The Health Care Law and Taxes: Reporting Coverage, Exemptions and Payments

Under the Affordable Care Act, you will need to report minimum essential coverage, report or claim a coverage exemption, or make an individual shared responsibility payment when you file your 2014 federal income tax return. If you are not required to file a tax return and don’t want to, you do not need to file a return solely to report your coverage or to claim an exemption.

If you and your dependents all had minimum essential coverage for each month of the tax year, you will indicate this on your 2014 tax return by simply checking a box on Form 1040, 1040A or 1040EZ; no further action is required.

If you obtained a coverage exemption from the Marketplace or you qualify for an exemption that you can claim on your return, you will file Form 8965 with your tax return.

For any month you or your dependents did not have coverage or a coverage exemption, you will have to make a shared responsibility payment. The payment will be reported on Form 1040, line 61 in the Other Taxes section and on the corresponding lines on Form 1040A and 1040EZ.

See the Claiming and Reporting an Exemption and Individual Shared Responsibility Provision – Reporting and Calculating the Payment pages on IRS.gov for more information about figuring and reporting the payment.