Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
IRS Issues Reprieve To Those Who Filed Taxes Before Faulty Forms Were Detected
The Wall Street Journal: IRS Won’t Collect Additional Taxes From Filers Who Used Incorrect Forms
The Internal Revenue Service won’t collect any additional taxes from about 50,000 people who already have filed returns using an incorrect government form on their coverage under the federal health insurance exchange. About 800,000 people who obtained insurance on the federal exchange received incorrect tax statements, known as 1095-A forms, regarding their 2014 coverage. Some of the 50,000 who filed using those forms may have owed more had they received the correct statements. The IRS won’t collect those additional taxes, a senior Treasury Department official said. (Armour, 2/24)
The New York Times: Erroneous HealthCare.gov Tax Forms Will Not Force Taxpayers To Resubmit Returns
The Treasury Department has an easy fix for taxpayers who filed their returns using inaccurate data sent by HealthCare.gov: They don’t have to do anything at all. Last week, the federal government said that it sent incorrect tax forms to about 800,000 people who bought insurance through the federal health care exchange. An estimated 50,000 taxpayers had already filed their returns using inaccurate information. (Siegel Bernard, 2/24)
The Associated Press: Treasury Issues Reprieve For Health Law Tax Errors
Taxpayers who've filed their 2014 returns only to learn that the government provided them with erroneous information on health care subsidies won't be required to submit corrected returns, the Treasury Department said Tuesday. The decision amounts to a reprieve from paperwork headaches for an estimated 50,000 early filers, out of a pool of some 800,000 HealthCare.gov customers affected by a tax reporting goof disclosed last week. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 2/24)
Politico: IRS Won't Collect On Bad Returns From Obamacare Glitch
The Obama administration took a step on Tuesday toward containing the damage from sending the wrong Obamacare tax data to hundreds of thousands of taxpayers. The 50,000 taxpayers who filed returns based on inaccurate subsidy data they got from the government will not need to file amended returns and the IRS won’t collect for any underpayment, the Treasury Department said. (Snell, 2/25)
USA Today: Early Obamacare Tax Filers Get A Break
People who have already filed their taxes using one of the erroneous health insurance forms sent by the federal government will not be required to file an amended return or owe additional taxes, the Treasury Department said Tuesday. About 800,000 consumers who have health insurance purchased on the federal exchange were contacted beginning late last week because the 1095-A tax form sent by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services contained a mistake in the benchmark plan used to calculate how much tax they owe. (O'Donnell and Ungar, 2/24)
