Total Income Over

Hyper

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Doing our taxes on turbotax, our total income is $7000 over what we claimed it would be for ACA deductions. We contributed as much as we could to our tradIRAs, but the "total income" amount stayed the same. We're unsure if this is the correct way to keep the ACA deductions for the amount we reported for 22'??
Thank you for any clarification!
 
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You can want to look at the Adjusted Gross Income. Then add back in a few things like any tax exempt interest. ACA refers to this as your Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI).

This link discusses other things that need to be added to the AGI to get your MAGI.

https://www.healthcare.gov/income-and-household-information/income/

Or

https://www.healthinsurance.org/glossary/modified-adjusted-gross-income-magi/

From the page you linked to:

"If your MAGI is a little too high to qualify for health insurance premium subsidies, know that contributions to a pre-tax retirement account and/or a health savings account (HSA) will reduce your MAGI."

So I would have expected contributions to traditional IRAs to reduce MAGI
 
The key word in that quote is "pre-tax". Are your IRA contributions deductible and therefore pre-tax contributions? If not, then they will not reduce your MAGI.

Assuming you are married and one or both of you had jobs since you said "we" and you contributed to IRAs ... does either of you have the "Retirement Plan" box checked on your W-2s? If yes, is your combined income greater than $129K? If yes to that too, then you can't make a pre-tax contribution to an IRA.
 
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One thing that we just learned was that according to Turbo tax, contributing to trad IRA only reduces total income if you have "earned income". This is really going to hurt us next year for aca subsidies?? Luckily DW had enough earned income from vac pay, that was payed into Jan 22'. That saved us this year?
 
Yes, for IRA (traditional, pre-tax or Roth, after tax) - you need “earned income” that year.

Earned income has social security taxes required. So capital gains, 401k and IRA withdrawals are not considered “earned income”
 
HSA contributions and then its deduction can be used, if health plan is eligible, even without earned income
 
HSA contributions and then its deduction can be used, if health plan is eligible, even without earned income

Yes but luckily we barely ever go to doctor (thank the Lord) so we'd not have anywhere near enough to itemize to get the HSA savings benefit?

Not sure what others are doing to get interest income down to get aca subsidies? I don't see a day when we will pay well over 30k a year for HI!
 
Income being $7000 over your estimate is not really a problem. This gets resolved with Form 8962 when you figure your taxes. There is an ACA cliff right now so it's not like $1 extra income costs you thousand$ of subsidy. Instead subsidy is phased out more gradually. However, the cliff may return in a couple of years, so now is a good time to plan for it in future years. It's getting late for 2022, though you could still do an HSA contribution if you had an eligible plan.

How are you contributing to an IRA without earned income? I thought earned income was required to do that?

You can invest your HSA money and save any medical receipts and reimburse yourself later, even years later. You can pay part of your Medicare premiums with HSA money. If you still have too much in your HSA you can withdraw from it later like you would a tIRA. So I wouldn't skip an HSA contribution just because you have few medical bills right now.

I had to sell off my managed mutual funds in taxable to better control my dividends for ACA subsidy planning. I don't keep that much in assets that pay interest in taxable. I keep most of those in IRAs.

Whether it's worth you doing something like that, I can't say, because you haven't said much about your situation, other than being over what you had estimated. Maybe you can and should do something, or maybe you shouldn't let the ACA subsidy rule your investing. Are you over 400% FPL, which is the key target if the ACA cliff does return? If not I probably wouldn't worry about it.
 
Yes but luckily we barely ever go to doctor (thank the Lord) so we'd not have anywhere near enough to itemize to get the HSA savings benefit?

Not sure what others are doing to get interest income down to get aca subsidies? I don't see a day when we will pay well over 30k a year for HI!

I think the HSA is a stand alone deduction form 8889 without a need to itemize.
At least Dinkytown shows it as such.
 
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Yes but luckily we barely ever go to doctor (thank the Lord) so we'd not have anywhere near enough to itemize to get the HSA savings benefit?

You don't need to itemize to get the HSA deduction. It's included on Schedule 1 Adjustments to Income , Line 13 (Form 8889). The total is then brought to Line 10 on the front page of the 1040. HSA contributions reduce your Adjusted Gross Income.

(I was composing this and checking details when COcheesehead posted!)
 
Yes but luckily we barely ever go to doctor (thank the Lord) so we'd not have anywhere near enough to itemize to get the HSA savings benefit?

Not sure what others are doing to get interest income down to get aca subsidies? I don't see a day when we will pay well over 30k a year for HI!

COCheesehead [and Sue J] are [-]is[/-] correct. HSA deduction is independent of itemization. And, even if you don't go to the doctor, the HSA is very valuable; arguably the best "retirement" account on a dollar for dollar basis, as you deduct the contribution, and pay no taxes on the withdrawal as long as you have "medical" costs at some point before the withdrawal that are equal to it.

We, and many others, invest the HSA over the years and also keep our receipts for medical expenses. Then, when the time feels right, we sell the investments and withdraw.
 
I think the HSA is a stand alone deduction form 8889 without a need to itemize.
At least Dinkytown shows it as such.

Correct, no itemizing needed to claim the HSA deduction. It reduces your MAGI directly which is important for ACA purposes.
 
HSA contributions and then its deduction can be used, if health plan is eligible, even without earned income

Yes ^^^ OP, before you contribute to an HSA, make sure your health plan is HSA eligible. I'm not sure which state your in, but in CA the health plans that are HSA eligible have "HDHP" in the name of the plan. I believe other states might indicate an eligible plan in a similar manner.
 
One thing that we just learned was that according to Turbo tax, contributing to trad IRA only reduces total income if you have "earned income". This is really going to hurt us next year for aca subsidies?? Luckily DW had enough earned income from vac pay, that was payed into Jan 22'. That saved us this year?

You are not permitted to contribute to an IRA if you do not have earned income. Your DW's vacation pay is considered "earned income" for tax purposes, so it sounds like you're o.k. for 2022.

For 2023, if you have already made an IRA contribution (either Roth or traditional) and you won't have any earned income, then you need to remove it and all earnings on that money before you file your 2023 tax return.
 
Yes but luckily we barely ever go to doctor (thank the Lord)

Yes... as in you have a HSA eligible plan? Definatly put the MAX in if you can. It reduces your income to qualify for ACA, Your taxed amount and build value tax free for health expenses.
 
Yes... as in you have a HSA eligible plan? Definatly put the MAX in if you can. It reduces your income to qualify for ACA, Your taxed amount and build value tax free for health expenses.


After 65, it can be used for anything. If medical, then zero taxes.
 
Our current plan is not HSA eligible. Just playing around on the HCgov site and changing the total income, the premium barely makes any difference. Choosing HSA eligible plans for the increased amount are only gold plans with the deductible and oop both rising about $15k/yr. The premium increase is easily acceptable if thats all we have to pay back. I wonder though if anything is done on the plan side??
 
This is a very hard to understand post.

Our current plan is not HSA eligible.
OK, so you can't make an HSA contribution this year.

Just playing around on the HCgov site and changing the total income, the premium barely makes any difference.
I don't know what you are trying to say here. Try again?

Choosing HSA eligible plans for the increased amount are only gold plans with the deductible and oop both rising about $15k/yr.
What is "the increased amount"? Premium increase?

HSA eligible plans are always bronze, not gold, in my experience.
The premium increase is easily acceptable if thats all we have to pay back.
What are you paying back, to who?

I wonder though if anything is done on the plan side??
Different plans have different co-pays and prescription plans. I find it hard to factor in those differences so I don't have any advice to you but this is a good question to try to understand. I see you've already noticed the change in deductible and OOP costs, which are important if you happen to have a year of high medical expenses.
 
HSA eligible plans are always bronze, not gold, in my experience.

I'm not disagreeing with the bulk of your comments in your previous post. However, while HSA eligible plans may always be bronze in your location, that is not true everywhere.

In my location, I currently have 5 HSA eligible plans to me. Two are Bronze. And 3 are Gold.

1 is an HMO. 2 are EPO. 2 are PPO. One PPO is Gold. One PPO is bronze. So it varies by geography.
 
Is the OP conflating HSA contributions (which reduce MAGI) with health care premiums (which don't). Or perhaps with the ACA tax credits.

It can get confusing.

But as others have said - you can't contribute to an HSA unless you are on a designated High Deductible plan that qualifies. If you're health and don't use the doctor a lot, this can be a great way to reduce your MAGI to help qualify for premium tax credits. AFAIK, the health care . gov website does not make *any* assumptions on how much you will contribute to your HSA, so I wouldn't expect the premiums to change unless you go back and reduce your 'income' by the planned HSA contribution... assuming you are looking at qualified, HDHP plans.

I've been on HSA eligible plans since I went off Cobra after retiring. You definitely need to set aside money for the deductibles... My family had a string of bad luck, medically, the first few years. (Broken bones, baseball to the face, ameloblastoma tumors removed, more broken bones... my very healthy teenagers were full of medical expenses.) We hit the max OOP or came close on at least two years. But we've also had years with very light medical expenses...
 
I'm not disagreeing with the bulk of your comments in your previous post. However, while HSA eligible plans may always be bronze in your location, that is not true everywhere.

In my location, I currently have 5 HSA eligible plans to me. Two are Bronze. And 3 are Gold.

1 is an HMO. 2 are EPO. 2 are PPO. One PPO is Gold. One PPO is bronze. So it varies by geography.
I didn't realize that. Thanks.
 

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