I thought that we didn't have to pay in for health care and not having coverage anymore? Why am I still paying in?

[Coleen3 · Accepted solution]

It's not a yes or no answer. You can choose not to answer the health care question, but there is no guarantee that the IRS will not come back to try to collect.

In 2014 and 2015, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) provided leniency to those individuals who failed to include proof of their health coverage during the previous year. However, the IRS had made it clear that any Form 1040s (the standard tax form) filed for the 2016 calendar tax year without line 61 filled in -- the line that would demonstrate to the IRS if you had health coverage or paid the SRP -- would be rejected.

But Trump's executive order changed everything.

According to Yahoo Finance, the IRS will once again be accepting electronic and paper tax returns for calendar year 2016 without line 61 filled in.

Now here's where things get tricky. On one hand, the ACA is still the health law of the land, even if it seems to be living on borrowed time. This means the individual mandate is still law, and those who choose not to purchase health insurance should be paying the SRP, unless they're exempt. On the other hand, without line 61 filled in, the IRS has no guarantee that the taxpayer paid the SRP or was even insured in 2016.