Qustions on ACA apply process

[SecondCor521]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fh2000 You are correct. My analysis is to calculate the total MAGI for the purpose of ACA on Form 8962, which includes income from 2 tax returns, total 3 IRA contributions.

I was under the impression that there was one Form 8962 per tax household which has a 1-to-1 match with tax returns. I know there is a line on Form 8962 for kids' incomes, but I thought that was only when they were little kids, not when they're adults filing their own returns.

What names are you putting at the top of Form 8962? With which tax return are you filing the Form 8962?

I'm certainly not an expert, especially on edge cases. So please take my questions as those of curiosity, not challenge.

ETA: It looks like you can only include your dependent's incomes on your Form 8962 - see instructions for line 2b. It doesn't sound to me like your adult child qualifies as your dependent, especially given your point #4 in post #14 where you're wanting to use the fact that they're not your dependent in order to make the HSA contribution.

[fh2000]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SecondCor521 I was under the impression that there was one Form 8962 per tax household which has a 1-to-1 match with tax returns. I know there is a line on Form 8962 for kids' incomes, but I thought that was only when they were little kids, not when they're adults filing their own returns. What names are you putting at the top of Form 8962? With which tax return are you filing the Form 8962? I'm certainly not an expert, especially on edge cases. So please take my questions as those of curiosity, not challenge. ETA: It looks like you can only include your dependent's incomes on your Form 8962 - see instructions for line 2b. It doesn't sound to me like your adult child qualifies as your dependent, especially given your point #4 in post #14 where you're wanting to use the fact that they're not your dependent in order to make the HSA contribution.

Thank you for you question and I apologize to OP for the side track.

I have not applied for ACA policy, nor have I filled out Form 8962. I am just doing the analysis preparing for our situation: we are a family of 3 with one tax return for Married Filing Jointly, and one tax return by our adult child as Independent. We plan to purchase an ACA policy to include our adult child who is younger than 26.

According to Healthcare.gov below:
https://www.healthcare.gov/income-an...ousehold-size/

Who to include in your household: our 'non-dependent child under 26' can sometimes 'Include them only if you want to cover them on your Marketplace plan'.
So, our household size will be 3.

What to include as income: 'The Marketplace counts estimated income of all household members who are required to file a tax return.'
So, our household income will include our income + child's income

According to this article how to fill out Form 8962:
https://accountants-community.intuit...ium-tax-credit

Completing Form 8962
Part 1, Lines 1 through 8b:
Most of the lines in Part 1 are calculated automatically from other parts of the return and from the tables found in the Form 8962 instructions. You may need to enter the clients dependent's income on line 2 before completing this form. This is because "Household income" includes the income from all members of the "Tax Family"

Part 2, Lines 9 through 23:
If your client shared a policy with another taxpayer or was married during the year, please review the Table 3 and Table 4 questions in the IRS instructions to determine if additional calculations are needed. The information appearing in lines 11 (annual) or 12 through 23 (monthly), will be entered from Form 1095-A. Note: If more than one Form 1095-A was received for a single state, enter the amount from one for Line 11, Column B.

Part 4, Lines 30 through 34:
Use this section to report shared policy allocations. Review the IRS instructions for more information about how and when to complete this section.

If anyone has actually filled out Form 8962 with similar household situation, please kindly chime in. I am using TurboTax and certainly hope their question/answer section will account for 2 tax return income. I believe on our child's return, Form 8962 will also need to be included.

There is a discussion of shared policy allocations. I plan to put 100% in our tax return, and put 0% in our child's tax return for that.

The law says adult child under 26 can be included in parent's policy. It is how to include and calculate the total income becomes complicated.

[SecondCor521]

^ OK, I think you are probably heading in the right direction with the shared policy allocation thing.

One additional comment in that area: There are rules for how you allocate the policy - it isn't up to you to pick. See the instructions for Form 8962 for that part where they give the rules along with several examples.

[fh2000]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SecondCor521 ^ OK, I think you are probably heading in the right direction with the shared policy allocation thing. One additional comment in that area: There are rules for how you allocate the policy - it isn't up to you to pick. See the instructions for Form 8962 for that part where they give the rules along with several examples.

Thank you for checking on the allocation.

Per this below, it appears that allocation can be flexible:
https://accountants-community.intuit...ade-good-money

"However, in most cases it will save the most money to allocate 100% of the premiums to one tax return (if they all agree to it). It will save the most money to allocate it to the person with the lowest FPL and income. In this case, it sounds like they are all one-family tax returns, so allocating 100% to the lowest income will result in the best Premium Tax Credit.
EDIT: If you allocate 100% to one tax return, the other return (with 0%) still needs to have Form 8962 filled out, with 0% in the allocation field."

[MBSC]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fh2000 Per this below, it appears that allocation can be flexible: https://accountants-community.intuit...ade-good-money "However, in most cases it will save the most money to allocate 100% of the premiums to one tax return (if they all agree to it). It will save the most money to allocate it to the person with the lowest FPL and income. In this case, it sounds like they are all one-family tax returns, so allocating 100% to the lowest income will result in the best Premium Tax Credit. EDIT: If you allocate 100% to one tax return, the other return (with 0%) still needs to have Form 8962 filled out, with 0% in the allocation field."

That information applies when the parents do not inform the Marketplace at the time of plan enrollment that the child is non-dependent. This causes one Form 1095A to be issued creating the need to allocate between tax returns.

When you do inform the Marketplace at the time of plan enrollment that the child is non-dependent, the child receives their own separate 1095A to use on their tax return.

Quote:

If your parents told the Healthcare Marketplace (usually when they applied for health insurance) that you were not going to be their dependent, you will probably receive a 1095-A of your own, and you will need to enter that into TurboTax. If your parents did NOT tell the Healthcare Marketplace (usually when they applied for health insurance) that you were not going to be their dependent, you will NOT receive a 1095-A of your own. You will need to get a copy of your parents' 1095-A and enter it on your tax return. On the screen after entering the 1095-A, you will check the box indicating that the policy was shared by somebody that is not on your tax return. It will then prompt you with further questions to determine how much of it is "allocated" to you (even if it is 0%). Your parents would follow this same procedure. Source: https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/29...ot-a-dependent

[fh2000]

We are a family of 3 with one tax return for Married Filing Jointly, and one return for independent adult child (24). We will have group insurance covering 3 of us for January 2019, so we need an ACA policy beginning February 2019.

The time to file for ACA to start in February 2019 is 12/16/18 to 1/15/19 per Covered California helpline.

I am just now looking into the application form from Covered California website. For each person, there are 2 steps; step 1 is for personal information, step 2 is the income portion (see attached).

The first section is: Tell us about your current job and how you get money: Are they asking for my 2018 income here? For 2019, we will have very little job income, and then 2 bonuses, and one PTO payout.

If I skip down to the section: Does your income change from month to month? There are 2 questions below:

What do you expect your income to be this year: Are they asking for 2018 income?
If you expect your income to change next year, what will the new total income be? Are they asking for the estimated income from 2019? Is this where I need to put the estimated household MAGI to ensure that I am under the 400% FPL?

Does the online filing ask the same questions as filing on paper in Covered California?

[SecondCor521]

^ If you're applying for ACA coverage starting February 2019, then I would think you should answer the questions about "this year" as meaning 2019, and "next year" to mean 2020.

For the "current job and how you get money", I would answer that as 2019, so mention your bonuses and PTO payout, and say you're retired.

[Eucerin]

Hello all, OP here.

I want to report back that I just completed ACA process and obtained a health insurance for 2019.
The process was anything but easy and convenient. After 8th phone call into the admin, I decided to obtain an agent, things have gotten better after that.

I think the biggest problem was that they don't inform you what they need exactly for the verification.
They told me they need financial info and spouse income and following year income projection; I have made cover letter attached with income statement, tax returns, pay stub....etc, but I kept getting "fail verification". After I got an agent, we had a conference call with the admin, and understood they need 1095B and tax e-file statement.
They could tell me that's what they need when I made all the phone calls but now I realized that the quality of each admin is different, also the agent deal with different set of admin than I did.

Alas, I got health insurance for me and my kids next year, that's the most important part of it.

[fh2000]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eucerin Hello all, OP here. I want to report back that I just completed ACA process and obtained a health insurance for 2019. The process was anything but easy and convenient. After 8th phone call into the admin, I decided to obtain an agent, things have gotten better after that. I think the biggest problem was that they don't inform you what they need exactly for the verification. They told me they need financial info and spouse income and following year income projection; I have made cover letter attached with income statement, tax returns, pay stub....etc, but I kept getting "fail verification". After I got an agent, we had a conference call with the admin, and understood they need 1095B and tax e-file statement. They could tell me that's what they need when I made all the phone calls but now I realized that the quality of each admin is different, also the agent deal with different set of admin than I did. Alas, I got health insurance for me and my kids next year, that's the most important part of it.

I am glad you got it all resolved. I see you are in Connecticut.

I am nervously waiting for 12/16 to sign up for ours from Covered California. I am not sure why challenges I might have yet. We will see.

[Aerides]

PSA: Just a reminder - the last day to sign up during normal enrollment is 12/15 - 3 days from now, for your 2019 coverage.

Miss that, and you'll need a qualifying event such as loss of job/coverage, etc., to sign up again before 2020 enrollment window opens.

[fh2000]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aerides PSA: Just a reminder - the last day to sign up during normal enrollment is 12/15 - 3 days from now, for your 2019 coverage. Miss that, and you'll need a qualifying event such as loss of job/coverage, etc., to sign up again before 2020 enrollment window opens.

Covered California still uses the original due date 1/15/19.

Apply
You can sign up for 2019 coverage from Oct. 15, 2018, to Jan. 15, 2019. Individuals with special qualifying life events can enroll at any time of the year. Medi-Cal enrollment is also year-round.

Medi-Cal and Covered California use the same application. When you complete your application, depending on factors such as your family size, income and ZIP code, you will find out whether you qualify for:

A Covered California health plan, with or without financial assistance.
Medi-Cal.
County Children’s Health Initiative Program.
Medi-Cal Access Program for pregnant women.

[fh2000]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fh2000 Covered California still uses the original due date 1/15/19. Apply You can sign up for 2019 coverage from Oct. 15, 2018, to Jan. 15, 2019. Individuals with special qualifying life events can enroll at any time of the year. Medi-Cal enrollment is also year-round.

Today, I tried to sign up for 2/1/19 start date. We will still have group insurance for January, 2019. I now see that 1/1/2019 sign up deadline for Covered California is moved to 12/21/18. I will have to wait until 12/22/18 to sign up for 2/1/19 start date.