The government estimates that 6 million people will owe a penalty on their 2014 return for failure to obtain qualifying health insurance. Some of those penalties arise from a personal objection to ACA’s individual mandate; others will pay a penalty because they were unaware of the options and subsidies available at healthcare.gov.  In an effort to help the later group and to tap into the tax practitioner’s expertise in advising clients about ACA,  the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a special tax season enrollment period for those who failed to enroll in 2014.  Although the official 2015 enrollment period ended February 15, 2015, a special enrollment period for the 2015 plan year will be available March 15, 2015 to April 30, 2015.

Who qualifies for the special enrollment period?
CMS Announcement 2015-02-20 provides that the special enrollment period is only available for those:

• Living in a state with a federally-facilitated marketplace (healthcare.gov),
• Who paid a shared responsibility penalty on their 2014 return
• Who attest that they first became aware, or understood the implications of the shared responsibility penalty after February 15, 2015 in connection with filing their 2014 tax return.