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kc7
New Member

I am self-employed and bought health insurance through the Marketplace BUT I have access to health insurance through my spouse. Can I deduct my insurance payments?

Sources on the internet say that you cannot take the Self Employed Health Care deduction if you are eligible for your spouse's employer sponsored health insurance. I am eligible but choose the market place because it is cheaper than my spouse's employer's insurance. Turbo Tax doesn't does not mention nor ask about this issue.Why not? Can I take the deduction or not?
2 Replies
HelenaC
New Member

I am self-employed and bought health insurance through the Marketplace BUT I have access to health insurance through my spouse. Can I deduct my insurance payments?

No, generally, you can't include premiums for any month you were also eligible to participate in any subsidized health plan maintained by any employer of you or your spouse, for the Self-employed health insurance deduction, Form 1040, line 29.

You may be able to deduct on Form 1040, Schedule A, Itemized Deductions.

See the TurboTax FAQ:  Can I deduct my health insurance premiums when I’m self-employed?

To enter my medical expenses:

Medical, dental, and vision expenses are reported on Schedule A and entered in the Deductions & Credits section:

  1. Open your tax return.
    (To do this, sign in to TurboTax and click the orange Take me to my return button.)
  2. Search for Schedule A and then click the "Jump to" link in the search results.
  3. Answer Yes on the Did you have any medical expenses in 2016? screen.
  4. You will then be prompted to enter your medical expenses, starting with prescriptions.

If you're using Federal Free Edition or Basic and your medical expenses are large enough that you would benefit from itemizing deductions, you'll be prompted to upgrade to Deluxe, as the Federal Free and Basic versions do not handle Schedule A.

kc7
New Member

I am self-employed and bought health insurance through the Marketplace BUT I have access to health insurance through my spouse. Can I deduct my insurance payments?

That is as I expected, but if I had not known by doing my own research, then the Turbo Tax software would have given me a large deduction that would have been incorrect. My main point in writing the question is that Turbo Tax needs to be aware that its software is misleading it users in this particular issue, making some users think they can take the deduction when they cannot.
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