The Affordable Care Act – Am I Eligible for a TAX REFUND on Payments I Made for Not Meeting the Affordable Care Act Requirements?
06 / 04 / 20

The Affordable Care Act – Am I Eligible for a TAX REFUND on Payments I Made for Not Meeting the Affordable Care Act Requirements?

Recently, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the individual mandate requirement of the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. It also ruled that the Individual Shared Responsibility Payment imposed on taxpayers who did not meet the requirement is also unconstitutional.

For many Taxpayers, this means that they MIGHT be entitled to a refund of Shared Responsibility Payments (SRP) that were made in prior tax years! But, the court’s ruling above is not final yet. It will be reviewed by the United States Supreme Court – and this will take time – several months! So the refunds won’t be coming just yet.

In the meantime, Taxpayers need to take certain steps to PROTECT the potential refund since the tax code has time limitations for claiming IRS refunds – typically 2 years from payment or 3 years from the due date.

The time limitation at issue right now relates to 2016 income tax returns and the SRP Taxpayers made that year. (For reference, the amount of that payment would be on Line 61 of the 2016 return.)

If a Taxpayer made a Shared Responsibility Payment in 2016, in order to protect the potential refund claim, Taxpayers will need to file an amended 2016 Form 1040X return which removes the Shared Responsibility Penalty by July 15, 2020!

We encourage Taxpayers who are in need of assistance in these efforts to contact our office so that we can discuss how to best prepare and submit this amended return. Please note that while we cannot guarantee that the refund will be paid, we can guarantee that if you do not protect the claim by July 15, 2020 it will be lost forever even if the court determines you were entitled to it!

If you are ready to claim your refund please contact our office today!