Obamacare?

[Jamie]

How are they checking to see if you have insurance, and what will be the penalty? Example I file HOH because I am separated and living not with my partner and won’t be dropped till we officially are divorced. So there was no reason for me to carry my own insurance. Also what is goimg to be the penalty. My friend who one made like 21-22k said she was expecting like 2300 to be taken out of her tax refund

[JenniferQ]

When I did my taxes through turbo tax it didn’t ask me for a code or an amount on insurance. It just asked me if I had it and did I have it all year long. I think you’re right that maybe next year it will have totals and such to put in like when you do IRA through an employer.

[Kristi h]

If you had insurance through an employer your w-2 box 12 will have the amount that was taken pretax for your insurance and a code to enter into the prep software. That’s how they know.

[amanda]

My question is… why are they not giving some sort of credit to people who pay an arm and a leg through their employer and not get on government paid health care?! I pay 500$ a month for health insurance through my employer and I pay Double taxes on What my employer pays for my domestic partner (boyfriend ) I pay for a family. My gross is 12,000 $ less than my net, mostly from health ins. I thought Obama was going to give a credit if you paid a certain percent of your income for health insurance?! It doesn’t pay to work your ass off and pay for things and being an honest person. these health ins premiums are through the roof! But I doing think they will check to see if you have proof of health coverage, unless they mail you something asking for proof. Next year it may show up on your income transcript.

[JenniferQ]

I’m not 100% sure on how they will check if you have insurance. When I filed my taxes it asked me if I had insurance and through the whole year. I thought I would have to enter something new on another line where we paid all year, like the IRA contributions, but I didn’t. I would imagine that if people lie on it they will catch it on an audit and that would be a big honking bill. We are also now in the age of Electronic Health Records, so that is another way they could check I suppose. But I do know the penalties. The penalty tax for going without health insurance by year is:

2014 insurance penalty fee: $95 per person.
2015 insurance penalty fee: $325 per person.
2016 insurance penalty fee: 2.5% of income or $695 per person or whichever is higher.
2017 insurance penalty fee: Increases will be based on inflation.

[Author]

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