If you didn’t have coverage in 2014, you’ll pay the higher of these two amounts when you file your 2014 federal tax return:
- 1% of your annual household income. The maximum penalty is the national average premium for a bronze plan.
- $95 per person for the year ($47.50 per child under 18). The maximum penalty per family using this method is $285.
1. Family members of a worker who qualifies for affordable individual coverage, but not for affordable family coverage.
The IRS put this in because of a quirk in PPACA and the PPACA implementation regulations.
Regulators say an employer can fulfill its obligations under PPACA to offer affordable coverage with a minimum value by providing coverage set up in such a way that a full-time worker's share of the self-only coverage premiums costs less than 9.5 percent of the worker's W-2 wages from that employer.
The employer does not have to offer the worker access to affordable family coverage -- and the family members of that worker do not qualify for PPACA public exchange premium subsidy tax credits.
But the family members will not have to pay the penalty to be imposed on people who fail to have MEC -- and, apparently, they won't have to go through an exchange certification process.
2. A client earns too little income to have to file a federal income tax return.
Some workers don't earn enough to have to file individual income tax returns. As long as those workers are heads of household, not dependents, they will be able to avoid the no-MEC penalty without going to the trouble of filing tax returns simply to report that they have little or no income.
3. The client ended up getting MEC but bought it a little late.
The IRS has created several sets of deluxe hardship exemption justifications for people who had public exchange problems in early 2014 -- or look as if they might have had exchange problems -- and eventually got MEC.
4. The client has been eligible for health care services from an Indian health care provider.
Clients who want to avoid the no-MEC penalty may develop an intense new interest in their Native American genealogical heritage.
5. The client has a low income and lives in a state that did not expand access to Medicaid coverage.
Many states used PPACA Medicaid expansion money to make Medicaid available to all people with income below 138 of the federal poverty level, but many did not. Low-income adults in the non-expansion states can get out of the no-MEC penalty without bothering to apply for exchange certification.
Information and source from BenefitsPro:
http://www.benefitspro.com/2014/11/26/5-great-individual-ppaca-mandate-exemption-excuses?eNL=547e1be9150ba0b2554a3fad&utm_source=BenefitsBrokerPro&utm_medium=eNL&utm_campaign=BenefitsPro_eNLs&_LID=116707417&page=6
