A shared policy occurs when a qualified health plan has been purchased from the Marketplace or from a state health care exchange and it covers at least one individual on the tax return and at least one individual not on the tax return. Here is a common scenario where this occurs:
- the taxpayer enrolled their child who is filing their own return.
How are the allocation percentages determined?
The policy doesn't have to be allocated evenly between the taxpayers. For example, a policy that consists of a taxpayer, spouse, and their child who is filing his or her own tax return might be allocated 100% to the parents and 0% to the child. Or, three individuals sharing a policy might agree to divide it 50% to one and 25% to the other two. It's up to the taxpayers to decide amongst themselves how they wish to allocate.
If the taxpayers sharing the policy cannot agree on an allocation percentage, per the Form 8962 instructions "each taxpayer’s allocation percentage is equal to the number of individuals enrolled by one taxpayer who are included in the tax family of the other taxpayer for the tax year divided by the total number of individuals enrolled in the same policy as the individual(s)."
for all 3 columns for any taxpayer, for that month the same % must be used. The total must be 100% for all taxpayers for that month. Different %'s can be used for different month. the same rules apply
this is the 8962 instructions which supports the above
Under the rules in this section, you and the other
taxpayer may agree on any allocation of the policy
amounts between the two of you. You may use the
percentage you agreed on for every month for which this
allocation rule applies, or you may agree on different
percentages for different months. However, you must use
the same allocation percentage for all policy amounts
(enrollment premiums, applicable SLCSP premiums, and
APTC) in a month. If you cannot agree on an allocation
percentage, each taxpayer’s allocation percentage is
equal to the number of individuals enrolled by one
taxpayer who are included in the tax family of the other
taxpayer for the tax year divided by the total number of
individuals enrolled in the same policy as the individual(s).
The allocation percentage you use and that you put on
line 30 of Form 8962 is the percentage of the policy
amounts for the coverage that you will use to compute
your PTC and reconcile APTC.