Are you ready to secure health insurance coverage for 2018? Everyone will have an opportunity to sign-up for health coverage for next year starting on November 1, running through December 15, 2017. Whether you’re ready now or not , the Healthcare.gov website is equipped to help prepare you and direct you where to go for 2018 coverage once the sign-up window opens.

Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) wants to help ensure that you have the information you need to know about coverage, payments, tax reporting and more. Our Affordable Care Act (ACA) Healthcare pages offer all of this and more, including four ACA estimators; two for individuals and two for businesses. One of the estimators, the Individual Shared Responsibility Provision estimator, will help you calculate if you might need to make a payment for lack of health care coverage in 2017, or estimate if you might owe in 2018 if you don’t secure required coverage and do not qualify for an exception.
TAS wants to ensure you’re looking ahead to be certain you’ll be in compliance for 2018, before you start thinking about filing a tax return for 2017. Why now? Now is the time to get ready for the open season which begins November 1.

Get started by visiting Healthcare.gov’s Get ready to apply for 2018 coverage webpage and find a list available to help you prepare and begin the process. There you’ll learn how to estimate your income for your application and you can use this checklist (PDF) to gather the documents you’ll need. Please be cautious when estimating your income, particularly if you expect to receive some type of lump sum payment during 2018.

You need to do one of the following to obtain health care coverage:

• Apply at Healthcare.gov or a state marketplace,
• Secure coverage through your employer (if they offer it and it is more beneficial to you),
• Secure coverage directly from an insurance company,
• Apply through an insurance agent or broker,
• Secure coverage from an online health insurance seller.

If you need help deciding which option is best for you, see Healthcare.gov’s 5 ways to apply for health insurance and other resources available on the site.

Visit the Taxpayer Advocate Service’s ACA Get Help site and learn more about ACA healthcare requirements or credits that are available to you to assist with paying monthly premiums. You can also contact us if you need help resolving an ACA tax related issue that you’re unable to resolve with the IRS.

Source: taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov