1095-A reject instructions

[ShoeBox Taxes]

I love that we have a "work around" for clients if they're rejected for the 1095-A, but they're sure they didn't have Marketplace Insurance.

However, the instructions on the reject letter are missing more than a few steps. Currently, the instructions say (1) check the box (2) click "attach the file" (3) select "ACA Explanation."

But before we can attach a file, we kinda need to create the file, then save it, then know how to find what we've just created.... Those steps were completely missing from your instructions.

Your live help was very helpful, but those steps need to be listed in the instructions, because you can't attach a file you haven't created yet.

[Strongsilence-CPA]

" we kinda need to create the file, then save it, then know how to find what we've just created."

Do you not know where a file is saved on your computer?

"you can't attach a file you haven't created yet."

!

[Frustrated-in-IL]

I am sorry if mentioning this takes this discussion in a different direction, but are you sure your client didn't talk to the marketplace or was listed with a separate taxpayer on a plan?  

I have had several "they're sure they didn't have Marketplace insurance" who did have a form generated just by speaking with the marketplace.

[ShoeBox Taxes]

"Do you not know where a file is saved on your computer?"

I don't know about macs, but with windows, many programs don't let you choose where or how to save it.

More to the point, if there ***is*** no file, then that question is kinda pointless.

There were step-by-step instructions, but they left out several important steps, including what, exactly, needed to be attached. They told me how to attach the file, but not what needed to be in the attachment. Was I supposed to attach Form 1095-A (which doesn't exist in this case)? Form 8962 (likewise)? A picture of outer space? What?

Turns out I had to create a statement stating "customer did not have marketplace insurance," which the support person showed me how to do. Not to hard to do, but certainly not something a person would know was needed without some prompt or instruction. Everything else in the instructions were pretty obvious, but that one step was not obvious, and it was completely missing from the instructions.

[ShoeBox Taxes]

"are you sure your client didn't talk to the marketplace or was listed with a separate taxpayer on a plan?"

Yes, I double- and triple- checked. I, too, have had clients who swear up one side and down the other that they don't have marketplace insurance. I ask them to bring me their insurance material, and they bring me their 1095-A, and I say, "Okay, this is marketplace insurance," and they say, "No, this is Obamacare."

Insert eyeroll here.

I did have one client who was going through a divorce. My client was not in the home, and they couldn't get the ex to provide my client with the form that was mailed to them. My client tried calling the marketplace directly, and they refused to provide my client with a digital copy, because he couldn't answer the security questions which the ex had provided. So there was no way my client could get a copy of the form. We had to paper file, with an explanation of why we weren't attaching the form. This was pre-Covid, and it would have been nice to have this option to bypass.

[dkh]

I have a client that swears her insurance is not Marketplace insurance that it is XYZ insurance.  What she is forgetting is she signed up through Marketplace for XYZ insurance.                            She brings me the 1095-A from Health Insurance Marketplace every year.