Did Obamacare help pay for some of your health insurance premiums in 2014? If so, you might have to act now to assure that you’ll receive similar payments next year, in 2016.
Taxpayers who filed their 2014 income tax returns on time – and that is most of us – don’t need to worry. Neither do people who have private coverage through their employers or private insurance programs.
But anyone who was insured through the public “health insurance marketplaces” AND has not yet submitted a 2014 tax return needs to get it filed, pronto. The Internal Revenue Service is saying that any 2016 assistance in paying premiums depends on it. Even taxpayers who received automatic extensions until Oct. 15 should get their 2014 returns in as soon as possible.
Here’s why. Under the cost-sharing system in the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”), the government helps people pay insurance premiums through a “premium tax credit” on their income tax returns. People also can choose to have the government pay those premiums to insurance companies when bills are due. Anyone who filed a federal income tax return already should have accounted for those “advance payments of the premium tax credit,” abbreviated APTC.
But, apparently, about 710,000 taxpayers who received APTC had not filed their 2014 returns by the end of May. On July 17, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told Congress, “We are urging these taxpayers to file an electronic tax return to reconcile their APTC within 30 days.”
Another 360,000 filed for automatic extensions, and the IRS wants to get those returns in “as soon as possible,” according to an announcement.
The government and the marketplaces will be figuring out who can receive 2016 payments this fall. In short, if you haven’t filed a tax return with proper paperwork, the government might not send out the critical premium payments on time or at all.
By the way, people receiving government help with premiums payments must file a tax return – even if they would not normally file one because of low incomes or other reasons.
The 2014 tax return is the first one to include health insurance reporting under Obamacare. EricJohn Ltd. is equipped to file your late or extended return. Of course, we’ll also deal with the advanced premium tax credit.