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Medicare definitely counts as qualified coverage. Large-company provided insurance should too. With smaller companies, who knows? My hunch is their insurance providers wrote them new plans if the old ones weren't qualified. It won't matter for filing season 2015 (tax year 2014) because the employers and insurance companies were given an extension to report these things until 2015, and the IRS has no way of checking (their admission) if 2014 plans were qualified. People who got insurance through the exchanges or don't have insurance will be the complex ones. The exchanges will provide a form showing how much advance premium credit they got, it any. I went to a seminar this week and everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief when the speaker said all you need to know is household size, household income, and the numbers on the exchange form. The software does it all! (He uses Ultratax, not sure about ATX.) Household income can be tricky though. For example, nontaxable Social Security income counts for all household members, including kids who might be getting SS from a deceased parent's account. Hopefully this was all included in the exchange enrollment questions, so there should be no surprises. For those with no insurance, the software will do it all. Unless of course the taxpayer qualified for an exception. Best to read up on those. That said, we still have to be able to explain it to the client, and that will take education. (Kind of like explaining why part of a client's SS is taxed--you can't unless you understand the math.) And there will be kinks galore. I just researched what happens if someone who gets an advance credit gets married. One would think income for the unmarried months would be used to calculate the credit. Nope. Total household income on the joint return is divided in half, as if each spouse earned half the income during the year. The credit is calculated on that amount. So if a guy who earned $25k and got a premium credit marries in December to someone who earned $75k, he would be treated as if he had earned $50k and have to pay the whole advance back. These unusual situations should be rare, but if we typically help our clients with tax planning we really need to get educated.

Sara, your post pretty much covers it and I gave you a "like". What I didn't like was the suggestion to trust the software to "do the rest". I firmly believe that is something we should never do with any situation. It is all well and good if that is true, however we need to know WHY and where the software is going with those numbers. Otherwise, we are not professional tax preparers. I have attended two ACA seminars and I WANT to understand it; but have to admit that I don't totally. Am waiting and hoping for the pieces to fall into place when we reach the "hands on" phase. One of the hardest things we may have to face this year would be all of the false, misleading, totally untrue and partially untrue stories that are going around out there. Some of the things my clients try to tell me make me doubt myself. We have to learn this law. My greatest fear is that we may spend hours agonizing over and studying a subject that might someday go away or at least change to a great degree. For that reason, I am keeping a low profile for now.

And I made 100 on the CE quiz.

One of the problems mentioned in an overview-type seminar I took recently that will be a problem of missing information is that people may know that they are exempt, or think they are, but they will not have obtained the exemption number from the marketplace for 2014. That number is required entry on the form 8965.

You should ask for a refund... Please stop the snarking, and if not, I'll lock the topic because it seems that the actual topic question has been discussed and exhausted. Thanks.

You are absolutely correct. This information has been available, as well as training to become proficient with the new laws for over 18 months. I am dismayed and a bit concerned at the lackadaisical attitude about learning this that seems to be the normal amongst the preparer community. The laws and necessary steps to incorporate them are convoluted, confusing, sometimes contradictory and very extensive. Learning will not be a "webinar or two and I will have it." I have had 4 more hours directly concerning the ACA in the past three weeks. Two different seminars. At each one I learned even more things that all my previous training had not provided. This will truly be the "Worst Tax Season in 30 Years" for those who are going in unprepared. I believe there will need to be a separate forum for ACA related questions as I predict a massive amount of them to be asked on this site. Rant Over.

The IRS speakers told us that at the seminars.

Just got an email from ATX with the following: If you don't think ACA will affect you, think again: Every 1040 taxpayer will have to make 1 of 3 choices on their return 41 million people are uninsured 7.1 million people are on the healthcare exchange ACA is complex and any incorrect reporting can delay you client's refund. New Form 8962 (15 pages of instructions) New Form 8965 (12 pages of instructions) Form 8960 (20 pages of instructions) 1095-A, 1095-B 1095-C As National Taxpayer Advocate predicts, it will be "the worst tax season in thirty years."

It is fair to say that Minimum Essential Coverage does include Employer-sponsored plans, including COBRA and retiree coverage. Also, Coverage under specified government-sponsored programs; which would include Medicare. There are other exemptions as well.