Consumers may have ended up doing a pretty good job of telling the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) about their use of the new health insurance exchange plan premium tax credit program.
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), an agency that keeps tabs on the IRS, says that, as of May 7, the IRS had processed Form 8962 filing reporting about $8.2 billion of the advance premium tax credit (APTC) subsidies the IRS had provided for the 2014 exchange plan coverage.
That figure amounts to about 75 percent of the $11 billion in total APTC subsidies provided for 2014 coverage, according to a new TIGTA tax-season update.
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In July, officials reported that the IRS had processed 8962 forms for only about two-thirds of the APTC subsidies provided.
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The total number of returns reporting use of exchange plan premium tax credits increased to 2.7 million, from 1.4 million.
Drafters of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) created the premium tax credit subsidy program to help consumers pay for private health coverage from the new PPACA health insurance exchange system. Consumers can choose whether to get the tax credits in advance, to pay for exchange plan coverage while the benefit year is still under way, or to get the tax credit after the benefit year, when they file their tax returns for the benefit year.
Tax returns filed so far show that the filers received $8.2 billion in 2014 tax-credit money in advance, while the 2014 benefit year was still under way, and about $600 million early this year, when they filed their 2014 tax returns.