Filing Your Taxes? You Need Form 1095 to Prove Your Insurance Coverage

One of the biggest questions taxpayers are asking this year is whether or not they have to prove they had health care in 2015. If you haven’t filed your income taxes just yet, you’ll have to understand how the Obamacare tax information works, the form that you have to have and what happens if you did not have a health insurance plan in 2015. The federal government now requires that most all residents have a health insurance plan whether they are given one as a government subsidy, they pay for one on their own or they are provided on through their employer. Here’s what you need to know about the form you will receive proving your health insurance coverage.

Form 1095

Everyone with health insurance will receive this form in the mail, if you have not already received it. Form 1095-A is provided to those who bought their own health insurance, Form 1095-B is for those who received a tax subsidy from the federal government and Form 1095-C is for those who were provided their health care through their employer.

Penalties

There’s some good news and some bad news regarding this information. The government is now providing insurance to those who cannot afford it – at the expense of those of us who can afford it – and penalizing those who can no longer afford health insurance because we have to pay for everyone else. The penalty is hefty. Expect to pay the greater of $325 per uninsured adult for 2015 (that number is set to increase significantly in the next two tax years) or 2% of your taxable income.

The good news comes in that if you only missed having insurance for a week weeks to a couple of months at any point throughout the year, you are not required to pay the penalty since you did have insurance otherwise.

Need to Know

This form does not need to go to the IRS with your income tax return. However, you do need to keep a copy with your personal records in case of an audit or any questions about your health care coverage. If you have yet to receive it, you should in the near future. Otherwise, you will need to contact your insurer or your employer to ask about it.

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