ObamaCare tax impact less than expected: TurboTax

Less than half of taxpayers who got health insurance through the ObamaCare marketplaces had to return part of their tax subsidy to the government, according to data compiled by TurboTax.

The online tax preparer said Wednesday that 44 percent of taxpayers who received an incentive to help pay for insurance owed an average of between $315 and $365. For many taxpayers, that payment might have meant a smaller than expected refund.

{mosads}The most recent tax filing season, which ended for most taxpayers on or before April 15, was the first in which people who purchased insurance from healthcare exchanges were forced to reconcile how much of a tax credit they received with earlier estimates of their income.

For that reason and others, many tax analysts and practitioners predicted that the IRS would face a rocky filing season. But John Koskinen, the IRS commissioner, has said the filing season went “swimmingly,” even as he bemoaned the agency’s dwindling budget and its poor customer service record.

TurboTax added in its Wednesday release that roughly a third of taxpayers who got insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces got money back from the government, because they underestimated their income for last year. The average refund for those taxpayers, TurboTax said, was between $207 and $257.

TurboTax’s figures illustrate just how tough it has been to nail down how the ACA incentives for insurance affected taxpayers this filing season. Most taxpayers didn’t receive the tax credit for insurance.

H&R Block said this week that roughly two of three taxpayers who got insurance through the exchanges owed the government money, at an average cost of $729. Koskinen himself has said that around 55 percent of taxpayers ended up getting smaller refunds, though more definitive statistics from the IRS have yet to be released.

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