Why does my 1095-C show Employee Required Contribution for insurance I declined?
I recently got a 1095-C form from my employer that's showing an employee required contribution of about $111 per month for health insurance in 2024, but I'm confused because I specifically declined all insurance coverage from them. When I check my employee portal, it clearly shows I waived all insurance benefits. What's weird is there's no deduction showing on my paystubs - they just stopped giving me the credit I used to get for waiving coverage. Meanwhile, my coworkers who actually have the insurance show deductions on their paystubs, have active insurance in their accounts, and received insurance cards in the mail. I've never dealt with these tax forms before and have no clue what's going on. Can someone explain why my 1095-C shows a required contribution for insurance I'm not even getting??
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Luca Esposito
The 1095-C can be confusing even for people who deal with taxes regularly! What you're seeing is normal - the form is showing what you WOULD have paid if you had enrolled in coverage, not what you actually paid. Line 15 of the 1095-C shows the "Employee Required Contribution" which is the monthly amount you would have had to pay for the lowest-cost self-only coverage that meets minimum requirements. Your employer has to report this amount even if you declined coverage. This is because the IRS uses this information to determine eligibility for premium tax credits if you got coverage elsewhere (like through the Marketplace). The fact that you're not seeing deductions on your paystub is consistent with declining coverage. And the disappearance of the credit for waiving makes sense - many employers offer incentives to waive, but those incentives can change year to year.
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StarStrider
•Thanks for explaining! So if I'm understanding right, the $111 is just what I would've paid if I had taken their insurance? I was worried they might be charging me without providing coverage. One more thing - do I need to do anything with this form when filing my taxes?
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Luca Esposito
•The $111 is exactly that - what you would have paid if you had enrolled. Your employer is definitely not charging you for coverage you didn't receive. They're just reporting the required information to the IRS. For your tax filing, you should keep the 1095-C for your records, but you don't actually need to attach it to your tax return. You'll need to answer questions about health coverage on your tax return, so having the form handy will help with that. If you got health insurance elsewhere (like through a spouse, parent, or the Marketplace), you'll likely receive other health insurance forms that might need to be used for your tax filing.
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Nia Thompson
After struggling with similar 1095-C confusion last year, I found this amazing tool called https://taxr.ai that saved me so much headache! I uploaded my 1095-C and other tax docs, and it explained everything in plain English - like exactly what each box meant and why my employer was reporting certain numbers. It even flagged that I had potentially overpaid for healthcare through a marketplace plan when I qualified for employer coverage (not your situation, but similar confusion).
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Mateo Rodriguez
•Does it actually help with complicated situations? I got a 1095-C from a job I only worked at for 2 months, and they're showing coverage offers for the whole year which seems wrong.
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Aisha Abdullah
•I'm skeptical about these tax tools. How does it handle multiple 1095 forms? I get a 1095-C from my employer and a 1095-B from my actual insurance provider and was told I need both.
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Nia Thompson
•It absolutely helps with complicated situations like partial year employment. It would flag inconsistencies between your employment dates and coverage offers, which could help you determine if there's an error on the form that needs correction. For multiple forms, it handles them seamlessly. I actually had three different forms (1095-A, 1095-B, and 1095-C) due to changing jobs and insurance mid-year. The tool compared all three to make sure there weren't overlapping coverages or gaps that might cause tax issues. It's especially helpful when you have both employer and insurance provider forms because it matches them up to verify the information.
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Mateo Rodriguez
Just wanted to follow up! I tried https://taxr.ai with my confusing 1095-C situation and it was actually incredibly helpful. It identified that my employer had incorrectly coded some months on my form and explained exactly what I needed to ask HR to fix. The explanation about offer of coverage codes vs actual enrollment saved me from potentially reporting incorrect information on my taxes. Absolutely worth checking out if you're confused about these forms!
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Ethan Wilson
If you're having trouble getting proper answers about your 1095-C from your employer (I did last year and it was a nightmare), I highly recommend using https://claimyr.com to get through to the IRS. I spent literally weeks trying to get someone on the phone to explain what to do with conflicting information between my W-2 and 1095-C. Found Claimyr and they got me connected to an actual IRS agent in under 45 minutes when I'd been trying for days on my own. They have a demo video at https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c showing how it works. The agent I spoke with was able to tell me exactly how to report the information correctly.
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NeonNova
•Wait, how does this actually work? Do they just call the IRS for you? I thought the whole problem was that you can't get through no matter what.
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Aisha Abdullah
•Seems like a scam honestly. The IRS doesn't have some secret phone line for people who pay. They're just understaffed and everyone has to wait. I've tried every "trick" to get through and nothing works.
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Ethan Wilson
•They don't call for you - they use technology to navigate the IRS phone tree and wait on hold, then alert you when an agent picks up so you can take the call. It's basically like having someone wait on hold for you so you don't have to listen to that terrible hold music for hours. You're right that there's no secret phone line - they're using the same number everyone else calls. The difference is their system can keep dialing and navigating the menus automatically during high-volume times when most callers get the "call back later" message. I was skeptical too until I used it and actually got through when I'd been getting busy signals for days.
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Aisha Abdullah
I need to publicly eat my words about Claimyr. After my skeptical comment, I decided to try it anyway since I was desperate to resolve an issue with my 1095-C and premium tax credit calculations. Got connected to an IRS representative in about 35 minutes when I'd been trying for WEEKS on my own. The agent explained that the 1095-C and its codes are often reported incorrectly by employers and walked me through exactly what I needed to do. Totally worth it and definitely not a scam as I originally thought!
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Yuki Tanaka
Something else to check - make sure your employer correctly filled out the "Offer of Coverage" codes in line 14. If they used code 1E, that means they offered you minimum essential coverage that meets the minimum value requirements and is affordable based on the federal poverty line safe harbor. This is different from whether you accepted the coverage or not.
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StarStrider
•I just checked and my form has code 1E in line 14 for all 12 months. What exactly does that mean for my taxes? Will I get penalized for not having insurance even though I declined what they offered?
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Yuki Tanaka
•Code 1E means your employer offered you qualifying coverage that meets affordability standards. There's no longer a federal penalty for not having insurance (the "individual mandate" penalty was reduced to $0 starting in 2019), so you won't be penalized on your federal taxes for declining coverage. However, some states (California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and DC) have their own individual mandates with potential state tax penalties. If you live in one of those states, you might face a state tax penalty unless you had coverage from another source or qualify for an exemption.
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Carmen Diaz
Does anyone know if receiving a 1095-C affects your tax refund? I declined my employer's coverage because my spouse's plan was better, but my tax refund was way less than last year.
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Andre Laurent
•The 1095-C itself doesn't directly reduce your refund, but if you received premium tax credits through the Marketplace and your 1095-C shows you were offered affordable coverage from your employer, you might have to repay some or all of those credits. That could definitely reduce your refund!
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Mateo Sanchez
This is a really common source of confusion! The 1095-C form serves multiple purposes for the IRS, and one key thing to understand is that it's not just about what coverage you actually had - it's also about what coverage was available to you. Your employer is required to report the "Employee Required Contribution" (line 15) for the lowest-cost self-only coverage that meets minimum requirements, regardless of whether you enrolled or not. This information helps the IRS determine if you were offered "affordable" coverage, which can impact things like eligibility for premium tax credits if you got coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace instead. The $111 amount you're seeing is essentially a data point for tax calculations - it doesn't mean you were charged that amount. Since you declined coverage and aren't seeing payroll deductions, everything sounds correct on your end. Just keep the form with your tax records, as you may need to reference it when completing your tax return to answer questions about health coverage offers from your employer.
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