when you file your return, you hardly have to do anything different. there's a new line on the 1040 -- line 61, to be precise -- where you attest that you do, in fact, have health coverage. if that's the case, then mark it down here, and you're done.









the good news is, tax credits made your health insurance more affordable. the bad news is, you now have to prove you still have insurance, and that you didn't get too much or too little of a subsidy. if your tax credit was too large, you'll have to pay back at least some of it.









those 1095-a forms are supposed to arrive in your mailbox by feb. 2, so be on the lookout. you also can download them from the exchange website or call the exchange and ask it to send you one. you may get more than one form, depending on how each member of the family is covered. if you see any inaccuracies on these documents, contact your insurance exchange.









when you applied for a credit, you told the exchange what you expected to earn in 2014, and that number was used to calculate your subsidy. now, when you file the 8962 with your taxes, you're running the numbers again based on what you really made. if those amounts are different, your tax credits have to be adjusted. those who owe the irs can set up payment plans.









how many people will see their refunds cut (or face a tax bill), and how many will get money back? no one can say for sure. but h&r block projects that about half of all exchange customers didn't estimate their incomes correctly, and should expect some kind of adjustment, either higher or lower, pickering said.









basically, if you bought an unsubsidized plan from an obamacare exchange, take the information from your 1095-a and put it on your 8962, and check off line 61 of your 1040. if you didn't use an exchange, you just need to care about line 61. when it comes to taxes, that counts as easy.









one more thing for unsubsidized people who used an exchange: you might still be able to get tax credits. if you earned less than four times the federal poverty level -- $46,680 for a single person and $95,400 for a family of four -- you can apply for a subsidy via the exchange. if you skipped the exchange, then this isn't possible, no matter what your income was.









obamacare's individual mandate requires most legal u.s. residents to get covered, so you might be subject to a tax penalty if you were uncovered for more than three months. the formula is complicated, but the penalty starts at $95 and goes all the way up to about $11,000. (read this for more information.) if you didn't earn enough money to pay taxes, meaning you made less than $10,150 as a single person under 65 or more for other types of households, then there's no health insurance mandate for you, and you don't have to file a return.









the idea behind the mandate was that everyone who can "afford" insurance should buy it, to avoid saddling the rest of us with the cost of their medical care. the affordable care act says insurance is "affordable" if it costs 8 percent of your income. if insurance was available to you below that price and you didn't get coverage, you'll have to pay a penalty.









if you make less than $60,000 a year, you can use the irs' free file option, but you'll still have to do a lot of math yourself. if you make less than $53,000 a year, you can take advantage of tax preparers participating in the irs' free volunteer income tax assistance program. the irs' tax counseling for the elderly program is available at no charge to people 60 and older. and enroll america will offer no-cost local help using intuit turbotax.
here's how obamacare is going to affect your taxes
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