Virginia State Tax Return Health Care Coverage Information Request

[user17712241555]

Turbo Tax 2025 is requiring that I supply contact information for Health Care Coverage Information on my Virginia State Tax return which I do not want to request and that the State of Virginia does not require.   It does not include a question asking if I want to request the information and it would not complete my state tax return e-file unless I supply contact information from either Medicaid or the Health Care Exchange or both.  The only way around answering the question is to file my Virginia return by mail.  This was also the case last tax year.  

Has anyone else run into this problem?

[BillM223]

Are you using the TurboTax Online product? I don't see this question on the TurboTax Desktop/Windows product, although there is a very similar "Health Care Coverage Information Consent". This indicates that you consent to the tax authority in Virginia to share your private data with other Virginia agencies.

Is this latter thing the request you are referring to?

[user17712241555]

Hi, thanks for responding.  I used the online version this year but used the download last year and the same thing occurred.  I've already submitted the return so I can't return to the actual question, but it asks for contact information and requires you to check either Medicaid or Health Insurance Exchange indicating you want information on at least one of the programs.  It would not let me past that question unless I checked at least one box and my email address was already pre filled. There is no direct question asking if you want the information or not.

I needed to go ahead and file so I checked one box just so I could go on.

This is how it shows up on the final return.

Health Care Coverage Contact Information
Preferred Method of Contact
Email Email Address
Phone Daytime Number
Spouse’s Email Email Address
Mail Address, if different from 760

Last year when the same thing happened and I received correspondence from both programs indicating that I had requested info on the programs when I did not want information.  

Prior to last year there was a question asking if you had health insurance and as long as you said you had insurance no further information was requested.  Beginning last tax year the question I asked about appeared and required you request info from at least one state program.

Thanks

[user17712241555]

Just an addition to my previous response I looked at the paper version of the state tax form and it has a box to check at the top allowing information to be shared with the State health programs.  The instructions for the form indicate that individuals can voluntarily consent to sharing the contact information but the turbo tax version is requiring that you provide the information.  

[BillM223]

I am puzzled. Are you referring to Virginia asking for your contact information so that the state can send you information on Medicaid or the Health Care Exchange, or are you referring to Virginia wanting to share your information with Medicaid and the Health Care Exchange?

As I noted, I see the latter question in the Virginia interview, but not the former.

Is it possible that you indicated that you had Medicaid or insurance from the federal or state exchange (i.e., ACA)? It may be that if so, that this is a required question. 

[user17712241555]

Yes I'm referring to the latter.  In my case as well as agreeing to share the information, turbo tax is requiring that I check either Medicaid and/or the Health Care Exchange.  I can only assume that something about my age (over 65) or income is causing the program to mandate that I check at least one of the blocks.  I don't have any history of receiving/applying for Medicaid or state provided health care (although oddly enough my job for 38 years was working with Medicaid). I've already received the response from the Health Care Exchange because I had to check one of the blocks.

This is how the contact screen looked. I just checked one because I had to.

     DMAS & VDSS          X VHBE

Health Care Coverage Contact Information
Preferred Method of Contact
Email Email Address
Phone Daytime Number
Spouse’s Email Email Address
Mail Address, if different from 760

I guess I 'Il just give it up for now because I've dealt with it for this year by just marking yes for something I didn't want.  Since it also happened last year I don't want to have to continue to send my information to the State of Virginia indicating that I requested information on a program I don't want or need.

Thanks for taking the time to investigate this for me. 

[BillM223]

I think I found it. Please see on page 26 of the VA 2025 Form 760 Resident Instruction Booklet: 

When you specify a Commonwealth Savers contribution amount on Schedule VAC, you authorize the Department to transfer payment and related information to Commonwealth Savers to facilitate crediting contributions to the specified account(s) pursuant to their operating procedures.

When I went into my test and reduced by age (somewhere I saw that I wouldn't be eligible for ABLEnow or ABLEAmerica  if I were 65+), then added that I contributed to a Commonwealth Savers Account Plan, then if I tried to answer "No" on the Health Care Coverage screen, it just went into a loop until I answered "Yes". 

Does this sound likely?

[user17712241555]

Nope. That scenario isn't true in my case.  I'm 72 so anything with a cut off of 65 would not apply and don't have any kind of account like that. I can't think of anything I have that should prompt a mandatory response there but maybe there is something else I've missed.   I'm glad you ran a test scenario and were at least able to see more or less what I saw. 

Thanks

[BillM223]

Well, I found this paragraph by going into the VA Resident Booklet (link above) and doing searches on Health Care (not productive) and Medicaid - this is how I found it.  Perhaps you can do similar searches to see what comes up that may be a match to your return. At least we know that it's possible for something on your return to trigger such behavior.

I would not have thought of an ABLEnow or ABLEAmerica account causing this, so it is obviously something not in the least bit obvious, like the phase of the moon.

[user17712241555]

Thanks. I'll try to do some further research. I appreciate your time and efforts.