topic Why is the form saying, "We see Brian had a break in HDHP health plan coverage during 2019." That's not true. What did I mess up? in Deductions & credits

Why is the form saying, "We see Brian had a break in HDHP health plan coverage during 2019." That's not true. What did I mess up?

maloney1970 — Fri, 31 Jan 2020 01:45:05 GMT

Re: Why is the form saying, "We see Brian had a break in HDHP health plan coverage during 2019." ...

ThomasM125 — Fri, 31 Jan 2020 02:50:57 GMT

You need to go back through the "1099-SA, HSA, MSA" section under "Medical" in the "Deductions and Credits" section and find where you entered the months you had insurance.

Look for the screen that says "Were you covered by a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) in 2019". It will say "What type of HDHP coverage did you have during 2019" and one of the responses is "I had different plan types at different times of the year." The next screen will show what months you had coverage and you can make corrections there if necessary.

Re: Why is the form saying, "We see Brian had a break in HDHP health plan coverage during 2019." ...

maloney1970 — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 21:42:53 GMT

But it wasn't different for different months and I was never asked how many months I had coverage. Just did I , yes or no.

Re: Why is the form saying, "We see Brian had a break in HDHP health plan coverage during 2019." ...

JosephF8 — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 23:13:27 GMT

Open (continue) your return in TurboTax, if you don't already have it open.
From the upper right menu, select the magnifying glass and search for 1099-sa or 1099sa (don't use the upper-case SA).
Select the Jump to link at the top of the search results.
On the Tell us about the health-related accounts screen, check the appropriate boxes

Re: Why is the form saying, "We see Brian had a break in HDHP health plan coverage during 2019." That's not true. What did I mess up?

clevere — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 04:56:13 GMT

I have the same situation, in Turbotax Deluxe. Had a Family insurance plan, which my wife was covered by.

Checking the box to break it out by month, and selecting Family Plan for all 12 months did not change anything.

Re: Why is the form saying, "We see Brian had a break in HDHP health plan coverage during 2019." ...

BillM223 — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 18:43:13 GMT

Your issue is with the question that asks "What type of High Deductible Health Plan did [name] have on December 1, 2018?"

Unfortunately, the question does not clarify that it is only for a small group of taxpayers and that all other taxpayers should answer "NONE".

NOTE: each spouse can have an HSA. The use of "you" below refers to whichever spouse's name was in the question above.

This question is trying to determine if you utilized the "last-month" rule in 2018 (yes, 2018). The last-month rule lets you use the full annual HSA contribution limit if you had HDHP coverage on December 1, even if you were not covered by an HDHP for all of the year.

However, the catch is that if you used the last-month rule, the IRS requires that you stay under HDHP coverage for all of the following year (2019).

***NOTE*** This question occurs on the taxpayer who does not have an HSA, so never had a chance to tell TurboTax in the HSA interview what their HDHP coverage was for 2019.

So, the fix is this: go back to the question (at the end of the HSA interview), and:

If your spouse did not have an HSA in 2018 so did not contribute to an HSA, enter "NONE" without regard to the fact that she was covered by your Family HDHP policy.

Only taxpayers who had their own HSA in 2018 AND who contributed to their own HSA in 2018 should answer “Family” or “Self” or “None” (which can be the right answer in some cases).

Re: Why is the form saying, "We see Brian had a break in HDHP health plan coverage during 2019." ...

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 20:06:31 GMT

Thank you for the explanation Bill. I too ran into this same issue. The suggested solution seems "wrong" but I have gone ahead and followed it. I hope the solution works without any negative effects. TurboTax really needs to clean this up, very confusing.

Re: Why is the form saying, "We see Brian had a break in HDHP health plan coverage during 2019." ...

JeffRML — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 21:19:53 GMT

Thanks. I agree with danwa . This is a bug

Re: Why is the form saying, "We see Brian had a break in HDHP health plan coverage during 2019." ...

ginar5 — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 10:04:39 GMT

Thank you Bill. This was confusing to me also. I think it is not explained properly in the program. Thanks for helping to make it clear.