Understanding Your Advance Payments of the Premium Tax Credit Letter

Why are you receiving this letter:

• the Health Insurance Marketplace notified the IRS they made advance payments of the premium tax credit to your or your family’s health insurance company to reduce your premium costs in 2015 and
• you didn’t include the Form 8962, Premium Tax Credit, to reconcile the advance payments that were paid on your behalf when you filed your individual 2015 tax return.

When the Health Insurance Marketplace pays advance payments of the premium tax credit on your behalf, you must file Form 8962 to reconcile the advance payments to the actual amount of the Premium Tax Credit that you are eligible for based on your actual household income and family size. You must use the Form 1095-A, Health Insurance Marketplace Statement, sent to you from your Health Insurance Marketplace to complete Form 8962.

If you don’t reconcile:

If you don’t reconcile, you won’t be eligible for advance payments of the premium tax credit or cost-sharing reductions to help pay for your Marketplace health insurance coverage for the following calendar year.

What you need to do

• Read your letter carefully and respond timely.
• You must respond to the letter, even if you disagree with the information in the letter. If you disagree, send us a letter explaining what information you think is in error. If you didn’t purchase a health insurance policy from the Marketplace, you must let us know.
• Provide the information requested in the letter. This includes:
  • a copy of your Form 1095A provided by your Marketplace,
  • a completed Form 8962
  • a copy of the corrected second page from your original return that shows the “Tax and Credits” and “Payments” sections. You must complete either the line for “excess advance premium tax credit repayment” (line 46, Form 1040, or line 29, Form 1040A) or the line for “net premium tax credit” (line 69, Form 1040, or line 45, Form 1040A).

    NOTE: If you originally filed a Form 1040EZ tax return, you must transfer the information from your Form 1040EZ to a Form 1040A and include it with your response. Form 1040EZ does not have the designated lines needed to carryforward amounts from a Form 8962.

• You should have received a Form 1095-A from your Marketplace on or before January 31, 2016. If you didn’t receive your Form 1095-A, log in to your HealthCare.gov or state Marketplace account or contact your Marketplace directly. The IRS cannot answer questions about the information on your Form 1095-A, reissue missing/lost forms, or issue a corrected form.
• Do not file a Form 1040X, Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return. After we receive the requested information, we’ll use it to process your original tax return.
• If you’re entitled to a refund after reconciling your advance payments, we’ll send your refund about 6-8 weeks after we receive all of the necessary information.

How to respond

Your Letter 0012C provides a fax number, if you want to send the information by fax. If you prefer to mail your response, send the information to the address listed at the beginning of the letter. Also, include a copy of the letter with your response.

You may want to

• Visit www.irs.gov/aca for more information about filing a tax return with Form 8962.
• Call the IRS at 1-866-682-7451, extension 568, if you have additional questions.
• Call us at 651-328-6080 to assist in filling the response