The issue is a combination of things. It could be a number of different things, but if you've dug this far the issue is likely something similar to the following situation:
I left my job in November of 2022 and did not get a new job. I also opted not to get insurance through the marketplace. When my employer terminated my employment and sent me COBRA papers, it seemed to automatically "trigger" our government to expect me to start using insurance through the marketplace. I don't know all the technical information, but basically, the marketplace gets a "placeholder" for me to opt to purchase through them and the IRS also receives that placeholder as well. So, in other words, the IRS is expecting that we DID purchase this insurance, whether we did or not. I can't blame TurboTax for the stupidity of our government procedures.
However, TurboTax does not allow us to attach our own documents to our return. That throws a big wrench in the mix as the instructions for fixing this error (per irs.gov bottom of page) tell you to make a document titled "ACA EXPLANATION" and attach it to efile without getting the error. Which leaves us with two options:
Paper file (gross 😥)
Try the 1 or 0 fix to make the 1095a attach (I'll be attempting this in a bit and will advise I used this method. 0 for the top 2 boxes, 1s across January. Don't put anything in any other boxes. I lost $1 from my return but it did get accepted. Not sure of any other repercussions, attempt at your own risk.)
My question to TurboTax (seeing as this is an ongoing problem, niche as it may be): Why not add some checkboxes to the 1095a questionairre that can automatically create an ACA EXPLANATION form and attach it to the return? eg; "I did not purchase marketplace coverage but the Federal return was rejected" with an info box
Sorry I didn't use the specific form names. I'm still trying to get mine done, frustrated. I may come back later and edit or reply with the specific information.
