How to Fill Out IRS Form 8962 With Your 1095-A

To fill out Form 8962 with your 1095-A, copy the monthly premium, benchmark premium, and advance payment figures from Part III of your 1095-A onto Form 8962, then let the form reconcile what the Marketplace paid your insurer against the Premium Tax Credit you actually qualified for based on your final income. One change makes 2026 different from prior years: the caps that used to limit how much excess advance payment you had to repay are gone, so if your income came in higher than you estimated at enrollment, you could owe back every dollar of the difference.¹

Get Your 1095-A First

You cannot complete Form 8962 without Form 1095-A. Your Marketplace sends it by mail no later than mid-February, and it usually appears in your Marketplace online account by mid-January.² Wait for it before filing.

Part III of the 1095-A is what you’ll be working from. It has three columns, each with a row for every month of the year:

Column A, monthly enrollment premiums: the full premium for your plan.
Column B, monthly second lowest cost silver plan (SLCSP) premium: the benchmark used to calculate your credit.
Column C, monthly advance payment of the Premium Tax Credit: what the government already sent to your insurer on your behalf.

If the form never arrives or the numbers look wrong, call your Marketplace. For the federal Marketplace, that number is 800-318-2596. You can request a corrected form, but there is no set timeline for delivery.³

A blank Column B is a common issue. When the SLCSP figure is missing, the HealthCare.gov tax tool will look it up based on your household and coverage details and give you the correct monthly amounts to enter.⁴

Whether You Have to File Form 8962

If you or anyone in your tax family received advance payments of the Premium Tax Credit, you must file Form 8962 with your federal return, even if your income is otherwise below the filing threshold.⁵ Skipping it can trigger debt collection and disqualify you from advance payments in future years.

For 2026, household income must fall between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level for your family size. The temporary expansion that let people above 400% FPL qualify expired after 2025.⁶ If your final 2026 income exceeds 400% FPL, you get no credit and must repay every dollar of advance payments you received.

You also cannot claim the credit if you were eligible for other qualifying coverage such as Medicare, Medicaid, or affordable employer-sponsored insurance during those months. Married Filing Separately filers are generally ineligible unless they qualify under the domestic abuse or spousal abandonment exception, which requires living apart from the spouse, checking the certification box on Form 8962, and having not used the exception for more than three consecutive prior tax years.⁷

Part I: Household Income and Family Size

Part I sets the baseline for the whole form.

Line 1 is your family size. Line 2a is your modified adjusted gross income; line 2b is the modified AGI of any dependents required to file their own returns. Line 5 turns your household income into a percentage of the federal poverty level.

Line 7 asks for your “applicable figure,” the maximum percentage of household income you’re expected to contribute toward premiums. Look it up in Table 2 of the Form 8962 instructions using your FPL percentage from line 5.⁷ At the lowest income levels, this figure can be zero, meaning the credit covers the full benchmark premium.

Line 8 multiplies household income by the applicable figure to get your annual contribution amount. Everything in Part II builds from there.

Part II: Move the Numbers From 1095-A to 8962

Line 10 asks whether your family size, coverage, and monthly enrollment premiums were the same for all 12 months. If yes, you use the simpler annual calculation on line 11, entering the annual totals from Columns A, B, and C of your 1095-A.⁷

If anything changed mid-year — new job, new baby, plan switch, move — answer no and use lines 12 through 23 instead. Each of those lines is a calendar month, and you fill in that month’s Column A, B, and C figures from the 1095-A. The month-by-month path gives you the credit your actual circumstances earned rather than an annual average that could distort either direction.

Copy the numbers exactly as they appear on your 1095-A. The IRS runs your entries against the Marketplace’s own submission, and mismatches get pulled for manual review that delays processing by six to eight weeks.⁸

Did You Get Too Much, Too Little, or Just Right?

Once the monthly (or annual) figures are in, the form reconciles.

Line 24 is your total allowed Premium Tax Credit for the year. Line 25 is the total advance payments already sent to your insurer, which equals the sum of your Column C figures. Compare them:

If line 24 is larger than line 25, the difference is a net Premium Tax Credit owed to you. It flows to Schedule 3 of Form 1040, line 9, and either increases your refund or reduces the tax you owe.⁹
If line 25 is larger than line 24, you got too much in advance. The excess drops to line 27 and gets added to your tax on Schedule 2. This usually happens when actual income ended up higher than the estimate you gave the Marketplace.

Part III: Repaying Excess Advance Payments in 2026

In prior years, repayment caps limited how much of an overpayment you had to give back. A single filer under 200% FPL might have owed only $375; higher earners saw their repayment capped at a few thousand dollars. For the 2026 tax year those caps are gone. You repay the full excess, no matter your income level.¹

On the form, the mechanics are simple: the excess from line 27 becomes the amount you owe on line 29, which is added to your tax liability on Schedule 2. The practical effect is not simple. If income rose unexpectedly during the year, or you forgot to report a life change to the Marketplace, the repayment can run into the thousands with no safety net. Update the Marketplace whenever your income, family size, or coverage eligibility changes; waiting until tax time is how large bills happen.

Special Situations Handled in Parts IV and V

Two situations require extra parts of the form and are easy to miss.

Shared policy allocation (Part IV). If your 1095-A lists more than one taxpayer, such as after a divorce or when an adult child ages off a parent’s plan, the premium and advance payment amounts have to be split between the separate returns.⁷ You and the other taxpayer agree on percentages for Columns A, B, C, and D; if you can’t agree, the IRS allocates based on coverage days. Each person then enters only their allocated share on lines 12 through 23. Coordinate before filing — this is one of the more common errors the IRS catches.

Year of marriage (Part V). If you married during the tax year and either spouse received advance payments before the wedding, Part V may reduce your repayment by treating the pre-marriage months separately, using each spouse’s individual income and family size.¹⁰ The election is optional. Work through the worksheets in Publication 974 to see whether it helps you; if it does, check “Yes” and enter the alternative amounts on lines 12 through 23. The pre-marriage months include the month you got married.

Attaching Form 8962 to Your Return

Form 8962 attaches to Form 1040, 1040-SR, or 1040-NR.⁹ Tax software generates and attaches it automatically once you enter your 1095-A. Paper filers should place it behind the main return and any required schedules.

The IRS’s automated matching compares your entries against the Marketplace’s independent submission of the same 1095-A data. Discrepancies flag the return for manual review, and refunds get delayed six to eight weeks. Every number on Form 8962 should match your 1095-A exactly.

If a Corrected 1095-A Arrives After You File

Marketplaces sometimes issue a corrected 1095-A after you’ve already filed. If the new numbers change your credit, file an amended return on Form 1040-X with a revised Form 8962 attached.³ If the correction increases your credit, the amendment gets you the additional refund. If it decreases your credit, amending before the IRS catches it avoids potential penalties and interest.

If you receive a Letter 12C from the IRS, it typically means Form 8962 was missing from your return or the numbers did not match Marketplace records. You have 20 days to respond with whatever the letter requests — usually the missing 8962 or supporting documentation. Do not file an amended return in response to a Letter 12C; send the requested information directly.⁸ Any refund due typically follows within six to eight weeks after the IRS receives your response.

1
IRS. Updates to Questions and Answers About the Premium Tax Credit
2
HealthCare.gov. How to Use Form 1095-A
3
Internal Revenue Service. Corrected, Incorrect or Voided Form 1095-A
4
HealthCare.gov. Health Coverage Tax Tool
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 36B – Refundable Credit for Coverage Under a Qualified Health Plan
6
Internal Revenue Service. Eligibility for the Premium Tax Credit
7
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8962
8
Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Your Letter 12C
9
Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Schedule 3 (Form 1040)
10
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 974, Premium Tax Credit (PTC)