Health Insurance: Affordability Worksheet Implementation Phase II

Transcription

1 Health Insurance: Affordability Worksheet Implementation Phase II Phase II implements the Affordability Worksheet to assist preparers in determining if a household member qualifies to claim the Coverage is Considered Unaffordable exemption Code A; but only after the preparer first determines another coverage exemption(s) (or Household or Gross Income below Filing Threshold exemption) does not qualify. The series of screenshots below describes the flow of how a preparer will decide to determine if the affordability exemption may apply AFTER first eliminating: 1. The tax return does not qualify for the Household or Gross Income below Filing Threshold exemption. 2. Household members did not receive and are not expecting to receive a Marketplace Issued Exemption Certification. 3. Household members do not qualify to claim a coverage exemption besides Coverage is Considered Unaffordable. The outlined example in this document will help illustrate the flow outlined above. This is a MFJ return with no additional household members. Neither Taxpayer or Spouse had health insurance at any point during 2017 and were not eligible to receive employer-sponsored coverage. Household income is $75,000.

2 Did you or your family have health insurance at any time in 2017? NO

3 No adjustments to the Verify Your Household Members page CONTINUE

4 The Household Income page asks for any premiums paid through a salary reduction agreement with an employer that is excluded from gross income. An entry here will add to the Affordability Threshold (8.16% of household income) to assist in determining if the affordability exemption may apply (Line A of Affordability Worksheet). No entries will be made for this example. NOTE: If a dependent or household member is listed on the return, this page will also ask for Dependent MAGI information (if they have a filing requirement). Clicking Continue on the Household Income page automatically kicks off a calculation to determine if the return qualifies to claim the Household or Gross Income below exemption. In this example of having $75,000 in household income, the return did not qualify. The program will indicate if a return qualifies to claim the Household or Gross Income below. exemption either way. NOTE: If the return qualifies, the exemption will be applied and the Health Insurance menu is completed

5 Since the return did not qualify for the Household or Gross Income below. exemption, the preparer is presented with the question asking if any household members qualify for an exemption due to circumstances or received a Marketplace Issues Exemption Certificate. If YES, the preparer is directed to the Health Insurance/Exemption page. Here is where the preparer can claim qualifying coverage exemptions per applicable household member or enter any Marketplace Issued Certificate Exemption numbers and will then exit the Health Insurance menu.

6 Assuming no household members received a Marketplace Issued Exemption Certificate or qualified to claim a coverage exemption besides affordability, the last potential option to avoid the Shared Responsibility Payment would be determining if coverage was considered unaffordable. If that is the case, on the Health Care Exemption Certificates page after determining the household does not qualify to claim the Household or Gross Income below.. exemption and answering NO that a coverage exemption besides affordability does not apply and no one received a Marketplace Issued Exemption Certificate, the preparer will now be presented with the option to determine if the coverage exemption for unaffordability applies.

7 The preparer is now accessing the Affordability Worksheet menu. The first page asks for the LCBP and SLCSP premiums (use the healthcare.gov link to retrieve these premium values). IMPORTANT: Only use the provided healthcare.gov link to retrieve the LCBP and SLCSP premiums if the household member(s) were NOT eligible for employer-sponsored coverage. NOTE: If the household member(s) were eligible for employer-sponsored coverage, simply continue without entering any data or doing the necessary legwork to retrieve the LCBP and SLCSP premium values. In this example, based on data provided using the healthcare.gov tool, my premium values are entered below.

8 If LCBP and SLCSP premium values were provided on the previous page, the Affordability Worksheet page will display the calculated Annualized Contribution amount from Line 13 of the Marketplace Coverage Affordability Worksheet. The preparer will now enter the Annualized Contribution Amount for each applicable month affordability needs to be determined per applicable household member. After the appropriate values are entered for each applicable month per household member, the program can then determine if the Coverage is Considered Unaffordable exemption applies and if so, will apply the affordability exemption to each applicable month per household member. NOTE: The program will let the preparer know if the Coverage is Considered Unaffordable exemption qualifies or does not qualify.

9 QUALIFY MESSAGE Exemption is automatically added to the return for applicable months per household member DOES NOT QUALIFY MESSAGE Shared Responsibility Payment then applied to return

10 PDF SCREENSHOTS Part III of F8965 (specific to this example) Affordability Worksheet (specific to this example)

11 Marketplace Coverage Affordability Worksheet (specific to this example and because LCBP/SLCSP values were used to determine affordability)