Thank goodness, Super Tuesday 2 is over! No, I’m not talking about the Presidential Primary, but the race to file corporate taxes. Brigade Bookkeeping has been 24/7 for weeks now, but especially on March 15th, the corporate filing deadline. If you didn’t file your corporate taxes last week or file for an extension, you’re late!
Now it’s time to move onto your personal taxes. Are you prepared to file your taxes on or before April 18th this year? One of the deductions you or your bookkeeper should be thinking about is health insurance. Since the 2014 enactment of the Affordable Care Act aka ObamaCare, the IRS has required that all taxpayers report health insurance coverage on their tax return. Here are some things you should consider:
- REPORTING COVERAGE – If you have health insurance through your employer, a private company or a government program, such as Medicare or Medicaid, then all you have to do is check the box on your 1040-EZ, 1040-A or 1040 acknowledging you had health insurance in 2015.
- NO HEALTH INSURANCE FEE – If you can’t afford health insurance you need to pay a fee called the individual shared responsibility payment. According to the IRS, the payment is either a flat fee or the percentage of household income, whichever is higher. This year’s percentage is 2% of a family’s taxable income over the minimum filing amount for your filing status. The flat fee this year is $325.00 per adult and $162.50 per child under 18, with a max of $975 per family.
- TAX EXEMPTIONS – If you couldn’t afford health care through a private company, you should have signed up through the government’s Health Insurance Marketplace at healthcare.gov. However, there are some exemptions: those uninsured for less than 3 months of the year, if your income is too low, if you’re part of a religious group with objections to health care, if you’re a Native American who is eligible for services through an Indian Health Service (IHS) provider, if you are incarcerated, if you are not a U.S. Citizen or U.S. National, and if you’re not able to purchase health insurance due to a “hardship.” Hardships are considered being homeless, receiving a shut-off notice from a utility company, have experienced a fire, flood or other natural disaster that has substantially damaged your property. This list goes on, so e-mail us at Brigade Bookkeeping to find out if you qualify.
If you haven’t even thought about gathering your paperwork to do your taxes, then now’s the time to start. You have less than a month until the personal tax filing deadline. Get your taxes done now or call us at (786) 275-0175 and we’ll give you a hand. We survived Super Tuesday 2 and now there are a lot more 18 hour days (or longer) to come. So vote for Brigade Bookkeeping! We’re the bookkeeping team that trumps them all!