Health Insurance Info Available for states in Fed Exchange

[mrichman333]

Estimating your income

When you apply for lower costs in the Marketplace, you’ll need to estimate your income for 2014.

You can start by adding up the following items for:

• You and your spouse, if you are married and will file a joint tax return
• Any dependents who make enough money to be required to file a tax return

For each of the following sources, estimate what your income will be in 2014:

• Wages
• Salaries
• Tips
• Net income from any self-employment or business (generally the amount of money you take in from your business minus your business expenses)
• Unemployment compensation
• Social Security payments, including disability payments--but not Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
• Alimony

Other items to include when estimating your 2014 income are: retirement income, investment income, pension income, rental income, and other taxable income such as prizes, awards, and gambling winnings.

DON’T include the following:

• Child support
• Gifts
• Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
• Veterans’ disability payments
• Workers’ compensation
• Proceeds from loans (like student loans, home equity loans, or bank loans)

For more information on reporting your income, see IRS Publication 525.

Modified adjusted gross income and household income

When you fill out the Marketplace application, your estimated household income will be calculated using the information you provide. Your household income determines your eligibility for lower costs on Marketplace coverage.

Your household income is your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) (joint MAGI if you’re married), plus the MAGI of your dependents who make enough money to have to file a tax return.

MAGI is generally your adjusted gross income plus any tax-exempt Social Security benefits (except for Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which is not counted), tax-exempt interest, and tax-exempt foreign income.

You don’t have to figure out your household income or MAGI yourself when you fill out your application. It will be done for you with the income information you include on the application.

Part of the problem is the way/order in which they ask questions. They ask about wages for each individual but not for income from other sources like dividends. The website has many more problems than "glitches", it is a very poorly thought out site and the questions show that; and those issues cannot be blamed on the contractors.

[jklcpa]

Part of the problem is the way/order in which they ask questions. They ask about wages for each individual but not for income from other sources like dividends. The website has many more problems than "glitches" it is a very poorly thought out site and the questions show that; and those issues cannot be blamed on the contractors.

It does ask...sometimes. For me it asked for the total estimated income for 2014 for each of us. Then it went to a screen that asked yes/no if I had any income from things like job, self employment, retirement, investments, soc security, etc. If answering yes, then a screen appears with a drop down menu to choose the appropriate income and enter additional data. It goes through the same questions for spouse. That's where I needed to go back and edit. I entered all of the income and then proceeded to enter s.e. and investment income and it was duplicating it into the totals I first entered. When I tried to edit, that's when it lost data and now thinks I'm not even going to file.

I'm not sure, but maybe my problems are occurring because of some sort of conflicting answers once I went back to edit, kind of like after I'd set up my initial user name that it decided to entirely capitalize for me.

[mrichman333]

It does ask...sometimes. For me it asked for the total estimated income for 2014 for each of us. Then it went to a screen that asked yes/no if I had any income from things like job, self employment, retirement, investments, soc security, etc. If answering yes, then a screen appears with a drop down menu to choose the appropriate income and enter additional data. It goes through the same questions for spouse. That's where I needed to go back and edit. I entered all of the income and then proceeded to enter s.e. and investment income and it was duplicating it into the totals I first entered. When I tried to edit, that's when it lost data and now thinks I'm not even going to file.

I'm not sure, but maybe my problems are occurring because of some sort of conflicting answers once I went back to edit, kind of like after I'd set up my initial user name that it decided to entirely capitalize for me.

I do not remember being asked that information or the drop-down menu. We applied in the first week, maybe that was a glitch. But I did add investment income to what I estimated my husbands income to be, because I knew it would effect if we qualify for a subsidy or not and I did not want to get a subsidy we were not entitled to, only to have to pay it back and perhaps be fined.

[mrichman333]

" That's where I needed to go back and edit. I entered all of the income and then proceeded to enter s.e. and investment income and it was duplicating it into the totals I first entered. When I tried to edit, that's when it lost data and now thinks I'm not even going to file. " Yep a BAD WEB SITE DESIGN!!!! This is the kind of problem H.S. kids run into with their first website build. For $400,000,000.00 we should have gotten a lot better then this

[ILLMAS]

For those that own your own business and are on the payroll, do you see yourself lowering your wages to 10k, 20k etc..... ? To go for the platinum

[Jack from Ohio]

For those that own your own business and are on the payroll, do you see yourself lowering your wages to 10k, 20k etc..... ? To go for the platinum

Now you know there will NOT be any FRAUD associated with this program. The POTUS would not put up with it.

Deja Vu - EIC, FTHBC, Making Work Pay credit, Adoption Credit.....

[Guest Taxed]

For those that own your own business and are on the payroll, do you see yourself lowering your wages to 10k, 20k etc..... ? To go for the platinum

Lowering what you pay yourself is not fraud on its face, unless you are not reporting that income at all. You could lower your net profits by buying new equipment and taking 179 if that helps you qualify.

Now you know there will NOT be any FRAUD associated with this program. The POTUS would not put up with it.

Deja Vu - EIC, FTHBC, Making Work Pay credit, Adoption Credit.....

[Guest Taxed]

>>> Part of the problem is the way/order in which they ask questions. They ask about wages for each individual but not for income from other sources like dividends.

Perhaps a better way to get the answers that they need to figure out the estimated MAGI would have been to let the user print out a worksheet with examples and fill it out first and then input into the website. Sort of the checklist of income and expense sources I use when I do a return to make sure most of the bases are covered.

[kcjenkins]

I get the feeling they did not have many, if any, tax professionals allowed to give input into the program. Such a logical step makes total sense, so of course it was not included.

[Guest Taxed]

Any dependents who make enough money to be required to file a tax return

Notice this little gem of a requirement. I bet lots of taxpayers will be confused on this one. So if junior has taxes witheld and files for a return but makes say $4000??

[kcjenkins]

Yes, that question is totally confusing to the average person, and probably to the average "Navigator" too.

[mrichman333]

So I was curious and went ahead and created an account under a fake name. I got to the income part and it is different then it was during the first couple of days. When we first created an account there were no pop down menus for different types of income but there is now. I guess this was a glitch that they fixed.