What Is Form 1095 and How Does It Affect Your Taxes?

Form 1095 is a tax document created under the Affordable Care Act that reports your health insurance coverage to the IRS. It comes in three versions — 1095-A, 1095-B, and 1095-C — issued by different entities depending on where your coverage came from. Only one of them, Form 1095-A, actually changes what you do on your federal return. If you enrolled through the Health Insurance Marketplace, you’ll use it to reconcile your Premium Tax Credit. If your form came from an insurer or employer, keep it for your records and file as usual.

The Three Versions and Who Sends Them

Each version of Form 1095 covers a different source of coverage.¹ Identifying which one you received tells you what to do next.

Form 1095-A: Health Insurance Marketplace Statement

Form 1095-A comes from the Health Insurance Marketplace and goes only to people who enrolled in a Marketplace plan.² You get one whether or not you received financial help with your premiums.³ This is the version that triggers required steps on your return. The Marketplace must send it by January 31.⁴

Form 1095-B: Health Coverage

Form 1095-B comes from health insurance companies, government programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP, and smaller employers. It confirms you and your covered family members had qualifying coverage in specific months. You don’t attach it to your return or enter its data on your 1040. For 2025 coverage, insurers and government programs have until March 2, 2026 to send it.⁵

Form 1095-C: Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage

Employers with 50 or more full-time employees (including full-time equivalents) must send Form 1095-C to their full-time workers. The form shows what coverage the employer offered, the monthly cost of the cheapest self-only option, and which months the offer was available. If your employer’s plan is self-insured, the 1095-C also serves as proof of your enrollment, and you won’t get a separate 1095-B.⁶ Like the 1095-B, it goes to you by March 2, 2026 for 2025 coverage, and you don’t enter anything from it on your return.

Using Form 1095-A to Reconcile Your Premium Tax Credit

If you enrolled through the Marketplace, you must use Form 1095-A to complete IRS Form 8962. That form reconciles the advance Premium Tax Credit (APTC) that was paid to your insurer during the year against the credit your final income actually qualifies you for.⁷

Part III of your 1095-A shows three monthly figures you’ll transfer to Form 8962:

Column A, your total monthly enrollment premium.
Column B, the premium for the Second Lowest Cost Silver Plan (SLCSP), which is the benchmark the IRS uses to size your credit.
Column C, the advance credit payment sent directly to your insurer.⁸

The math on Form 8962 determines whether you owe some of that advance credit back or you get an additional credit added to your refund. Income up during the year means the advance was too generous and you’ll repay the excess. Income down means a larger credit is owed to you.

If Column B is blank or shows zero, look up the correct SLCSP premium using the tax tool at HealthCare.gov before completing Form 8962.⁹

Don’t skip this step. If IRS records show you received advance credit payments and you e-file without Form 8962, your return will be rejected. A paper return without it will be accepted, then followed by an IRS letter asking for the missing information.¹⁰ Either way, your refund sits until it’s resolved.

What Happens If You Received Too Much Advance Credit

When Form 8962 shows the advance credits exceeded what you qualify for, the excess gets added to your tax bill. How much you actually repay depends on the year.

Tax Year 2025 Repayment Caps

For 2025, if your household income is below 400% of the federal poverty line, repayment is capped by income bracket and filing status:¹¹

Below 200% of the poverty line: $375 single, $750 all other statuses.
200% to under 300%: $975 single, $1,950 all other.
300% to under 400%: $1,625 single, $3,250 all other.
400% or above: no cap. Full excess is repaid.

The American Rescue Plan Act’s enhanced Premium Tax Credit rules still apply for 2025, so there’s no hard income cutoff at 400% of the poverty line for receiving the credit itself.¹² Households above 400% can still qualify, but any excess advance credit comes back in full.

What Changes for 2026

The enhanced provisions expire on January 1, 2026. Two things change at once for coverage year 2026, which you’ll reconcile when you file in early 2027:

The 400% income cliff returns. Household income over 400% of the federal poverty line disqualifies you from the Premium Tax Credit entirely.
Repayment caps disappear. Regardless of income, the full difference between advance credit received and credit qualified for gets added to your tax bill.¹³

If you’re choosing 2026 Marketplace coverage and your income sits near the 400% line, overestimating your subsidy could mean repaying thousands with no cap to soften the hit. Reporting income accurately at enrollment matters more than it has in years.

What to Do With Forms 1095-B and 1095-C

These forms are informational. Nothing from either one goes on your federal return. Keep them with your tax records as proof of coverage.

The federal penalty for not having coverage has been zero since 2019.¹⁴ At the federal level, 1095-B and 1095-C exist mostly for IRS record-keeping and to help the agency enforce employer coverage obligations under the employer shared responsibility provisions.¹⁵

Form 1095-C carries some indirect weight in one situation. If you turned down your employer’s coverage and enrolled in a Marketplace plan, the details on your 1095-C help determine whether you qualified for the Premium Tax Credit. Generally, if your employer offered affordable coverage that met minimum value standards, you aren’t eligible for the credit even if you didn’t take the plan.⁶ You still don’t need the 1095-C in hand to file.¹

State Mandates Are a Separate Question

A handful of states and the District of Columbia enforce their own individual mandates with financial penalties.¹⁴ Penalties in these states generally track the original ACA structure: the greater of a flat per-person amount or a percentage of household income, capped at the average cost of a bronze-level Marketplace plan.

In a state with an active mandate, your Form 1095-B or 1095-C serves as proof of coverage on your state return. Without one, alternative documentation such as insurance cards or explanation of benefits statements may be needed. Your state tax authority’s website lists whether a mandate applies and what exemptions exist.

If Your Form Has an Error

Errors happen: a wrong Social Security Number, incorrect months of coverage, a premium figure that doesn’t match what you paid. Note that your copy may show only the last four digits of your SSN with the rest replaced by asterisks. That’s a permitted privacy measure, not an error.⁴

For a real error, contact the entity that issued the form. Marketplace form problems go through your HealthCare.gov account (or your state Marketplace) or its call center. Employer form problems go through your benefits department. Corrected forms are typically marked “Corrected.”

There’s standing IRS relief for taxpayers who filed using an incorrect Form 1095-A. If you filed based on the information you had and later got a corrected form, you generally don’t need to amend, even when additional tax would be owed based on the corrected data. The IRS will not pursue collection of the difference.¹⁶ You can still choose to amend if the corrected form would give you a larger refund.

If Your Form Hasn’t Arrived

What to do depends on which form you’re missing.

Waiting on Form 1095-A? Wait to file. You need it to complete Form 8962, and filing without it will either bounce your e-filed return or trigger an IRS letter later. If it hasn’t shown up by mid-February, download a copy from your Marketplace account or call the Marketplace.¹

Waiting on Form 1095-B or 1095-C? Don’t wait. The IRS is clear that you can file using other coverage records such as insurance cards, explanation of benefits statements, or payroll records showing health insurance deductions. Since neither form feeds a specific line on your return, delaying only holds up your refund.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Questions and Answers About Health Care Information Forms for Individuals
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Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1095-A, Health Insurance Marketplace Statement
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HealthCare.gov. How to Use Form 1095-A, Health Insurance Marketplace Statement
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1095-A (2025)
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1094-B and 1095-B (2025)
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Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Instructions for Forms 1094-C and 1095-C
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8962 (2025)
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Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Instructions for Form 1095-A
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HealthCare.gov. Marketplace Plan With No Premium Tax Credits
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Internal Revenue Service. How to Correct an Electronically Filed Return Rejected for a Missing Form 8962
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Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Instructions for Form 8962
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 36B – Refundable Credit for Coverage Under a Qualified Health Plan
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Internal Revenue Service. Updates to Questions and Answers About the Premium Tax Credit
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HealthCare.gov. Exemptions From the Fee for Not Having Coverage
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 4980H – Shared Responsibility for Employers Regarding Health Coverage
16
Internal Revenue Service. Corrected, Incorrect or Voided Form 1095-A