topic (California) Form 3853 bug. I am eligible to have short gap coverage. I did not have health insurance coverage for 3 consecutive months. in State tax filing

(California) Form 3853 bug. I am eligible to have short gap coverage. I did not have health insurance coverage for 3 consecutive months.

raymondevenson — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 12:44:18 GMT

(California) Form 3853 bug. I am eligible to have short gap coverage. I did not have health insurance coverage for 3 consecutive months.

I'm filing 2022 taxes on TurboTax Premier version for California. We had a 3-month lapse in coverage JAN/FEB/MAR 2022 that the California FTB website says will waive any tax penalty due to "Short Coverage Gap, 3 month or less" but TurboTax still adds the tax penalty. What options can I take at this point to correct this? From the previous posts this was an issue in the 2021 tax software. Please advise on how to proceed as the penalty is over $4000.

Re: (California) Form 3853 bug. I am eligible to have short gap coverage. I did not have health insurance coverage for 3 consecutive months.

hbl3973 — Sun, 12 Feb 2023 21:08:46 GMT

raymonddevenson,

Just a clarification question: Were you covered in December of 2021?

Re: (California) Form 3853 bug. I am eligible to have short gap coverage. I did not have health insurance coverage for 3 consecutive months.

raymondevenson — Sun, 12 Feb 2023 21:10:25 GMT

yes, we were. the reason for the lapse in coverage was due to a job loss in Jan 2022.

Re: (California) Form 3853 bug. I am eligible to have short gap coverage. I did not have health insurance coverage for 3 consecutive months.

hbl3973 — Sun, 12 Feb 2023 21:12:43 GMT

raymondevenson,

OK. Let me finish running the update on my TurboTax desktop and I'll see if I can reproduce your situation so that (a) I can report it to the powers that be and (b) see if there is a workaround. Hold tight.

Re: (California) Form 3853 bug. I am eligible to have short gap coverage. I did not have health insurance coverage for 3 consecutive months.

hbl3973 — Sun, 12 Feb 2023 21:55:46 GMT

Raymond,

I just dove into my own CA return in TurboTax Premier Desktop, marked that we did not have coverage in Jan, Feb, and Mar. I did not check off any of the possible exemptions in the prior screen. Clicking Continue resulted in the screen stating:

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Based on your situation, the penalty has been waived!

This means your taxes won't be affected for not having health insurance in 2022.

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So, the issue was (a) only in the online version (unlikely), (b) fixed by the recent update (quite possible), or (c) you misentered something in the CA healthcare menus.

At this point, I suggest first checking if (b) is the actual situation and your problem is solved. If not, tackle possibility (c) after saving, logging out, closing your browser and restarting. Let me know if you succeed in getting past the issue now.

Re: (California) Form 3853 bug. I am eligible to have short gap coverage. I did not have health insurance coverage for 3 consecutive months.

raymondevenson — Sun, 12 Feb 2023 22:35:13 GMT

That worked! I don’t know why the responses were different this time but the program has the right information now.
thank you!!!

Re: (California) Form 3853 bug. I am eligible to have short gap coverage. I did not have health insurance coverage for 3 consecutive months.

hbl3973 — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 00:59:13 GMT

Whew, excellent news!