As we get closer to tax time, we get inundated with people who need their form 1095 to file their taxes. Form 1095 is the form that is necessary for someone who has health insurance to submit with their taxes. It allows your tax person to figure out if you got to the correct amount of assistance form a health exchange, or to prove that you had health insurance for the year. This is especially important in California to be able to provide to the California Franchise Tax Board that you had health insurance ; so you do not receive the $695 penalty for not having health insurance in California, as well as create tax from 8962. Today we are going to talk about the different types of for form 1095, which version you should receive and how you can get access to it if you did not automatically receive it in the mail.

 What is form 1095?

• What Form 1095 covers
  • If you had health insurance
  • How long you had health insurance 
  • How much assistance you got from a health exchange  
  • If it was offered to you by your work
• Helps your tax preparer correctly do your taxes
• Ensure that you get correct amount of subsidy 
• Avoid the tax penalty if still exist in your state
• California tax penalty is minimum $695 per person 
• Needed to create form 8962
• Without the form the IRS may reject your taxes. 

Which version of form 1095 should you get ?

•  3 versions of the 1095 form 
• 1095a for people on health exchanges, like healthcare.gov or Covered California
• 1095 b for coverage under a government entity or Medicaid/ Medi-Cal or VA 
• 1095 c which would be insurance through work or directly purchased from an insurance company not with an exchange. 
• 1095 b are often reported directly to the IRS and state Tax entities
•  1095c and 1095a may need to be provided when somebody pays their taxes

How can you get form 1095 if you didn’t automatically receive it?

• Normally the1095 forms are sent out in January
• But they are not always sent out in time or at all 
• Could be sent to an old address
• May have multiple forms if somebody had changed plans throughout the year
• Leaves some people without the forms that show how much and what health coverage they had throughout the year
• Luckily, there are a few ways to get your forms. 
• If you have a 1095c from insurance from your work, you can request a copy from your insurance company
• For 1095b’s this will usually be automatically transmitted to the IRS or you can request it from the government insurance program that you are enroll
• 1095a are available in a couple of ways
• Should get in the mail
• Can contact exchange and have them sent out to you in 45 days, exchanges will only mail them
• Can log onto your health exchanges websites, if you have access to your account and download them 
• Can contact local enrollment entities who email, fax, or print them out you in person who must print them out for free. 

Thank you so much for watching, if you have questions about your Medicare or Medicare health plan options please feel free to contact us and we can make a new post or video to cover your questions. We here at California know health insurance weather it is private health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid / Medi-Cal, Medigap or health insurance for your small business. It can be very confusing coming from your work insurance and trying to look at options on the private market or turning 65 and trying to figure out which Medicare option is best for you. That is exactly what we can do, we can walk you through your options and help you find the plans that fits your needs and your budget.