Problems with Affordable Care Act Tax Forms

At the end of the year, the various exchanges are required to send 1095-A forms to people who took advantage of the ACA tax credit. Unfortunately, there are conflicts between the exchange databases of tax credit data and the insurance company tax credit data and a large number of incorrect forms have been sent by two of the largest exchanges: the Federal healthcare.gov and Covered California.

  • At the Federal level, some 20% of healthcare.gov users, about 800,000 people, have been sent invalid 1095-A forms. Statement from the Federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Corrected forms will be sent. People who filed based on the invalid forms will be contacted by "the Treasury," likely the IRS. If you have a healthcare.gov account, log in to it to find out if you have been affected.

  • California has not yet issued a statement. The LA Times reports that 100,000 incorrect forms have been sent. According to that report, corrected forms will be sent out soon.
The CMS reminds us that only 50,000 tax forms have been filed so far, so relatively few people have been affected. On the other hand, people who get the ACA tax credit are not making good money, so they may have filed early so that they get their tax refunds early.

The best practical coverage I have seen so far (but what do I do?) comes from Kelly Philips—"taxgirl" (girl?)—at the anti-Obamacare Forbes. She promises updates.

Myself, I think that the miserly nature and complexity of the ACA made some screw-up likely. It's not the liberals who want a bureaucratic state. It's the conservatives and the libertarians, who want each penny accounted for, for fear that some undeserving person might have picked one up.

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