In response to the Trump administration executive order that directed federal agencies to use discretion to reduce regulatory burdens, the IRS recently reversed course regarding individual tax returns and ACA compliance. The IRS had planned to reject individual tax returns if they were filed without information relating to whether the taxpayer had health coverage. In response to the executive order, these returns will be processed rather than rejected.
An individual shared responsibility payment for tax year 2016 is reported on line 61 of Form 1040, line 38 of Form 1040A, or line 11 of Form 1040EZ.
This doesn’t give individual filers who may not have had health coverage for all or part of 2016 a free pass. The IRS notice specifically notes that “legislative provisions of the ACA law are still in force until changed by the Congress, and taxpayers remain required to follow the law and pay what they may owe.”
The IRS reserves its right to follow-up with questions about a return and pursue amounts owed.
The announcement regarding this change in processing returns can be found here.
More information on the individual shared responsibility provision can be found on the IRS website here.
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