TurboTax is telling me my wife had a break in HDHP coverage in 2017, but she didn't. I tried deleting the Form 8889-S, but it did not help! How do I correct this?

[AnthonyC · Accepted solution]

If your spouse was covered under your HSA plan, see the following:

When going through the questions, you will get to a screen entitled "What type of High Deductible Health Plan did [spouse] have on December 1st 2016?" (see screenshot below).  

If your spouse was covered under your health insurance plan, then you should select "none" not "family or self-only." You are selecting none because your spouse does not have their own coverage, they are covered under your plan.  If you select one of the other options, then you will get the notification about a coverage lapse.  

[Dutta]

Thank you for the prompt reply. Your solution did help me to resolve the issue!

[haus1]

There should be a contextual help notice on that page that says something to the effect of "We are not asking what type of HDHP [spouse] was *covered under*; we are asking if they had their OWN health coverage." Given the number of questions I'm seeing here about this very issue, it is clear that the wording on that page is not clear.

[StPatty33]

Had the same issue, and would like to see the same notice.

[jdewitt1]

Filing 2018 taxes, this problem still exists.

[MrJohn]

I had the same issue for 2019 taxes.  Thanks for the explanation.

Would like to have some notice or extra explanation on that screen to say click "NONE" if your spouse was covered under your policy.

[yoni amir]

I second that. This question is very badly phrased, please change it.

[juliangoldblatt]

This is still an issue.

[marshall]

Doing 2019 taxes and every year this is a problem.  Why can't TurboTax review these issues and clarify the question on their form?  All they have to do is add "but failed to be an eligible individual for other reasons, OR was covered by a spouse's plan, select None"

[kgates121]

I understand the resolution discussed. It's now 2021, and this should be reworded or a help button included. So many updates every time I log in, and this should be updated. 

Seems like Intuit is more focused on collecting money vs. making a good product. Been using TT since 1996 and it was pretty good for a while.