The IRS has collected more than $1 billion from Americans who have not gotten health insurance.
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Federal officials reported about 7.5 million U.S. taxpayers so far have paid a penalty imposed for the first time this year by the Affordable Care Act for failing to have health insurance – although many of them apparently didn’t need to, according to CNBC.
The new data – included in a letter to lawmakers from IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, which he released early because of “numerous requests” – show that 76% of taxpayers indicated they had coverage for the entirety of 2014.
Under the ACA, also known as Obamacare, the 2014 individual tax penalty for not having health insurance is 1 percent of one’s annual income or $95, whichever is greater.
The report anticipates 4.8 million “taxpayers” will have to claim or reconcile Obamacare’s premium tax credits. Out of that number, only 20 percent reported subsidies of $5,000 or more, while the rest were split evenly between those receiving less than $2,000 and those receiving between $2,000 and $5,000 in federal tax credits.
This brings us a little closer to reconciling the IRS report with the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ report (although the latter does not appear to have consistency used the word “individual” accurately).
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About 300,000 taxpayers who made an individual mandate penalty payment should have claimed an exemption but did not, the government said. It adds that another 12 million were exempt in 2014, including those with very low incomes and Native Americans. The agency is sending letters to these taxpayers telling them they generally have three years to file an amended tax return to claim the funds. Approximately 7.5 million taxpayers reported paying a total of $1.5 billion in penalties. “We are analyzing these cases to determine their status,” the government said.
