What Is Form 1095-A: Columns, Form 8962, and Reconciliation

Form 1095-A is the tax statement the Health Insurance Marketplace sends you if anyone in your household was enrolled in a qualified health plan through HealthCare.gov or a state exchange during the year. It lists your monthly premiums, the benchmark Silver plan premium used to size your subsidy, and any advance premium tax credit the government paid directly to your insurer. You need those numbers to complete Form 8962 and file your federal return. The Marketplace sends the form to you and to the IRS by January 31 following the coverage year.¹

Who Receives One

You get a 1095-A if you or anyone on your tax return had Marketplace coverage during the year, whether or not you took an advance subsidy. People who paid full price for their Marketplace plan still receive the form.²

Two Marketplace products don’t generate a 1095-A: catastrophic plans and stand-alone dental plans. Neither qualifies for the Premium Tax Credit, so the Marketplace doesn’t report them this way.¹ You also won’t get a 1095-A for employer coverage, Medicaid, or Medicare. Those are reported on different forms, or not at all.

What’s on the Form

The form has three parts. Part I identifies the Marketplace, the policy number, and your coverage dates. Part II lists each covered individual and when their coverage started and ended.¹ Part III is where the money lives, and it’s the section you’ll actually use when filing.

The Three Columns in Part III

Part III shows a row for each month of the year and three dollar columns. Mixing them up is one of the most common filing errors.

Column A, Monthly Enrollment Premium: the full cost of the plan you picked, before any subsidy.
Column B, Second Lowest Cost Silver Plan (SLCSP) Premium: the monthly premium for a benchmark Silver-tier plan in your area. You probably weren’t enrolled in it. The IRS uses it to calculate the maximum credit you can receive.
Column C, Monthly Advance Payment of Premium Tax Credit (APTC): the subsidy the government paid directly to your insurer each month.

These definitions come straight from the IRS instructions.¹

Why Column B Matters So Much

Your Premium Tax Credit is basically the difference between the SLCSP premium and what the government expects you to contribute toward premiums at your income level. If the annual SLCSP premium is $10,000 and your expected contribution is $4,000, your maximum credit is $6,000, whether you actually enrolled in a cheaper Bronze plan or a pricier Gold plan.

If Column B is blank or shows zero on your form, you have to look up the SLCSP yourself. HealthCare.gov has a tax tool that calculates it once you enter your household and coverage details.³

Using the Form to File: Form 8962

If any APTC was paid for your coverage during the year, you must file Form 8962 with your return. There’s no way around it. The IRS matches its records against incoming returns and will flag anything missing the form.⁴

Reconciliation means comparing what the government already paid for you (Column C) against the credit you actually qualify for based on your final year-end income. You carry the monthly figures from Form 1095-A into Part II of Form 8962, and the math produces one of two results.⁵

You received less APTC than you qualified for. The difference is a refundable credit that reduces your tax or increases your refund.
You received more APTC than you qualified for. The excess gets added to your tax bill.

You can also file Form 8962 if you paid full freight for a Marketplace plan and took no advance credit. If your income came in lower than expected, you may qualify for a credit retroactively.²

Repayment Caps for 2025, and a Big Change for 2026

For the 2025 tax year (filed in 2026), the amount of excess APTC you have to repay is capped based on your household income as a percentage of the federal poverty line. The 2025 caps:

Below 200% FPL: $375 single / $750 all other filing statuses
200% to under 300% FPL: $975 single / $1,950 all other
300% to under 400% FPL: $1,625 single / $3,250 all other
400% FPL or above: no cap; you repay the full excess

These figures come from Table 5 in the Form 8962 instructions.⁵

Starting with the 2026 tax year, those caps go away. Section 71305 of Public Law 119-21 eliminates the limitation on excess APTC repayment for tax years beginning after December 31, 2025. If your APTC exceeds your actual Premium Tax Credit for 2026, you repay the full difference regardless of income.⁶ Report income changes to the Marketplace during the year so your advance payments track what you’ll actually qualify for.

Shared Policies Across Tax Households

When one Marketplace policy covers people who end up filing in different tax households, the 1095-A amounts have to be split between returns. This comes up most often with divorce, legal separation, or adult children who file independently.

If you and a former spouse shared a policy for months you were still married, you have to allocate the enrollment premium (Column A), the SLCSP premium (Column B), and the APTC (Column C) between your returns. You can agree on any percentage split, as long as the same percentage applies to all three columns. If you can’t agree, the default is 50/50.⁵ The allocation is reported in Part IV of Form 8962.

Missing, Late, or Incorrect Forms

The Marketplace must send Form 1095-A by January 31 after the coverage year, though mail delivery adds time.¹ If you haven’t seen it by mid-February, log in to your Marketplace account; the form is usually posted there before the paper copy arrives.² If it’s not online, call the Marketplace.

Wait for the correct form before filing. The IRS will hold up returns that show APTC in its system but arrive without Form 8962, and filing with estimated numbers creates processing delays that can take months to clear.⁷

Spot an error — wrong premium amounts, incorrect enrollment months, a missing SLCSP figure? Contact the Marketplace right away. Only the Marketplace can issue a corrected version, which arrives with a “CORRECTED” box checked at the top. If you already filed and the corrected form changes your credit or repayment, file an amended return on Form 1040-X with a new Form 8962 attached.⁷

What Happens If You Don’t Reconcile

Skipping Form 8962 doesn’t just delay the current return. If you fail to reconcile your APTC for a tax year, you lose eligibility for advance premium tax credit payments and cost-sharing reductions the following calendar year.⁸ That means paying the full unsubsidized premium until you file the missing return and complete the reconciliation. With the 2026 repayment cap gone, the cost of getting this wrong is only climbing.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1095-A (2025)
2
HealthCare.gov. How to Use Form 1095-A
3
HealthCare.gov. Health Coverage Tax Tool
4
Internal Revenue Service. Health Insurance Marketplace Statements
5
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8962 (2025)
6
Internal Revenue Service. One, Big, Beautiful Bill Provisions
7
Internal Revenue Service. Corrected, Incorrect or Voided Form 1095-A
8
Internal Revenue Service. Reconciling Your Advance Payments of the Premium Tax Credit