How do I correctly fill New Jersey Healthcare Coverage schedule? {form NJ-1040, schedule NJ-HCC)

[tenant13]

I had a 2 months gap in coverage so when I'm in TurboTax I select part time coverage. The next screen says: "Select the months [you] had health insurance for 2019", then right below there's a box for entering the exemption ("enter if applicable" - I already got it on NJgov website) and it says "select all the months for which you are exempted". That's where I get confused. In my case the penalty for not being covered is more or less $130/month; if I select 10 months I was properly insured for, my tax due goes down by 1300 but the exemption should take it down by additional 260, right? Since there's no penalty for the short term gap in coverage. So should I select all 12 months and just assume that being I'm exempted from the penalty for all 12 months?

[AmyC]

NJ penalizes you for just one month without coverage unless you have an exemption. On the screen where it asks "Did anyone in your shared responsibility family have coverage for some of 2019"

Click on the exemption link and you will see you need to go to this website and get your exemption number.

If you are exempt, click yes.

If you had coverage for even one day in the month, you are considered covered for that month. If your income is below $20,000, you are exempt from the shared responsibility payment. For full details, see the newly released line 52 details.

NJ says: to  Claim Exemptions

Some people are exempt from the health care coverage requirement for some or all of 2019. Exemptions are available for reasons such as having income below a certain level, having a short gap in coverage, having no affordable coverage options, or experiencing a hardship. (See Types of Coverage Exemptions below). You must claim the exemption using the Division’s NJ Insurance Mandate Coverage Exemption Application. If you qualify for an exemption, you can report the exemption when you file your 2019 New Jersey Income Tax return (Form NJ-1040) using Schedule NJ-HCC.  Exemptions that you may have received in the past from Healthcare.gov will be available to report on Schedule NJ-HCC of the NJ-1040.

[tenant13]

Right, I know all that and - as I mentioned in my original post - I have obtained the exemption # (case?) through NJ Gov website. My question is specifically about the way TurboTax asks me to fill schedule NJ-HCC. If I'm covered for 10 months and have the exemption for the remaining two I should not be penalized for not having health insurance yet TT seems to ignore the exemption. Is it because I'm following the instructions wrong and the schedule is filled incorrectly or because there is a bug in the software?

I guess you could boil down my question to: am I allowed to claim having insurance throughout the whole year if I have the official exemption for the two months I had the short gap in coverage? I believe that would calculate my taxes correctly. 

[bluegemini530]

Sorry to be tardy to the party, unfortunately I’m a last minute filer :*).

Anyway after looking over the link from the first response I realized there were more forms associated with it.  One of them called the Schedule NJ-HCC which I believe is the portion on the TT website you’re having trouble with.  You are not alone, I spent a good part of my day trying to figure out how to get this right.

Here is the link for the 2019 NJ HCCform

(https://www.state.nj.us/treasury/taxation/pdf/current/schedule-njhcc.pdf)

It’s pretty straightforward, but basically part II in this form states “Check the box for every month each person had minimum essential health coverage or qualified for an exemption”. So it sounds like the software is okay, the instructions just didn’t get placed/worded properly.  Basically If you were covered by insurance check the box.  If not, but you qualify for an exemption, check the box

Just be careful about your gap code, if the months were not consecutive (i.e. March into April, July into August, etc.) you will need to get two codes, one for each month you were fully uninsured.

Hope this info finds you well!