At the present time (March 08, 2017), you do not have to fill out the heath care questions on your federal tax return, although you may still want to do so voluntarily, depending on your circumstances. Because of all the rumors and half-true information being circulated about this subject, we welcome this opportunity to provide you, and all others who may be reading this post, the truth.
As of today, the underlying statutory law of the
Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) providing tax penalties for not
having health insurance; the system of exemptions to not having health
insurance; and the tax credit system set up for purchasing health
insurance through an authorized marketplace state health care exchange,
all remain in place.
However, what has recently changed is an executive (i.e.,
Presidential) order directing the IRS to go ahead and process individual income tax
returns, where the heath insurance coverage box is left unchecked. This
is different than the situation which existed prior to the order, and
different than last year, where the IRS was sending such tax returns straight
back to taxpayers as being "incomplete." You can read about TurboTax's official interpretation of President Trump's executive order, and the penalties for
not having health insurance for the 2016 tax year, both at the following
(2) TurboTax webpages:
https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/3662774
https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2581044
In addition, this area of the tax law is currently in a great
deal of flux and uncertainty, so please keep monitoring the situation carefully.
It seems likely that there will be further significant changes to heath
care and insurance, especially as it impacts the tax code and penalties /
credits, going forward.
For the moment, the above information
accurately describes the present state of the relevant tax law and rules
(as of 03-08-2017).
Thank you for the opportunity to present this information.
