Canadian resident/tn visa/health care responsibility

This is our main tax information forum which deals with topics concerning Canadians living and working in the U.S., U.S. citizens contemplating working in Canada, and all aspects of Canadian and U.S. income tax and related adminstrative issues.

Moderator: Mark T Serbinski CA CPA

Post Reply
dafney
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Apr 01, 2015 10:16 pm

Canadian resident/tn visa/health care responsibility

Post by dafney »

Dear Serbinski,

My husband is on a TN Visa, commuting daily to the U.S. from Canada, and he usually files a pro forma on the tax return with no troubles. We got a letter from the IRS asking:
1) did we have full healthcare coverage?
2)did we qualify for an exemption from the requirement to have healthcare coverage? If yes, add form 8965.
3) if no, we must make a shared responsibility payment.

Since we are Canadians I assumed we are automatically exempt, however, receiving this letter now I understand perhaps we had to file a form 8965 to claim exemption for having health coverage in Canada? Would this be the correct response to this letter? Your guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time,

Dafney
nelsona
Posts: 18311
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2004 2:33 pm
Location: Nowhere, man

Re: Canadian resident/tn visa/health care responsibility

Post by nelsona »

You are exempt, by not being US residents. File form with exemption 'C', as you will see in the form instructions
nelsona non grata. Non pro. Please Search previous posts, no situation is unique as you might think. Happy Browsing :D
dafney
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Apr 01, 2015 10:16 pm

Re: Canadian resident/tn visa/health care responsibility

Post by dafney »

Thank you very much.. Is this form necessary to file along with our tax return every year? Or only if they ask?

I appreciate your time.

Thank you again
nelsona
Posts: 18311
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2004 2:33 pm
Location: Nowhere, man

Re: Canadian resident/tn visa/health care responsibility

Post by nelsona »

Since you are doing a proforma 1040, and the shared responsibility payment would affect your taxrate for 1040NR, and IRS has now asked for it, I would say you need to keep filing it as long as that form is in use.
nelsona non grata. Non pro. Please Search previous posts, no situation is unique as you might think. Happy Browsing :D
dafney
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Apr 01, 2015 10:16 pm

Re: Canadian resident/tn visa/health care responsibility

Post by dafney »

Thank you so much:)
eriquee
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2019 7:27 pm

Re: Canadian resident/tn visa/health care responsibility

Post by eriquee »

Hello,

Can anyone point to me exactly where this exemption 'C' is?

The form says to check the box if you are exempt but I can't find how to determine if I`m exempt or not.

US citizen living in Canada.
coco1106
Posts: 80
Joined: Sun Jan 20, 2019 3:40 pm

Re: Canadian resident/tn visa/health care responsibility

Post by coco1106 »

"As of January 1, 2019, the individual mandate requiring most Americans to have health insurance or pay a penalty has been effectively repealed due to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act which zeroed out the penalty. For 2018, most individuals were still required to maintain coverage or pay a penalty if they failed to do so when they file their 2018 federal income tax return in early 2019"

I copied this from a site, looks like the penalty will be no longer applicable for next years taxs so I think starting next yr the exemption C will not be necessary when you file.
Paubomon
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu May 26, 2022 9:44 am

Re: Canadian resident/tn visa/health care responsibility

Post by Paubomon »

The insurance system in US medicine is very complicated and complicated. Therefore, you are very lucky that you do not need to buy insurance. It seems that the health insurance system in Canada is somewhat simpler and clearer. Recently I decided to change the type of health insurance and compared plan n vs plan g https://www.remedigap.com/medicare-supp ... vs-plan-g/. As a result, I decided to favour plan g because it is more convenient and relevant for me. But I compared all the points on these plans for a long time and tried to make the most reasonable decision.
Post Reply