Affordable Care Act’s Tax Effects Now Loom for Filers

[PoliticAverse]

If you decided to skip health insurance this year, consider this: Unless you can prove you have a valid excuse, you will be liable for a penalty during the coming tax season — and the time to start making your case is now.

That’s not all. People who bought subsidized insurance through one of the marketplaces may have new tax forms to complete, while paying the penalty itself may demand some serious number-crunching.

The Internal Revenue Service is gearing up to answer questions, but it warns that only half of the callers may get through — and those who succeed may have to wait a half-hour or more.

“There are quite a number of moving parts that taxpayers have not had to deal with,” said Kristin Esposito, technical tax manager for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Read the rest at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/26/your-money/affordable-care-acts-tax-effects-now-loom-for-filers.html?_r=0

[Igel]

1. The next "moving part" will is simple enough to predict.

Sometime this year the decision will be made to somehow grant a short-term amnesty or reinterpret the rules on penalties for misfiling paperwork. This will hit those least able to navigate the paperwork hardest, and there'll be another few phalanges of paid volunteers needed to help.

Otherwise the "nurturing mother" will be found to be spanking her children, something no mother in history has ever done. (At least according to the flattering self-stereotype of the all-gentle, all-caring nurturer. "Mommies dearest" are apparently honorary men.)

The real thing to be afraid of is that the proof for showing that you didn't need to go through one of the exchanges because you already have employer- or group-provided insurance won't automatically be filed, will be filed in an improper format, that there's a mismatch between insurance records and IRS records, etc., etc. Or that some special bit of paperwork is required for individuals to document.)