Do I have to pay Health insurance penalty if I didn't have Insurance in CA because I was living in another country for 2 months?

[melissaeelhajj]

I took a Sabbatical in summers traveled to Germany for 2 months - July and August. So, I cancelled my US health insurance for July and August. 
Turbotax is telling me I have to pay health insurance penalty????

[hbl3973 · Accepted solution]

melissaeelhajj,

You do not owe CA any health insurance penalty because you have an exception covering a short term coverage gap of 3 continuous months or less.  Just go into the CA State return, select the credits and taxes area and visit the Health Insurance Penalty area.  Then say you will pick the months you had coverage and click on all the months except July and August and Continue.  Continue past the next screen without clicking on any of the checkboxes, and you'll find that the penalty has been waived as a result of you only have a gap of two months.

[hbl3973]

Apologies if someone else claimed this after I began to reply.

[melissaeelhajj]

You're amazing! Skipping the checkboxes on the next screen helped for sure. Thank you!

[hbl3973]

Glad to have been of assistance.  I lived in CA for quite a few years and dealt with the health insurance issues fairly frequently when volunteering in the IRS VITA free tax preparation program.