The Affordable Care Act Known as ObamaCare requires individuals to have qualifying health insurance coverage for each month of the year, have an exemption, or make a shared responsibility payment when filing his or her federal income tax return starting in 2014.

You may be exempt from the requirement to maintain qualifying health insurance coverage, called minimum essential coverage, and may not have to make a shared responsibility payment when you file your next federal income tax return. If you are a married couple, the rules will be different than just covering a single person, checking out advice on health insurance for married couple will get you better prepared.

Exemptions are granted for the following:

• You have no affordable coverage options because the minimum amount you must pay for the annual premiums is more than eight percent of your household income,
• You have a gap in coverage for less than three consecutive months, or
• You Qualify for an exemption for one of several other reasons, including having a hardship that prevents you from obtaining coverage or belonging to a group explicitly exempt from the requirement.

The IRS website, IRS.gov/aca, has a comprehensive list of the coverage exemptions at :

http://www.irs.gov/uac/ACA-Individual-Shared-Responsibility-Provision-Exemptions

How to get an exemption depends upon the type of exemption. Some exemptions are only from the Marketplace in the area where you live, https://www.healthcare.gov/exemptions/ while others only from the IRS , and yet others from either the Marketplace or the IRS. Fun right?

Additional information about exemptions can be obtained at the Individual Shared Responsibility Provision web page on IRS.gov.

More Information

Find out more about the tax-related provisions of the health care law at IRS.gov/aca

Find out more about the health care law at HealthCare.gov and HealthCare.gov/exemptions.

Some direct links for Florida

http://www.irs.gov/uac/ACA-Individual-Shared-Responsibility-Provision-Exemptions

http://www.cms.gov/CCIIO/Resources/Regulations-and-Guidance/Downloads/exemptions-guidance-6-26-2013.pdf

https://www.healthcare.gov/exemptions/

http://marketplace.cms.gov/getofficialresources/publications-and-articles/affordability-ffm-exemption.pdf

https://www.healthcare.gov/can-i-buy-a-catastrophic-plan/

Application for Exemption from the Shared Responsibility Payment for Individuals who are Unable to Afford Coverage and are in a State with a Federally Facilitated Marketplace (pdf)

Carol A. Lawson, Esq., 28870 U.S. Hwy19 #300, Hodusa Towers, Clearwater, FL 33761 Phone: (727) 410-2705; email: calh@gate.net