Obamacare ushers in several new tax forms for 2014/2015| By: Robert A. Green, CPA. Must Read
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) enacted in 2012 has taken several years to implement and phase in. But now that the Obamacare 2014 individual health insurance mandate is in effect, many taxpayers will face confusion over tax penalties, exemptions, premium tax credits, claw backs of subsidies (advanced credits) and extra tax-preparation fees to comply with Obamacare on 2014 tax filings. In this post, I help clarify the details of the mandate.
There are three scenarios for dealing with the mandate on 2014 tax returns:
1. Off-exchange coverage: If you had ACA-compliant health insurance coverage for all of 2014 — either an individual plan purchased directly from an insurance company (off exchange), an employer plan or government-sponsored programs like Medicare or Medicaid — there’s little to do. You may receive a new IRS Form 1095-B reporting your health insurance coverage from an insurance company and, if applicable, a Form 1095-C from your employer. Both of these tax forms are not mandatory for 2014. Give the 1095s to your accountant and you’re finished. There won’t be any penalties, premium tax credits or return of exchange subsidies.
2. On-exchange coverage: If you purchased your 2014 health insurance on an exchange (marketplace), you will receive a mandatory Form 1095-A from the marketplace and you must file new tax Form 8962 (Premium Tax Credit). When you applied for your 2014 health insurance coverage, you submittedestimates of your 2014 income which the exchange relied on for pricing your plan, perhaps offering a subsidized plan with “advanced credits.” The purpose of Form 8962 is to determine your rightful premium tax credit based on income reported on your 2014 tax return and to reconcile advanced credits (if any) with the premium tax credit calculated on Form 8962. Estimates probably won’t match actual income, especially for traders who have fluctuations in trading gains and losses.Therefore, one of three things will happen on Form 8962:
i. You will have a tax liability caused by advanced credits being greater than the premium tax credit.
ii. You will have a tax credit caused by advanced credits being less than the premium tax credit.
iii. No tax liability or credit because you used an exchange but did not receive an advanced credit and there is no premium tax credit.
The Obamacare Website says individuals can use an exchange even without getting a subsidized plan, but we heard from taxpayers that they were not permitted to use some state exchanges unless they qualified for subsidies. Some individuals say they received a better quote off exchange compared to on exchange without subsidies. Expect to receive new tax information document IRS Form 1095-A from the exchange reporting your coverage and any advanced credits paid for a subsidized plan. Give the 1095s to your accountant and he or she will prepare Form 8962. Tax software should have an input area to enter Form 1095 information and calculate Form 8962 and the premium tax credit.
3. No health insurance coverage: If you did not have ACA-compliant health insurance coverage for 2014 — and that includes large gaps in coverage — and you don’t qualify for an exemption from Obamacare, then you will owe a shared-responsibility payment (tax penalty). Apply to an exchange to receive a Form 8965 exemption for certain types of exemptions, and for others types of exemption claim them on a self-prepared Form 8965. As of Oct. 29, the IRS had not yet released a draft tax form for calculating the shared responsibility payment.
The shared responsibility payment is whichever amount is larger of the following: For 2014, the payment is either $95 per adult and $47.50 per child (up to $285 for a family) or 1% of household income. For 2015, it’s either $325 per adult and $162.50 per child (up to $975 for a family) or 2% of household income. For 2016, it’s either $695 per adult and $347.50 per child (up to $2,085 for a family) or 2.5% of household income. Per the IRS Website, “the individual shared responsibility payment is capped at the cost of the national average premium for the bronze level health plan available through the Marketplace in 2014.” As has been widely publicized, the shared responsibility payment is not enforceable by the IRS. That means the IRS will offset the payment against tax refunds due, but it can’t file liens, levy assets or start collection proceedings for this payment. The IRS may fully enforce claw-backs of advanced credits (subsidies) reported on Form 8962.
The 2014 Form 1040 has three lines dealing with the Obamacare health insurance mandate:
- Tax (line 46): Excess advance premium tax credit repayment. Attach Form 8962.
- Payment (line 69): Net premium tax credit. Attach Form 8962.
- Other Taxes (line 61): Health care: individual responsibility (see instructions). Full-year coverage (box to check).
