Posted on 03/20/2015 1:06:28 PM PDT by Citizen Zed
The Internal Revenue Service on Friday expanded relief to Obamacare customers who are filing tax returns based on incorrect information about their health plans.
The relief came in reaction to the disclosure by federal health official there were more errors on tax-related forms sent to Obamacare enrollees beyond the 820,000 forms identified as having problems last month.
Between 3 and 4 percent of customers of HealthCare.gov, the federal Obamacare marketplace, have some kind of errors on 1095-A tax forms related to their account, according to marketplace CEO Kevin Counihan. The errors could affect the amount of money a taxpayer owes the IRS, or is owed by the agency to the taxpayer.
The IRS said Obamacare customers who have filed or will file returns based on that incorrect data on their 1095-As will not have to file an amended return.
And the IRS "will not pursue the collection of any additional taxes from these individuals based on updated information in the corrected forms," the agency said in a statement. The relief applies to people who bought an Obamacare plan on any government-run exchange, be it the federally run HealthCare.gov that now serves 37 states, or a state-run marketplace.
But the IRS noted those people still may want to check with their tax preparers to see if they should file an amended return. In some cases they could get additional money back from the IRS if they used the corrected tax form. The Treasury Department said it intends to provide additional information to help tax filers determine whether they would benefit from filing amended returns.
It is unknown how many people could be eligible for the relief by virtue of having received a 1095-A form with incorrect information about their health plans.
"We don't have an estimate," said Mark Mazur, assistant secretary for tax policy at the Treasury Department. "We are thinking it's a relatively small number."
The relief applies to people who purchased insurance from any government-run Obamacare exchange. And it applies to anyone who already did or will end up filing a return that relies on the flawed 1095-A forms.
The relief is more expansive than the similar relief offered last month by the IRS. The earlier relief had not included customers of state-run Obamacare insurance marketplaces, and only applied to those HealthCare.gov customers who had already filed their income tax returns based on the flawed data.
Last month, it was revealed that 820,000 flawed 1095-A forms had been sent out to customers of HealthCare.gov.
That group of forms contained incorrect information about the prices of "benchmark" health plans. Those benchmark places are are used to determine the value of tax credits that low- and moderate- income Obamacare customers to help pay for their own health plans.
The tax credits customers receive are supposed to be reconciled on their income tax returns. If a person got too much in tax credits relative to their income, they will have to pay some of the credits back to the IRS, but if a person got too little in the way of subsidies they will be entitled to a refund.
But officials said Friday that the errors they are finding on 1095-A forms are not limited to the price of benchmark plans.
Counihan, the CEO of HealthCare.gov, said up to 4 percent of 1095-A forms of the exchange's customers have some kind of issue, including the "wrong coverage dates" for people's insurance. Counihan said the error rate is no unexpected given his experience running other health insurance marketplaces in Connecticut and Massachusetts.
HealthCare.gov's error rate for 1095-A forms, which is expected to be at least partially replicated on state-run exchanges, led the IRS to issue the expanded relief announced Friday.
Counihan also said Friday that 740,000 1095-A forms containing corrected information about benchmark plan prices have been mailed out to affected customers, who can also view those corrected forms on HealthCare.gov.
Another 80,000 forms will be mailed out by next week, Counihan said.
Also Thursday, officials said that starting next week they expect to reveal tallies of the number of people who have enrolled for Obamacare plans during a special sign-up season that began last Sunday. The special enrollment period is for people who only became aware this tax season that they are subject to a fine for having failed to get health coverage last year.
This is the first year that people must declare on their income tax returns whether they had health coverage during the prior year.
A little bonus for the Obamanoids.
And how is this a 'tax break'? This just puts O'CARE that much closer to bankruptcy due to lack of taxes collected to pay for it!
When am I gonna get some ‘relief’? Of any kind? Not have to pay my taxes? Break a few laws? Not pay my mortgage?
Nope!!! Pay up middle class slave!
The whole thing is so corrupt.
A violation of the 14th amendment....that is NOT equal protection under the law.
WHAT LAW...... the country is run by ad hoc bureaucratic political vote currying political favoritism designed to buy votes.... UNCONSTITUTIONAL and the idiot shoud be IMPEACHED and Pelosi shoudl ahve a tatoo on her forehead reading WE HAVE TO PASS IT TO FIND OUT WHAT’S IN IT.... hope she does that with her food too...
we the people kciked out the libtard morons but the law remains and Roberts should have his head examined.. did he get the negatives of him and the goat???
You not only must buy, or be penalized, but they also give you strict timelines in which to buy.
Submit, peasants!
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