What Is Form 1095-B and How Does It Affect Taxes?

Form 1095-B is a tax document that confirms you had health insurance during the year and identifies who was covered and in which months. You do not attach it to your federal tax return, and the IRS says you should not wait for it before filing. Where it actually matters is on your state return if you live somewhere that still penalizes residents for going uninsured.

What the Form Shows

The form has four parts. Part I lists you as the responsible individual, with name, address, Social Security number, and date of birth. Part II identifies an employer if your coverage came through one; for Medicaid, Medicare, or an individual policy, this section stays blank. Part III names the coverage provider actually running the plan, which could be an insurance company, a government program, or a small self-insured employer. Part IV lists everyone covered on the policy along with checkboxes for the months each person had coverage, including a single “all 12 months” box for anyone covered the full year.¹

Check Part IV before you file anything. A wrong Social Security number or an incorrect coverage month can cause problems with a state return or produce correspondence from a tax authority. The fix starts with the provider listed in Part III, which is the only entity that can issue a corrected form.

Which 1095 You’re Looking At

Three different 1095 forms exist, and people mix them up constantly.

Form 1095-A comes from the Health Insurance Marketplace if you bought coverage through HealthCare.gov or a state exchange. This is the one you use to calculate the Premium Tax Credit on Form 8962.
Form 1095-B comes from insurance companies, government programs, or small self-insured employers for coverage not provided through the Marketplace or a large employer.
Form 1095-C comes from large employers (generally 50 or more full-time employees) to their full-time workers, plus part-timers enrolled in a large employer’s self-insured plan.

Government programs that issue Form 1095-B include Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and some veterans’ coverage. The provider sends one copy to you and files a matching copy with the IRS.²

One point of confusion worth clearing up: Form 1095-B is not needed to claim the Premium Tax Credit. That credit runs off Form 1095-A. The 1095-B simply documents that you had coverage.

You May Not Receive One in the Mail

Starting in 2024, insurance companies and other coverage providers no longer have to mail Form 1095-B to you. They can satisfy the requirement by posting a notice on their website telling you how to request a copy. That change catches people off guard, particularly anyone used to receiving the form every January.³

If a provider uses the website method, it must still send you the form within 30 days of a request, and the notice should list an email address, mailing address, and phone number. For the 2025 tax year, providers that still furnish the form directly must get it to you by March 2, 2026, under an automatic extension from the January 31 statutory deadline. No further extensions are available.

If you haven’t received a 1095-B by mid-March, check your insurer’s website or member portal for a request link before assuming something went wrong.

What To Do With It on Your Federal Return

At the federal level, you don’t do much with it. The penalty for going uninsured dropped to $0 starting in 2019, so there is no federal tax consequence for lacking coverage.⁴

You don’t attach the form to your return, and the IRS tells you not to wait for it before filing. If you know you had coverage, file using your own records. Insurance cards, premium payment confirmations, and explanation-of-benefits statements all work as proof.²

The IRS still receives a copy of every 1095-B from the provider. If a question ever comes up about your coverage status, having the form on hand shortens that conversation. Keep it with your tax records instead of discarding it.

Where the Form Actually Matters: State Mandates

Several states and the District of Columbia run their own individual mandates with real penalties, and this is where the coverage data on your 1095-B earns its keep. The jurisdictions that currently impose a penalty are California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia. Vermont requires you to report your coverage status but does not charge a financial penalty.

Penalty structures vary, but the general pattern is the greater of a flat dollar amount per person or a percentage of household income, with a cap:

California: $950 per uninsured adult and $475 per uninsured child, or 2.5% of household income above the filing threshold, whichever is higher.
Massachusetts: penalties scale with income and can reach $2,532 per year for individuals above 400% of the federal poverty level. No penalty applies at or below 150% of the poverty level, and a coverage gap of 63 days or less is exempt.
New Jersey: a minimum flat penalty of $695 per uninsured adult with a family maximum of $2,085 under the flat method, or 2.5% of household income, whichever is greater.
Rhode Island: 2.5% of income above the filing threshold or roughly $695 per adult and $348 per child, whichever is higher.
District of Columbia: $745 per uninsured adult and $372.50 per child, or 2.5% of income above the filing threshold, whichever is larger.

Each of these jurisdictions calculates the penalty month by month. If you had coverage for eight months and were uninsured for four, you owe only for the four uncovered months. The checked boxes in Part IV of your 1095-B are what the state uses to work that out, so filing without the information can produce an incorrect penalty assessment or processing delays.

Fixing Errors

If you spot a wrong Social Security number, a misspelled name, or coverage months that don’t match your records, contact the coverage provider named in Part III. The provider is the only entity that can issue a corrected form; the IRS cannot fix it for you because it only processes what the provider submits.⁵

Providers must also file corrected forms when coverage changes retroactively. If your policy was canceled partway through the year, the provider has to update the form to reflect only the months you were actually covered and send the correction to both you and the IRS.³

Getting a Copy You Never Received

If a form you expected never arrived, first check whether your provider moved to the website-posting method. Many insurers stopped mailing in 2024 and now require a request. Look for a notice on the insurer’s website or member portal, then submit a request by email, phone, or mail.

If you’re up against a state mandate deadline and the paperwork hasn’t come through, file anyway. The IRS allows other documentation to serve as evidence of coverage, including insurance ID cards, premium payment receipts, and explanation-of-benefits statements. Keep those records in case your state tax authority asks for proof.²

How Long To Keep It

The IRS recommends keeping information returns and supporting records for at least three years from the due date of the return they relate to. For a 2025 Form 1095-B used on a return filed in April 2026, that means holding onto it until at least April 2029. If you live in a state with its own mandate, check whether the state has a longer retention requirement, since some states can look back further than the IRS’s standard window.³

1
Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Form 1095-B
2
Internal Revenue Service. Questions and Answers About Health Care Information Forms for Individuals
3
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1094-B and 1095-B (2025)
4
HealthCare.gov. Exemptions From the Fee for Not Having Coverage
5
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1095-B, Health Coverage