Income Limit for 2021 ACA Unemployment Subsidy

[jxdomb]

For 2021 the Rescue Plan provides full subsidies for individuals insured on the ACA if they have also received unemployment at any time throughout the year.  Does this mean that if my income rises this year (due to an IRA distribution)  I won't owe any subsidy money back?  Also, any idea when TT will be updated with the latest rules for unemployment income and ACA subsidies?  Thanks!

[Critter-3 · Accepted solution]

https://www.healthinsurance.org/obamacare/will-you-receive-an-aca-premium-subsidy/

And the IRS has not posted anything on this yet so the forms are not yet up to date ... probably will not be until the end of January or later ... only then will the TT program reflect the changes. 

[jxdomb]

Thank you!  The article you provided linked to this article specifically about the unemployment provisions:

https://www.healthinsurance.org/blog/american-rescue-plan-delivers-0-silver-premiums-to-unemployed/

and it states:  "for determining the premium tax credit amount and cost-sharing reduction eligibility, the exchange will disregard any income above 133% of the poverty level" for persons receiving unemployment compensation in 2021. 

So for individuals on unemployment in 2021, the ACA subsidies will not decrease as income rises, and full subsidies at the silver-plan (benchmark) level will be available all year.

Thanks again for the help, and the info about TT update timing. 

[jxdomb]

The ACA section of TT was just updated and confirms what is mentioned above.  That is, if you check the box that indicates you received unemployment benefits during the year, any income above 133% of federal poverty is disregarded for purposes of calculating subsidy level.  This means that 2021 income can increase (say due to an IRA distribution) and it will not affect subsidy levels at all.  So one can pull some income into 2021 that would have otherwise counted in 2022 and increase ACA subsidies for next year.