The Affordable Care Act has been instituted for a couple of years, but this year is when some of the provisions take effect for your taxes.

Lisa Jaskey, a certified personal accountant in Jefferson, says 2014 was the first year that everyone was required to have health insurance.  People had different options that they could obtain health insurance from such as a private insurer or through a state or federal exchange.

However, if you didn’t have health insurance coverage for either the entire year or part of the year, Jaskey points out that you may have to pay a penalty.  For an individual, the penalty could be as high as $1,250 and if you are married and filing jointly, the penalty could be as high as $2,500.  Jaskey talks about a way to figure out who in your family had health insurance coverage last year.

“Make a little chart that shows every of member your family, including all of your under the age of 26.  Put the names of the people at the top and the months down the side, checking off the boxes to see where everybody was covered during the year.  And any boxes that don’t have any checks, that’s the one that your tax preparer is going to be interested in because now we have to figure out your penalty.”

She adds that there are exceptions to paying a penalty.  One of them is if your income is at a level where you aren’t required to file taxes, then you don’t have to pay a penalty.

Jaskey recommends that if you still don’t have health insurance coverage for this year, to enroll in the state or federal exchange by February 15th, otherwise, the penalties will keep increasing over time.