Tax Return 2018 Waiting Period

[Sunny6612]

Question about Tax return:

Hi, On 2018 tax return, I had 90 days waiting period before my health insurance kicked in. Now I am filing turbo tax and it is asking me for which months I did not have health insurance. 

1. Should I report 90 days waiting period as months that I did not have health insurance? I asked my company and they said I should not be penalized for waiting period. Does that mean I need to report I had insurance in 90 days waiting period in turbo tax?

[MaryK1]

The 90 day waiting period does count as months that you did NOT have health insurance so you may be required to pay the penalty for all three months.  Employers should be required to have a shorter waiting period for health insurance coverage that would not put new employees in this situation, or the exemption should be longer than three months so workers are not the ones who get punished.

Under the Affordable Care Act, a gap in coverage that lasts less than three months qualifies as a short coverage gap. If you have more than one short coverage gap during a year, the short coverage gap exemption only applies to the first gap.If you have a coverage gap of 3 months or more, you are not exempt for any of those months.