurance info and is not a tax advice blog, so you should consult with your tax professional for guidance to optimize your taxes.
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