In TTax 2017 Home & Business, it appears that the self-employed health insurance deduction is calculating incorrectly when you get near the 400% cutoff for the subsidy.

[sidjnsn-60]

It appears that the self-employed health insurance deduction is calculating incorrectly when you get near the 400% cutoff for the subsidy.  The IRS allows an iterative or a simplified calculation, since the deduction impacts MAGI and MAGI impacts the percentage of FPL to use in the Premium Tax Credit formula, which then impacts the deduction.  I have laid out my numbers in Excel with circular references enabled and got the numbers I expected - a percentage FPL of 399 and an excessive advance payment of $68.  TurboTax is saying I am at 401% and owe the full subsidy back.  I have looked at TurboTax numbers when at a lower percentage such as 396% and it worked fine.  Can you tell me if you use one of the two approaches the IRS lays out in its forms or do your own iteractive calc?  Can you check to see if you have a rounding error?  I can supply test numbers if you need them.  The IRS says that any method of calculating is fine as long as the deduction plus the PTC do not exceed the actual premium and my calcs meet that test.  Is there a way to substitute in my numbers so I can still e-file?  Is there a way for me to see the calculations made by TurboTax for generating the self-employed insurance deduction - I do not see a worksheet for that - just the "adjustment" result at the bottom of the worksheet for self-employment health insurance deduction?  Thank you.

[TaxGuyBill · Accepted solution]

The Iterative calculation in TurboTax can get a bit wonky when it around the 400% mark.

If you are absolutely positive of your manual calculations, on the screen immediately after entering (or editing) your 1095-A, say it was NOT associated with a self-employed business.  Then manually enter the Self Employed Health Insurance deduction in the 'regular' place in the program (where it tells you not to enter 1095-A amounts).  If you have a Schedule C business, that location to enter it should be under other business expenses, then insurance, then it should have your personal health insurance.

[sidjnsn-60]

For anyone finding this thread in 2019, as of right now, the Home and Biz 2019 version is worse than wonky at around 400%.  In fact, it appears that TTax takes a look at your AGI without the self-employed health insurance deduction, and if your AGI exceeds the 4*FPL threshold, it just decides you don't get the subsidy, even if calculating the deduction and subtracting it from your AGI would put you below 400%.

To make matters worse, you can uncheck the box in the personal deduction/ACA insurance area that says you are self-employed, as suggested by TaxGuyBill, but it will attempt to create a deduction anyway.  So, you have a choice (according to TTax), pay the subsidy back or take a larger deduction than would be legal.

Hopefully, they will get this resolved quickly.  If not, we will have no other choice but to do it manually, and then not be able to e-file.