Why do I have to pay back tax credits of ACA even though there is no penalty of no having health insurance?

[DoninGA]

There is no penalty for not having health insurance.

Whether or not the subsidy you received using the one of the state Marketplace Exchange plans has to be repaid or not, is not and has never been dependent on the individual mandate penalty.

[yu0106]

What do you mean?

I found an article on your site. "You're also exempt from the requirement if the most inexpensive coverage you can find would cost you more than 8.3% of your 2019 household income." If it is true, I'm exempt. Does that mean I do not have to claim Form 1095-A? 

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/health-care/are-you-exempt-from-health-care-coverage/L2ait3Gsk

[DoninGA]

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@yu0106 wrote:

What do you mean?

I found an article on your site. "You're also exempt from the requirement if the most inexpensive coverage you can find would cost you more than 8.3% of your 2019 household income." If it is true, I'm exempt. Does that mean I do not have to claim Form 1095-A? 

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/health-care/are-you-exempt-from-health-care-coverage/L2ait3Gsk

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You are required to enter the Form 1095-A on a federal tax return if you received health care insurance through one of the state Marketplace Exchanges.

[Critter · Accepted solution]

@yu0106 

You are quoting the exception to the mandate to have health insurance which has nothing to do with your situation.   When you applied for insurance thru the ACA you had to tell them your ESTIMATED annual income. Based on that amount you were given the choice to take the Premium Tax Credit either on your tax return OR in ADVANCE.  If you choose to take the entire allowed credit and your income differed from the  estimation you should have contacted the ACA to have the  advance reduced.    So on the tax return the ACTUAL annual income is now used to calculate the amount of credit you should have received ... so if you got too much in advance you have to pay some or all of it back.  That was the agreement was when you accepted the reduction in premiums.