Health Exchange Income Verification

[gozer]

Anybody know how income verification is going to work when your income is dramatically different from 2013 to 2014? My MAGI is going to drop by over 80% due to ER. When I show them them one of my pay stubs from 2013, they are going to tell me I don't qualify for subsidies.

I suspect I may just have to pay full price for exchange coverage and then when real numbers are in, get a 9K refund on my taxes for 2014. I don't really like the idea of loaning my crazy uncle that much money for a year.

[meierlde]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gozer Anybody know how income verification is going to work when your income is dramatically different from 2013 to 2014? My MAGI is going to drop by over 80% due to ER. When I show them them one of my pay stubs from 2013, they are going to tell me I don't qualify for subsidies. I suspect I may just have to pay full price for exchange coverage and then when real numbers are in, get a 9K refund on my taxes for 2014. I don't really like the idea of loaning my crazy uncle that much money for a year.

Of course thanks to Uncle Ben you won't loose much in the way of interest, (about .5% on a 6 month CD for example). so the issue is just the principal and the cash flow.

[gozer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by meierlde Of course thanks to Uncle Ben you won't loose much in the way of interest, (about .5% on a 6 month CD for example). so the issue is just the principal and the cash flow.

I think the issue is how much do I trust my crazy uncle sam.

[Animorph]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gozer Anybody know how income verification is going to work when your income is dramatically different from 2013 to 2014? My MAGI is going to drop by over 80% due to ER. When I show them them one of my pay stubs from 2013, they are going to tell me I don't qualify for subsidies. I suspect I may just have to pay full price for exchange coverage and then when real numbers are in, get a 9K refund on my taxes for 2014. I don't really like the idea of loaning my crazy uncle that much money for a year.

I assume you could adjust withholding or estimated taxes to make it come out even or at least smaller.

[Nunthewiser]

I had the same issue. I uploaded a copy of my estimated pension calculation that I got from Megacorp effective Feb 2014. That was 2 days ago and that last item seems to be the one it's thinking about (or choking on) as I can't get it to move past that point.

It has to be better than most estimates they get from small business owners. Now, they just have to trust that I will do it. But , doing it has a lot to do with the subsidy that I should get.

[gozer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nunthewiser I had the same issue. I uploaded a copy of my estimated pension calculation that I got from Megacorp effective Feb 2014. That was 2 days ago and that last item seems to be the one it's thinking about (or choking on) as I can't get it to move past that point. It has to be better than most estimates they get from small business owners. Now, they just have to trust that I will do it. But , doing it has a lot to do with the subsidy that I should get.

Did you get any chance to enter an explanation or was it just upload the documents and go?

[Nunthewiser]

No, just upload and go, but I had the wit (I guess) to handwrite on the estimate what I was doing and how to make the monthly figure go to the annualized one they wanted.

Still waiting...

[ziggy29]

It may depend on your circumstance. For me it knew my tiny little post office income. I had to estimate my wife's church income for 2013 and 2014. It already knew I didn't have income from my last Megacorp (laid off April 2013).

We're already thinking about that for NEXT year, and how to track it going forward. My work, sparse as it is, is still variable as some of my work is filling in for sick leave, vacations and other outages as needed. That said, if I'm working more than expected and we start getting near a significant "cliff" I plan to massively crank up the pre-tax withholding for my wife's 403B to make sure we don't drive over it.

[gozer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nunthewiser No, just upload and go, but I had the wit (I guess) to handwrite on the estimate what I was doing and how to make the monthly figure go to the annualized one they wanted. Still waiting...

I guess I'll give that a try and include a letter from HR that states my employment end date.

[NW-Reader]

Someone may already have posted a link to this page at KFF, Frequently Asked Questions | The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation but it has a lot of helpful information. We are in the same boat, RE in December 2013.

"What if I don’t know what my income will be next year?
When you apply for the premium tax credit, you will be asked to estimate your expected income for the upcoming year. Often a good place to start is to consider what your income is this year, or what income you reported on your tax return last year. However, if your circumstances have changed since then, for example, if you recently lost your job, you should make your best estimate of what your income will be next year. The health insurance marketplace will compare your income estimates against records at the Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration and other sources. If your estimate and official records don’t match, but you meet all other eligibility requirements, you will be asked to provide documentation to support your income projections.

If you don’t have that documentation handy, the Marketplace will provide subsidies for up to 90 days while you gather and submit your documentation for verification. It is very important that you provide any documentation requested by the Marketplace in a timely manner; if you don’t your subsidies might be reduced or terminated."