Do I have to repay ACA Premium Tax Credit if I had employer health insurance the same month?

This is actually a pretty common situation! When you have overlapping coverage, the IRS generally considers you ineligible for the Premium Tax Credit during months when you had other qualifying health coverage like an employer plan. Based on what you've described, you'll likely need to repay the APTC for the month when you had both coverages. This is because eligibility for employer coverage that meets minimum value and affordability standards makes you ineligible for the premium tax credit, even if you kept your marketplace plan. When you file Form 8962 (Premium Tax Credit form), you'll need to indicate which months you were eligible for the credit. For that overlap month, you would mark that you weren't eligible, which will result in you needing to repay that portion of the advance credit.

After struggling with almost exactly this same situation last year, I found an amazing resource called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that helped me figure out my Premium Tax Credit repayment issues. I was so confused about which months I was eligible for the credit with my overlapping coverage. I uploaded my 1095-A and other tax documents, and the system analyzed everything and explained exactly what I needed to report on Form 8962. It even showed me the calculations for the repayment and identified an exception I qualified for that my tax software missed completely! What really helped was that it explained everything in plain English instead of tax jargon, and showed me the specific IRS rules that applied to my situation with the overlapping coverage.

I was initially super skeptical about taxr.ai when I saw it mentioned here, but I decided to try it since my ACA/employer insurance situation was causing me major headaches with my 2025 filing. Honestly, I'm glad I did! I had three different coverage situations last year (marketplace with APTC, then COBRA, then employer insurance), and was getting totally different answers from different tax preparers about how to handle it. The taxr.ai system identified exactly which months I was eligible for the premium tax credit and showed me the specific parts of the tax code that applied. The analysis it provided saved me from having to repay about $1,850 in premium tax credits that my tax software was incorrectly telling me I had to return. It's definitely worth checking out if you're dealing with complicated health insurance tax situations.

If you're still struggling with getting a clear answer on your Premium Tax Credit situation, you might want to try Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). I was in a similar situation last year with overlapping coverage and couldn't find a consistent answer. After trying for WEEKS to get through to the IRS (constant busy signals or disconnects), I used Claimyr and got connected to an actual IRS agent in about 25 minutes. They got me an official determination on my specific situation that I could rely on. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The IRS agent explained exactly which boxes to check on Form 8962 for my overlapping coverage months and confirmed that I did need to repay the APTC for those months, but also helped me identify a hardship exception I qualified for that reduced what I owed.

Okay I need to admit I was wrong about Claimyr. After commenting here, I continued struggling with my own ACA tax credit issue involving retroactive employer coverage, and kept getting disconnected from the IRS. I finally broke down and tried the service, and it actually connected me to an IRS tax law specialist within 30 minutes. The agent walked me through exactly how to handle my specific situation with the overlapping coverage on Form 8962, and explained that while I did need to repay some of the APTC, I qualified for a repayment limitation based on my income. For anyone facing this same Premium Tax Credit repayment issue with overlapping coverage, getting an official answer directly from the IRS was incredibly helpful and removed all the guesswork. Definitely wish I'd done this sooner instead of stressing for weeks.

Just to add another perspective - I had this exact situation in 2024 and discovered there's an important distinction in the rules around "eligibility" versus "enrollment." If you're ELIGIBLE for employer coverage that meets affordability and minimum value standards, you're generally not eligible for premium tax credits, even if you don't enroll in that employer plan. The key is the eligibility date, not when your coverage actually began. So check when you first became eligible to enroll in your employer plan - that might be even earlier than the month your coverage started, which could potentially affect additional months of your APTC.

Has anyone here actually gotten audited by the IRS for premium tax credit issues? I'm in a similar situation but honestly thinking about just claiming the credit for all months and seeing what happens. It's only about $340 for that overlap month and seems like a lot of hassle to figure out.

I went through almost exactly this situation last year and can confirm what others have said - you'll need to repay the APTC for that overlap month. The IRS considers you ineligible for the premium tax credit during any month when you were eligible for qualifying employer coverage, regardless of whether you actually used both plans. A few practical tips from my experience: 1. Make sure to check your employer's plan documents for the exact eligibility date - sometimes it's different from when coverage actually starts 2. Keep documentation of when your employer coverage began in case the IRS asks for proof later 3. The repayment caps mentioned earlier can really help limit what you owe if your income qualifies One thing that caught me off guard was that my tax software initially missed the overlap entirely until I manually entered the employer coverage dates. Double-check that your software is accounting for both coverages correctly when calculating your Form 8962. The good news is that even though you have to repay that month's APTC, you can still claim the premium tax credit for the other 6 months where you only had marketplace coverage. It's frustrating but not as bad as having to repay everything!