What you need to know about ACA and Penalties

Affordable Care Act Tax Information for 2014The Department of Defense is not sending out  Affordable Care Act (ACA) related tax forms for the 2014 tax year.  You are to self-report, on your 1040 tax form, the months you, your family members, or both had minimum essential coverage.
For each month in 2014 you don’t have coverage, you may have to make a payment with your federal taxes. For more information, visit the IRS Shared Responsibility Provision page. .
ACA Tax Information for 2014As of January 2014, the Affordable Care Act requires: 

• Individuals to have minimal essential coverage for themselves and their family members
• Employers and health care plans to share each individuals’ minimal essential coverage information with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)* 
• Individuals to pay a tax penalty for each month them or their family members don’t have MEC; tax penalty information is available on http://www.irs.gov/uac/Individual-Shared-Responsibility-Provision. 

*The reporting requirement for employers and health care plans is delayed until tax year 2015 (under Section 6056 of IRS Code).
For the 2014 tax year:

• Individuals and family members must have minimal essential coverage unless excused/exempted. 
• Individuals will self-report minimal essential coverage, for themselves and their family members, on 1040 series IRS tax return forms; all family members should have a valid Social Security Number (SSN) for reporting purposes. 
• DOD isn’t required to send Affordable Care Act-related tax forms to TRICARE beneficiaries to show they have minimal essential coverage.  
• If individuals and family members don’t have health care coverage that qualifies as minimum essential coverage, they may have to make a “shared responsibility payment” with their 2014 federal taxes.

ACA Information for the 2015 Tax YearEvery employer, including DOD, reports information to the Internal Revenue Service about employees and family members covered by its health plan(s).
Health care plans, including TRICARE, report to the Internal Revenue Service which individuals have minimum essential coverage.

• If a TRICARE-eligible beneficiary has other health insurance, including Veterans Affairs or Medicare coverage, the (1) DOD/TRICARE, and (2) the other employer/other health insurance plan/other Federal agency will each report the coverage offered under their plan to the Internal Revenue Service.
• For tax purposes, individuals and family members are identified by their Social Security Numbers (SSN);
• Sponsors should confirm that all individual and family members’ SSNs are correct in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) to ensure information is correctly reported to the Internal Revenue Service.  
• Employers notify employees and covered family members about their minimum essential coverage for 2015 federal tax purposes;

Beginning June 2015, the DOD asks all uniformed service members, retirees and annuitants to opt-in to getting their IRS Form electronically through myPay.