Still getting an error on 1095-A due to gaining eligibility for other coverage mid-year

[plaidford15]

I've seen a hundred Q&A's regarding the 1095-A, but none of the answers I've seen address my specific situation.  

My wife and I elected marketplace coverage effective 1/1/2025 and received a subsidy for the premiums we paid for January through May.  Starting 6/1/25, we became eligible for coverage through my wife's employer, but we decided to stay with our Marketplace coverage.  We notified the Marketplace in May that we would be eligible for employer-sponsored coverage, but that we were going to continue with our Marketplace plan and pay the full premium with no subsidy starting 6/1/25, continuing through the end of the year.

The 1095-A we received correctly shows our full premium amount in Column A for all 12 months of the year -- because we continued paying that premium amount even after we no longer were eligible for tax credit.  It shows the appropriate SLCSP and APTC in columns B & C for January through May - the time period during which we received the APTC.  For June through December, there are zeroes in columns B & C -- because we were no longer eligible for any tax credit.  This isn't a matter of qualifying based on income -- it is strictly and automatically because we now had access to other coverage through my wife's employer and were no longer eligible for tax credit - regardless of income.

TurboTax will not accept the zeroes -- or blanks -- in columns B&C as correctly shown on my 1095-A.

If I enter the SLCSP in column B for the June - December, as so many Tax Experts suggest here, Turbo Tax wants to say I qualify for tax credit each of those months, because my income would allow it (but the fact that we were eligible for other coverage does NOT allow it).  That increases my federal refund by nearly $7,000, which I know is not correct.

How do I complete a 1095-A in this specific situation?

[MarilynG1]

IRS instructions say that a '0' should be entered in Column E of Form 8962 for months you were not eligible for a PTC, due to eligibility for employer coverage.  However, TurboTax does not allow this entry, either in interview or Forms mode for Efiling.

You could enter your 1095-A showing blanks in Columns A, B and C for those months you were not eligible for coverage, and any PTC would be calculated for only the months you did have both coverage/APTC.

Otherwise, you would need to mail in your return with a manually completed Form 8962. 

@plaidford15 

[plaidford15]

Thank you for your reply and for the work-around option. I went ahead and entered zeroes in columns A, B, & C for months that we were not eligible for PTC. That allowed me to complete the return and file it electronically, but I am concerned that - even though it looks like the tax was calculated correctly - because my return doesn't match my actual 1095-A, I will be at a higher risk for audit or delay in my refund being processed. 

It is frustrating that TurboTax is supposed to make my tax filing easier but, instead, I had to spend hours researching the issue, trying to figure out why I wasn't able to enter my 1095-A accurately and, in the end, had to use a work-around that increases my likelihood of having my refund delayed.  There are literally tens of questions about this issue in the community going back months. 

Why wasn't an update put through to fix this known software issue?

[PatriciaV]

This experience has been reported to our development team but an update is unlikely for the 2025 tax year. It's highly unlikely that your entries will be scrutinized or cause a delay in the processing of your return. Entering zeroes doesn't affect your tax liability.

[AmeliesUncle]

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@plaidford15 wrote:

For June through December, there are zeroes in columns B & C 

TurboTax will not accept the zeroes -- or blanks -- in columns B&C as correctly shown on my 1095-A.

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Enter 0.01 for column B.  If you do that, I think zero will be fine in column C.