What to know about 2015 taxes and your health insurance

Published on January 15, 2016

• If you enrolled in Marketplace health coverage in 2015, you’ll soon get an important tax document in the mail, called Form 1095-A. Your 1095-A includes information you need in order to complete your 2015 federal income tax return. You should wait to file your income tax return until you receive this document in the mail. It should arrive by early February. When it arrives, keep it with your other tax records, like the W-2 you get from your employer.
• If you got financial help to lower the cost of your monthly premiums, you must file a tax return, even if you typically wouldn’t have to, and report the amount of financial assistance you got. The amounts will show on your 1095-A. Now that you know your final income for the year, you need to
  reconcile

  How you find out if you used the right amount of premium tax credit during the year. To reconcile, you compare two amounts: the premium tax credit you used in advance during the year; and the amount of tax credit you qualify for based on your final income. You’ll use IRS Form 8962 to do this. If you used more premium tax credit than you qualify for, you’ll pay the difference with your federal taxes. If you used less, you’ll get the difference as a credit.

  the difference between the amount of financial assistance you got with the amount you should have gotten based on your 2015 earnings. Information included on your Form 1095-A will help you do this. If you don’t file a tax return and reconcile your financial help, the Marketplace can’t continue to give you financial help in the future.