Update: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new short-term special enrollment period from March 15 to April 30, 2015, giving people in 37 states more time to sign up for 2015 health insurance coverage through Healthcare.gov. Act soon to secure health care coverage for you and your family, and to avoid a tax penalty for 2015. For more information, click here. Check your state marketplace website for updates regarding state-run exchange special enrollment periods.
At TurboTax we work each day to make the complex simple so people can navigate their finances on their own. We pride ourselves on offering a user-friendly experience to walk people through an easy tax filing process. And, with the second open enrollment period (OE2) which runs until February 15, 2015, overlapping with the tax filing season, TurboTax is excited to highlight the role that TurboTax Health can play to help even more consumers #GetCovered and #StayCovered. We know tax laws inside and out so you don’t have to, and with our continued commitment to help taxpayers, we’re here to help you understand how the requirement to have health insurance impacts your finances and taxes now that health insurance and taxes are more closely connected than ever.
Here’s How TurboTax Can Help
Come tax time, TurboTax will be helping those who remain uninsured in two major ways: 1) we will help them understand how the tax penalty for not having health insurance may apply to them and see if they can qualify for an exemption after answering a few questions and 2) help those filing taxes during the last two weeks of OE2 connect to coverage to avoid an increasing penalty in future years.
Tax filing is a great way to connect more consumers to coverage because people who are filing taxes already have much of the information needed to apply for health coverage, such as household income, on hand. Furthermore, many taxpayers can take advantage of significant tax refunds to help purchase new coverage .
And of course, we will also be helping current Marketplace enrollees understand how to report the financial help they received to help purchase coverage last year and in turn see if they may receive an adjustment to the tax credit received.
We also know that additional local in-person assistance can play a key role, and that’s why we’re glad to work with partners like Enroll America to make it easier to connect people to free local help through the Get Covered Connector.
Our goal is to put consumers at ease so they know that getting covered and filing taxes can be simple and straightforward. We know that people lead busy lives and we want to give them the peace of mind that comes with getting comprehensive health coverage and easily and accurately completing their tax return that guarantees a maximum tax refund. We are eager to best serve taxpayers on health care matters that can be addressed during the upcoming tax-filing season.