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Common questions about individual Form 8965 in ProConnect Tax

by Intuit Updated 1 month ago

Below are answers to frequently asked questions about entering Form 8965, Health Coverage Exemptions, in the Individual module of Intuit ProConnect.

Before you start:

  • Form 8965 applies to tax years 2014 through 2018.
  • Beginning in tax year 2019, Form 1040 won't have the “full-year health care coverage or exempt” box and Form 8965 will no longer be used. You don't need to make a shared responsibility payment or file Form 8965 with your tax return if you don’t have a minimum essential coverage for part or all of 2019.

See Individual Shared Responsibility Provision on the IRS website for more details.

Coverage is considered unaffordable - Was the amount you would have paid for employer-sponsored coverage or a bronze level health plan (depending on your circumstances) more than eight percent (8.05%) of your actual household income for the year as computed on your tax return?

Lacerte can calculate if healthcare is affordable based upon a few additional inputs. To use the in-program calculator, follow the steps listed below.

Step 1. Enter tax information as you normally would in ProConnect Tax. For example, wages in the Wages, Salaries, Tips (W-2) screen and other information provided by the client. Enter the total of all nontaxable social security benefits received by you, spouse and each claimed dependent who must file a tax return.

Step 2. If your client indicates that they didn't purchase insurance because it was unaffordable and they had no access to employer-based insurance, you'll need to determine what the 2015 Bronze Plan and Second Lowest Cost Silver Plan premiums for the client were. If they don't have that information, you can obtain this from the Healthcare.gov website using the Claim an Affordability Exemption link.

Step 3. Enter the requested information in the Healthcare Coverage Tax Tool link above and this will provide you with the Bronze Plan and SLCSP premiums for the household.

Step 4. In ProConnect Tax, go to the Credits > Health Coverage, Exemptions, & Miscellaneous screen. In the Coverage Considered Unaffordable (Exemption Code A) section, enter the January field under the Bronze Plan Premiums and Second Lowest Cost Silver Plan columns. The screenshot below shows an example of healthcare plan input.

Step 5.  If the Healthcare tool provided the same plan premium amount for all 12 months, you only need to enter the January amounts, and then mark the checkbox labeled Premium entered for January applies to entire year.

Health-Coverage-Exemptions-Miscellaneous-PTO.png

Step 6. You can click the Check Return tab to view the Marketplace Coverage Affordability results in the Worksheets section. The program calculates the 8.05% household income amount at the bottom of the worksheet. Compare the line 13 amount to the threshold value.

Example 1:

Single taxpayer with $35,000 household income who didn't have coverage for the entire year and did not have access to employer-based coverage. Using the premium amounts in the screenshot above, Marketplace coverage total premiums would be $1,884 for the entire year. Based upon program input the 8.05% threshold is $2,818.  Since $1,884 is below $2,818, coverage is considered affordable and the taxpayer is subject to the Individual Penalty.

Example 2:

Single taxpayer with $48.000 household income who didn't have coverage for the entire year and no access to employer based coverage. In this scenario, the taxpayer exceeds the 400% Poverty Threshold and so does not qualify for premium assistance.  As a result, the full cost of the Bronze Plan premiums of $4,668 exceeds the 8.05% threshold of 3,864 so coverage is considered unaffordable.  The program automatically generates a Form 8965 with the Exemption Code A.

Follow these steps to enter a Marketplace-Granted Coverage Exemption and generate From 8965, Part I:

  1. Go to the Input Return tab.
  2. From the left of the screen, select Credits and choose Health Coverage, Exemptions, and Miscellaneous.
  3. Scroll down to the Market Place-Granted Coverage Exemptions (Form 8965, Part I)  section.
  4. Locate the Individuals table.
  5. Enter the First Name.
  6. Enter the Last Name.
  7. Enter the SSN.
  8. Enter the Exemption Certificate Number.
    • The ECN should be at least 6 or 7 digits.

If household or gross income is below the filing threshold, Part I will be blank.

ProConnect Tax will automatically generate Form 8965, Part II, lines 7a and 7b automatically based on the taxpayer/spouse income.

Follow these steps to enter a Coverage Exemption and generate Form 8965, Part III:

  1. Go to the Input Return tab.
  2. From the left of the screen, select Credits and choose Health Coverage, Exemptions, and Miscellaneous.
  3. Scroll down to the Coverage Exemptions For Individuals Claimed on Returns (Form 8965, Part III) section.
  4. Locate the Individuals table.
  5. Enter the First Name.
  6. Enter the Last Name.
  7. Enter the SSN.
  8. Select the Exemption Type (Click on arrow to select) from the dropdown menu.
    • Code B, Short coverage gap, is no longer listed on the dropdown menu. Instead ProConnect Tax will generate the exemption code B automatically based on the months indicated for coverage (if the taxpayer went without coverage for less than 3 consecutive months during the year).
  9. Enter a 1 in 1=full year, or enter a 1 for each month that the exemption was good for.

Per the IRS Instructions for Form 8965:

"For purposes of Form 8965, your household income is your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) plus the MAGI of each individual in your tax household whom you claim as a dependent if that individual is required to file a tax return because his or her income meets the income tax return filing threshold. Use the Filing Requirements for Children and Other Dependents chart to determine whether your dependent is required to file his or her own tax return."

Follow these steps enter the dependent's AGI for Form 8965:

  1. Go to the Input Return tab.
  2. From the left of the screen, select Credits and choose Health Coverage, Exemptions, and Miscellaneous.
  3. Scroll down to the Share Responsibility Payment Worksheet (Form 8965) section.
  4. Enter the Dependents' modified AGI.

Additional information - Dependents' modified AGI:

The household income used in determining the exemption on Form 8965, line 7a, and in calculations on the Shared Payment Responsibility Worksheet is the taxpayer's modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) plus the MAGI from the separately prepared tax return of each individual in the tax household claimed as a dependent by the taxpayer and who is required to file his or her own tax return.

  • Dependent filing Form 1040: If the dependent filed Form 1040, calculate the MAGI by adding the amounts reported on Form 1040, lines 8b and 37.  If the foreign earned income exclusion, housing exclusion, or housing deduction are claimed, add the amount from Form 2555, line 45 and 50, or Form 2555-EZ, line 18.
  • Dependent filing Form 1040A: If the dependent filed Form 1040A, calculate the MAGI by adding the amounts on Form 1040A, lines 8b and 21.
  • Dependent filing Form 1040EZ: If the dependent filed Form 1040EZ, calculate the MAGI by adding Form 1040EZ, line 4 and any tax-exempt interest reported in the space to the left of line 2.

If no entry is present in this field, but an entry is present in Dependents' modified AGI in the Premium Tax Credit (8962) section of this screen, the entry in that field will be included in the household income calculations.

You generally can claim a coverage exemption for yourself or another member of your tax household for each month of a gap in coverage of less than 3 consecutive months.

Since the first two months are missing coverage, this qualifies as a continuous coverage gap that straddles more than one taxable year.

To apply the short coverage gap rules to the second year, the months in the first taxable year are counted.

To show this in ProConnect Tax

  1. Go into the Input Return workspace
  • Click on Credits to expand that section.
  • Click on the Health Coverage, Exemptions, and Miscellaneous input screen.
  • In the Covered Individuals section, fill out the Name and ID Number field.
  • Enter a '1' in the field 1=Dec. from 2014.
  • If the coverage began in February 2015, then enter a '1' in 1=Nov. from 2014 or 1=Dec. from 2014 or both.
  • Then enter a '1' in the remaining months for 2015 that the taxpayer had coverage for.

Exemption Code H, Member of household born, adopted, or died, is automatically calculated based on date of birth, date of death, or date of adoption entered in the General > Client Information or General > Dependent Information screens.

Exemption Code H, Member of household born, adopted, or died, is automatically calculated based on date of birth, date of death, or date of adoption entered in the General > Client Information or General > Dependent Information screens.

Code H: Member of household born, adopted, or died"

Exemption Code H, Member of household born, adopted, or died, is automatically calculated based on date of birth, date of death, or date of adoption entered in the General > Client Information or General > Dependent Information screens.

ProConnect Tax

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