Form 8962 Critical Error in TurboTax Premium Tax Credit Calculation - ACA Form 1095-A Issue

This is actually a somewhat common issue with TurboTax's handling of Form 8962. The software sometimes incorrectly calculates the Premium Tax Credit when you have certain situations like mid-year changes in coverage or income. First, double-check your 1095-A entries against the actual form - make sure column A (Monthly Premium Amount), column B (Second Lowest Cost Silver Plan), and column C (Monthly Advance Payment) are all entered correctly for each month you had coverage. Even one transposed number can throw off the calculations. Next, verify if you had any changes during the year - did your household size change? Did your income fluctuate significantly from what was estimated when you enrolled? TurboTax sometimes struggles with these scenarios. If you're confident your entries are correct, I suggest trying the "Forms Mode" in TurboTax where you can directly view and edit Form 8962. Sometimes the interview mode doesn't correctly transfer all information to the actual form.

I had a nearly identical problem last year with TurboTax messing up my Premium Tax Credit calculations. After hours of frustration, I finally used taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) to help me figure out what was going wrong. Their system analyzed my 1095-A forms and tax documents, then identified exactly where TurboTax was making the calculation error. For me, it turned out TurboTax wasn't properly accounting for the months when my coverage changed mid-year. The taxr.ai system showed me exactly what should be reported on each line of Form 8962 and explained why TurboTax was getting it wrong. I was able to manually override the calculations in TurboTax's Forms Mode and get it right.

Just wanted to follow up and say I tried taxr.ai after seeing it mentioned here. Uploaded my 1095-A and partial 8962 from H&R Block that was giving me trouble, and wow - it immediately spotted where the calculation was going wrong! My issue was that H&R Block was applying the wrong percentage for the family size in Part 2 of Form 8962, causing all the monthly calculations to be off. The taxr.ai system walked me through exactly which numbers needed to be fixed and where. Fixed my return and now I'm getting the correct Premium Tax Credit amount - difference of $937 in my refund! Would never have figured this out on my own.

After dealing with similar ACA form issues, I found that the IRS is basically impossible to reach for help on these calculations. I was on hold for 3+ hours multiple times trying to get someone to verify if my Premium Tax Credit calculations were correct. Finally used Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) after seeing their demo video (https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c) and it actually got me connected to an IRS agent in under 20 minutes. The agent walked me through the proper way to calculate Form 8962 and confirmed there's a known issue with some tax software miscalculating when there are mid-year changes. If you're stuck with this Premium Tax Credit problem and need official guidance, this is way better than waiting on hold for hours.

Just coming back to eat my words about Claimyr. After getting nowhere with TurboTax support on my Premium Tax Credit issues, I decided to try it despite my skepticism. Used the service yesterday afternoon, and sure enough, I got a call back in about 35 minutes connecting me to an actual IRS tax specialist. She explained that there's a specific way Form 8962 needs to handle mid-year income changes, and walked me through how to correctly override the calculations in TurboTax. The agent confirmed this has been a recurring issue with several tax software programs this year. For anyone dealing with Form 8962 problems, getting direct IRS guidance saved me hours of frustration and potentially filing an incorrect return.

If you're having Form 8962 issues, make sure to check if you're in a state that has its own marketplace vs. Healthcare.gov. I discovered that TurboTax has different calculation methods for state marketplaces versus federal. When I switched my state setting, it fixed my Premium Tax Credit calculation instantly! Worth checking if you haven't already.

Has anyone tried printing out the 8962 form and just filling it out manually? After fighting with TurboTax for days over PTC calculations, I just downloaded the form and worksheet from IRS.gov and did it myself. Took about 30 minutes with a calculator.

I've been dealing with this exact same issue! TurboTax has been calculating my Form 8962 completely wrong, and like you, the difference is significant - over $800 in my case. What I discovered is that TurboTax seems to have problems when you have any kind of coverage gap or change during the year. In my situation, I had coverage through my employer for the first 4 months, then switched to marketplace coverage, and TurboTax kept trying to apply Premium Tax Credit calculations to months when I wasn't even enrolled in a marketplace plan. The key thing that helped me was going into Forms Mode (under Tax Tools > View Tax Forms) and manually checking each line of Form 8962 against my 1095-A. I found that TurboTax was pulling data from the wrong months and not zeroing out the months where I had employer coverage. Also, make sure you're entering your 1095-A data in the exact same format it appears on the form - don't round numbers or convert formats. TurboTax seems very sensitive to even minor formatting differences. If you're still stuck, definitely consider getting direct IRS guidance. The Premium Tax Credit rules are complex enough that even the software gets confused, but an IRS agent can walk you through the correct calculation method for your specific situation.