CA state Form 3853 - Health Coverage Exemption: No ECN entry error

Are you still experiencing this issue?

@Immmcruz

I'm a California filer and was trying to resolve the "No ECN" error when I was eFiling.

Open your return and navigate to the following section.

State Taxes -> Continue -> Edit -> Credits and Taxes -> Health Insurance Penalty -> Revisit

Q. Did you all have insurance coverage in 2021?
A. "None of us had it at any point" << this was my selection >>

If you answered like this to the question about insurance and clicked continue, then the next screen is very important and related to the error during eFile. It's not a TurboTax bug per se, it's in how the state prepared the forms and it's easy to miss some important clarifying text on the TurboTax screen.

Click <CONTINUE> once you've answered the "Did you all have insurance coverage in 2021?"

The 4 groups of checkboxes on the next screen are important and related to the issue.

If you checked ANY of the boxes in the 2nd group ("Exemptions granted by the Marketplace (Requires an Exemption Certificate Number)" - you will have this issue. I had incorrectly checked the "Coverage was considered unaffordable" which was the issue. I removed this checkbox and continued through the rest of the sections and after TurboTax performed the required calculation, I was still eligible for a waiver to eliminate the "Shared Responsibility Payment" and I was also able to eFile with the "No ECN" selection in my 3853.

This is not tax advice - this was my solution to the problem that so many seem to be struggling with.

Good Luck

Hi Mathisenrob,

If your problem was the same as mine (cannot eFile) - then you need to review the following section of your State Return.

Follow these clicks within Turbo Tax and check to make sure you didn't accidentally click the boxes that require an ECN.

State Taxes -> Continue -> Edit -> Credits and Taxes -> Health Insurance Penalty -> Revisit

In my case, my return was complete and when I attempted to transmit the return, Turbo Tax stopped me and said something to effect of "We have to ask you one more thing...." and it took me back to the 3853 "No ECN" problem and acted like I MUST enter an ECN even though I chose the "No ECN" option from the drop-down.

The reason Turbo Tax was doing this, was because I had checked a box in during the "Health Insurance Penalty Q&A" that resulted in the choice "No ECN" being problematic.  I had to remove the check from the box with the following title: "Coverage was considered unaffordable" which was in the 2nd group on this screen and it was the cause of the failure on attempt to eFile.  I removed that check and let Turbo Tax perform the calculation again and my penalty was waived.

Best of luck!

Since you're in California and this is for your California return, you'll get your ECN from Covered California, the California healthcare marketplace.

In California, ECN stands for Exemption Certificate Number.

You can also try to chat with them using the link below.  They are the only entity that will be able to assist you.

Contacting Covered CA options

@Rancehl