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Have "Obamacare"? We Need Form 1095A
Sep 1, 2016
This is a fairly short blog because it's really a reminder to you guys. A PSA of sorts.
If you have obtained health insurance through The Marketplace, aka Obamacare, you will receive a form 1095A at the end of the year. Treat this form as you would your W-2's or 1099's--bring them with you to your tax appointment.
The information on those forms is required to be reported on your tax return and IRS will halt the processing of your return until they receive it. We have people who filed a return in February and it was September and still haven't received their refunds because this information is missing.
Getting this information is not difficult. If, for some reason, you didn't get your 1095A by mail, then you have three options. The first one is to log in to your healthcare.gov account and reprint the form yourself. The second option is for you to call and ask them to mail it to you. The third is to call them and ask them to give you all the information over the phone (you'll need a blank 1095A--just google it).
The healthcare.gov phone number is 1-800-318-2596.
Of course things always aren't as easy as what they seem, so be aware of the following four common scenarios that could result in a little chaos in your tax life:
1) If you change plans during the year, but you stayed with Obamacare the entire year, you will receive a different 1095A for each time you made a change. This will be obvious to you because there are monthly boxes on the form and the form will only be partially completed. I've had clients with three separate 1095-A's because they switched throughout the year but together, they reflect he entire year of coverage. Make sure you get all 1095-A's.
2) If you changed plans from Obamacare to a private plan (through work or just personally), you will only receive a 1095A from The Marketplace--not the private insurer. The forms you get from your private insurers will be 1095B and 1095C and you should also bring those in to prove that you had coverage the entire year.
3) If you only had Obamacare for a few months, and then dropped it the rest of the year, your 1095A will only show coverage for the months you had the policy in effect. There may be a small penalty owed for not having had health insurance coverage the remainder of the year.
4) Finally, in 2015, The Marketplace sent out forms 1095A twice to thousands of folks--an original with incorrect info, and a second one with the corrected information. You may want to double check the form against your policy to make sure it's accurate.
Don't be in such a rush. We all like to get our refunds, but only a few us "absolutely, positively, need it right this second!" Better to have all your ducks lined up in a row so that when you do file your return, there won't be any surprises.
Category: Taxes
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