In accordance with President Trump’s executive order calling on agencies to ease up on ACA (Obamacare) regulations, the IRS made changes whereby it will not reject a 2016 tax return for processing just because the taxpayer does not indicate their coverage status in Box 61.

However, this does NOT relieve the taxpayer from complying with the law and paying the penalty if they did not have adequate coverage during 2016. Only Congress can change the law, and until such time, people are still supposed to pay the penalty for lack of coverage. Accordingly, if Box 61 is not checked, taxpayers are required to compute the penalty and include it on the return.

Please contact our Tax and Assurance team with any questions.

302.225.0600

Photo by Simon Adraensen (License)