Is there a fine for no health insurance 2017

Question

I'm referring to the 2017 tax year (Jan 17-dec17 filed April 18)

My CPA for 10 years is telling me there is a fine this year for not having health coverage. Multiple other people i know who used h&r block, etc are telling me they didn't have to pay one.

I looked on the 1040ez and it says right there that you do have a fine. But they are claiming it's not relevant due to an executive order.

My understanding is there is no mandate to prove you had insurance. But you are still lying on your taxes if you don't disclose it and pay the fine.

Answer 1

The "shared responsibility payment" is a tax and not a fine, at least according to parts of the Supreme Court ruling on the matter (National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, 567 U.S. 519). Under Executive Order 13765, departments of the executive branch were allowed to "exercise all authority and discretion available to them to waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation of any provision or requirement of the Act that would impose a fiscal burden", and in 2017 the IRS did accept (and did say it would) returns that did not indicate health care status. The IRS did not exercise that discretion this year. The legal mandate still exists, but was effectively nullified in 2017 at the discretion of the IRS. The mandate is still in place for 2018 (it's too early to tell whether it will be enforced), and has been removed only starting 2019, under the recent tax reform.