WiscBroker
Expert
- 98
Hypothetical situation- A client lost their job and employer based health insurance, and goes on an individual medical plan OFF-exchange because she believes she will get a new job soon and doesn't want to mess with the subsidy/tax credit potential issues. The rest of the year (2016) comes and goes, and low and behold it's Open Enrollment and she's still unemployed. She then decides to go on O'Care, for January 2017 and gets a big subsidy/tax credit because she's projecting her income to be approx $15,000/year (based on remaining unemployment compensation payments and new part-time work).
Fast forward to August 2017, and her part-time work is actually forecasting to place her yearly income under $10,000 thus making her overall annual income at Medicaid level, but she decides to stay on O'care because she doesn't want to report her lower income and get moved to Medicaid.
Crystal Ball time: Please tell me what will happen when she files her 2017 taxes in the spring of next year? Will she have to pay all her subsidy back because her income was too low and she should have gone on Medicaid? OR, let's say she reports the income change and gets switched to Medicaid now. Will she still have to repay the subsidy/tax credit that has been given to her up to this point? OR, will she not have to worry about paying anything back?
Fast forward to August 2017, and her part-time work is actually forecasting to place her yearly income under $10,000 thus making her overall annual income at Medicaid level, but she decides to stay on O'care because she doesn't want to report her lower income and get moved to Medicaid.
Crystal Ball time: Please tell me what will happen when she files her 2017 taxes in the spring of next year? Will she have to pay all her subsidy back because her income was too low and she should have gone on Medicaid? OR, let's say she reports the income change and gets switched to Medicaid now. Will she still have to repay the subsidy/tax credit that has been given to her up to this point? OR, will she not have to worry about paying anything back?