Health and Dental Insurance Premiums - Do I Need to Report These on My Taxes?
Hey everyone, I'm super confused about something this tax season. I've filed my taxes before without any issues, but this year I'm seeing something about health and dental insurance premiums that I've never noticed before. I got a new job last year at a tech company and they offer health and dental insurance which I enrolled in. Now I'm doing my taxes and there's this section asking about health and dental insurance premiums? I honestly have no clue what to put here or if I even need to fill this out at all. The tax software is asking if I paid for health and dental insurance premiums and if they were pre-tax or post-tax deductions. I'm not even sure what that means exactly or where to find this info. Would it be on my W-2 somewhere? Any help would be appreciated because I'm completely lost right now!
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Maya Jackson
This is actually a really common point of confusion! To keep it simple: if your health and dental insurance premiums are paid through your employer via payroll deduction (which sounds like your case), you need to check if they're being deducted pre-tax or post-tax. The easiest way to figure this out is to look at your paystub. If the premiums are deducted pre-tax, you'll see them listed in a "before tax deductions" section, and they won't be included in your taxable wages on your W-2. This is most common, and if that's the case, you can't deduct them again on your tax return because you've already received the tax benefit. If they're deducted post-tax (less common but possible), they'll appear in an "after tax deductions" section on your paystub, and would be included in your W-2 taxable wages. In that case, you might be able to include them as part of your medical expenses if you itemize deductions and your total medical expenses exceed 7.5% of your AGI.
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Tristan Carpenter
•Wait Im confused about something. What if my employer pays part of my health insurance premium and I pay part? How do I know which part is pre-tax and which isnt? I think my employer contributes like 70% and I pay the other 30%.
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Maya Jackson
•Generally, your portion of the premium (the 30% you pay) is what we're discussing regarding pre-tax or post-tax status. The employer's contribution (the 70%) is never taxable to you, so you don't need to worry about that part. You can determine if your portion is pre-tax by looking at your paystub. If your premium contribution reduces your taxable wages on your W-2, it's pre-tax. In Box 1 of your W-2 (taxable wages), the amount should already be lower to account for these pre-tax deductions. If you're not sure, your HR or payroll department can quickly confirm whether your health insurance premiums are deducted pre-tax.
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Amaya Watson
I went through the EXACT same confusion last year and wasted days trying to figure it out. Then I discovered this AI tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that literally saved me hours of frustration. I uploaded my W-2 and paystubs, and it immediately identified that my health premiums were pre-tax deductions and explained exactly what that meant for my filing. What I like is it can analyze all your tax docs and explain everything in plain English - like what counts as deductible, what doesn't, and why. Super helpful for these weird employer benefit questions that nobody ever teaches you about!
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Grant Vikers
•Does it work with all types of forms? Like what if I have HSA contributions too? Can it tell me if those are being handled correctly? My tax situation is getting more complicated and I hate calling the HR department since they take forever to answer.
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Giovanni Martello
•Sounds interesting but how secure is it? I'm always nervous about uploading financial documents to random websites. No offense but I've heard horror stories. Do they store your documents or info after analyzing?
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Amaya Watson
•It absolutely works with HSA contributions! It actually helped me realize I wasn't maximizing my HSA contribution limits last year. It analyzes everything from W-2s to 1099s, mortgage statements, and even crypto transactions. Regarding security, I had the same concern initially. They use bank-level encryption and don't permanently store your documents after analysis. They explain their whole security approach on their site, but basically, your documents are analyzed and then purged from their system. I wouldn't have used it if I didn't feel it was secure.
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Grant Vikers
Just wanted to update after trying taxr.ai like mentioned above. Gotta say I'm really impressed! I uploaded my last paystub from 2024 and my W-2, and it immediately clarified that my health insurance premiums were already pre-tax so I didn't need to report them anywhere else. It also found that my HSA contributions were being properly handled pre-tax but pointed out I could contribute about $1,850 more to max out my annual limit, which I had no idea about. Ended up making a last-minute HSA contribution that saved me around $400 in taxes! Definitely worth checking out if you're confused about any of this benefits/deduction stuff.
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Savannah Weiner
If you're still stuck after trying to figure out the health insurance premium stuff, I'd recommend calling the IRS directly to get a clear answer. I know it sounds awful, but I used this service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that got me through to an actual IRS agent in less than 15 minutes when I had a similar issue. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c I was skeptical at first because everyone knows it's impossible to reach the IRS, but I had a question about my health insurance premium tax credit that none of the online resources could answer clearly. The agent walked me through exactly what I needed to enter and saved me from potentially getting a letter from the IRS later.
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Levi Parker
•How does this even work? I thought the IRS phone lines were always busy and you just get disconnected. Are you saying this actually gets you through to a real person? What's the catch?
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Giovanni Martello
•Yeah right. There's no way this actually works. I've tried calling the IRS like 20 times in the past and always got the "due to high call volume" message and then got disconnected. Sounds like a scam to me. No offense but I'll believe it when I see it.
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Savannah Weiner
•It works by continuously calling the IRS for you and navigating their phone tree until it gets through to an agent. Then it calls you and connects you. So instead of you having to redial constantly or wait on hold for hours, their system does the waiting for you. There's definitely no catch - I was super skeptical too. But I had this complicated question about my premium tax credit calculation that I couldn't figure out. I tried calling the IRS directly first and got the "high call volume" message and hung up on after waiting 45 minutes. Then I tried Claimyr and got connected to an IRS agent within about 15 minutes. The agent actually ended up saving me from making a mistake that would have reduced my refund by over $700.
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Giovanni Martello
I need to eat my words and apologize to the person who suggested Claimyr. I was completely skeptical and almost didn't try it, but I was desperate after spending hours trying to figure out if my health insurance premiums qualified for any deductions. I used Claimyr yesterday and got connected to an IRS agent in about 20 minutes. The agent confirmed that since my premiums are deducted pre-tax, I don't include them anywhere on my return, and explained exactly how to verify this on my W-2 (the difference between Box 1 and Box 3/5 includes these pre-tax deductions). I'm shocked this actually worked when I've spent YEARS unable to get through to the IRS. Definitely keeping this in my back pocket for future tax questions.
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Libby Hassan
One thing nobody mentioned - check box 12 on your W-2 for code DD. If you see that, it shows the total cost of your employer-sponsored health coverage. This includes BOTH what your employer paid AND what you paid. This amount is just informational and not taxable. Most people don't realize their employer often pays a lot more than they do for health insurance. My DD amount was like $18,500 even though I only contributed about $3,600 myself through payroll!
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Nathan Dell
•Wow, thanks for this tip! I just checked my W-2 and I do see code DD in box 12 with an amount of $14,320. I had no idea this was the total cost - that's way more than what comes out of my paycheck each month. So just to be 100% clear, I don't need to report anything about my health insurance premiums anywhere on my tax return then?
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Libby Hassan
•Exactly! If you're like most employees with employer-sponsored health insurance where your portion is deducted pre-tax, you don't need to report anything about these premiums on your tax return. The DD amount is purely informational so you can see the total value of your health benefits. It's actually a good thing to check because many people don't realize how valuable their total compensation package is when you include these benefits. The $14,320 shown in your DD box is essentially additional compensation that you're not being taxed on!
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Hunter Hampton
Don't forget that if you're self-employed (which doesn't sound like your case, but for others reading), health insurance premiums ARE deductible as an adjustment to income (above-the-line deduction). I'm a freelancer and deduct 100% of my premiums without having to itemize. It's one of the few perks of self-employment lol.
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Sofia Peña
•Does this apply to dental and vision too? I'm also self-employed and have been paying for separate dental insurance but wasn't sure if I could deduct it along with my health insurance.
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Vera Visnjic
•Yes! As a self-employed person, you can absolutely deduct dental and vision insurance premiums along with your health insurance premiums. They all qualify for the self-employed health insurance deduction on Schedule 1 of Form 1040. Just make sure the insurance policies are in your name (or your spouse's/dependents' names) and that you're not eligible for coverage through a spouse's employer plan. It's a great above-the-line deduction that reduces your adjusted gross income.
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