The Taxpayer Advocate Service developed the Individual Shared Responsibility Provision - Payment Estimator to help you estimate the amount you may have to pay if you did not have minimum essential coverage during the year.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) reduced the Individual Shared Responsibility Payment to zero for tax year 2019 and beyond.
Visit Tax Reform Changes for more information about other changes under the new tax law.
Under the Affordable Care Act, the federal government, state governments, insurers, employers, and individuals are given shared responsibility to reform and improve the availability, quality, and affordability of health insurance coverage in the United States.
Specifically, this provision requires each individual to:
If you, your spouse, or any of your dependents don’t have minimum essential coverage and don’t have exemptions, a shared responsibility payment will be due when the return is filed. This tool can help estimate that amount.
You may be exempt from the requirement to maintain minimum essential coverage and thus will not have to make a shared responsibility payment when you file your federal income tax return if you meet certain criteria.
You may be exempt if you:
You can get more information about what types of exemptions are available at at:
You will need to provide:
This tool can only provide an estimate of the Shared Responsibility Payment - to determine the payment, use the Shared Responsibility Payment Worksheet in the Instructions for Form 8965.
If you qualify as a dependent of another taxpayer, only the person who is able to claim you as a dependent will be liable for the payment, if any.
In general, the Shared Responsibility Payment is one of the following:
If you are subject to the Shared Responsibility Payment, the payment is the larger of the flat dollar amount or your excess income amount.
The national average bronze plan premium is an overall cap (limit) on the payment. If the flat dollar amount or your excess income amount is greater than the national average bronze plan premium for your family size, the payment will be equal to the national average bronze plan premium.
The national average bronze plan premium is an overall cap (limit) on the payment. If the flat dollar amount or your excess income amount is greater than the national average bronze plan premium for your family size, the payment will be equal to the national average bronze plan premium.
A certain percentage of the amount of your household income over your filing threshold.
It is defined as the product of:
You may be exempt from the requirement to maintain minimum essential coverage and thus will not have to make a shared responsibility payment when you file your return if you meet certain criteria.
For more information about the exemptions, see:
Your family members include you, your spouse (if married and filing a joint return), and everyone you are able to claim as dependents.
Your Shared Responsibility Family: For the shared responsibility provision, in each month, all family members who:
Tax return filing threshold is the amount of gross income an individual of your age and with your filing status (e.g., single, married filing jointly, head of household) must make to be required to file a tax return.
For adults it is:
For family members under age 18, the applicable dollar amount is half the amount for adults.
Household income is the adjusted gross income from your tax return plus any excludible foreign earned income and tax-exempt interest you receive during the taxable year. Household income also includes the incomes of all of your dependents who are required to file tax returns.
Minimum essential coverage means coverage under a government-sponsored program, an eligible employer-sponsored plan, a plan in the individual market, a grandfathered health plan, or other health benefits coverage.
For an individual that does not qualify for an exemption and is not covered under minimum essential coverage, 1/12 multiplied by the greater of:
Additionally, the national average bronze plan premium is an overall cap (limit) on the payment. If the flat dollar amount or your excess income amount is greater than the national average bronze plan premium for your family size, the payment will be equal to the national average bronze plan premium.
Short coverage gap means a continuous period of less than three months in which the individual is not covered under minimum essential coverage.
If the individual does not have minimum essential coverage for a continuous period of three or more months, none of the months included in the continuous period are treated as included in a short coverage gap.
If a calendar year includes more than one short coverage gap, the exemption only applies to the earliest short coverage gap.
