topic How do i avoid New jersey health insurance penalty? in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

How do i avoid New jersey health insurance penalty?

aa2014 — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 06:43:38 GMT

Hello -

I was living in NJ from January - August and had active health insurance all those months.

Since September, I have been living abroad (moved out of NJ) and do not have any health insurance.

Would I still have to pay the NJ health insurance penalty (even though I will have lived outside of NJ from September - December)? How do I avoid this penalty?

Thanks!

Re: How do i avoid New jersey health insurance penalty?

Anonymous_ — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 00:55:50 GMT

Contact Support if you do not get an answer here by tomorrow.

What is the TurboTax phone number? (intuit.com)

Re: How do i avoid New jersey health insurance penalty?

rjs — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 02:31:18 GMT

You do not have to pay the "penalty" (shared responsibility payment). You are only required to have health insurance for the months that you were a New Jersey resident.

You will file a New Jersey part-year resident tax return. Here's how to do that in TurboTax.

At the beginning of the New Jersey interview, check the box that says "I need to verify my main form or residency selection."
On the next screen click "Change Residency."
On the next screen select part-year resident.
On the next screen enter the beginning and ending dates that you were a New Jersey resident in 2022.

Later, near the end of the New Jersey interview, it will ask if you had health insurance. The question applies only to the months that you were a New Jersey resident. Select "I had health insurance coverage all year."

Re: How do i avoid New jersey health insurance penalty?

aa2014 — Wed, 23 Nov 2022 17:04:47 GMT

Thanks for the reply.
Just to clarify, I wouldn’t need to prove that I’ve moved out of NJ right? (Example, I haven’t changed my address in all my correspondences yet and my mail is just getting forwarded to a family member). I have sold and moved out of my house and NJ though.

Re: How do i avoid New jersey health insurance penalty?

fanfare — Wed, 23 Nov 2022 17:15:30 GMT

If NJ wants to be picky, they could ask you to provide that evidence.

You should assemble it for future use.

A home sale closing statement should be good enough.

@aa2014

Re: How do i avoid New jersey health insurance penalty?

ternopost — Sat, 08 Feb 2025 04:34:53 GMT

What if situation next:
1. We did not have insurance from January to June living abroad and in another state.
2. Moved to NJ and was residents from July to December
3. Had insurance in NJ from October to December

Should I just additionally select months January-June because we were outside of NJ even if we did not have a US insurance that months? Because Turbotax still calculates penalty and can't handle this situation (though I have set residency and entry date correctly).

Re: How do i avoid New jersey health insurance penalty?

MaryK4 — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 19:52:28 GMT

1. Be sure your New Jersey Dates of residency were entered.

2. Indicate the moths you were covered AND a New Jersey resident only.

3. Here is the NJ Worksheet L Calculation: (Note that TurboTax does have 6 months instead of 12 for the Part Year resident.

Re: How do i avoid New jersey health insurance penalty?

ternopost — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:08:01 GMT

Thank you Mary.
I already figured it out after printing my forms and reading originals of forms, and already filed it correctly.

So, you are right, I only have to only include months where we were NJ residents.

It's stated accurately on the Schedule NJ-HCC form.

Turbotax has inaccurate description which is not perfectly reflecting the requirement.

"Consider only" in Turbotax is not that clear as "include only" as it's on the form.

So, reading original forms can help indeed. I wish Turbotax will update the description to make it really clear.

Turbotax:

Schedule NJ-HCC: