Form 8962: Premium Tax Credit (PTC)

File Form 8962 with your income tax return if you are taking the premium tax credit, if advance payments were made for you or anyone in your tax family, or if advance payments were made for someone you told the Marketplace would be in your tax family and nobody counted that person in a tax family. File even if you would not otherwise have to file a return. You must use Form 1040, 1040-SR, or 1040-NR, and you cannot file Form 1040-SS.

• You are taking the premium tax credit.
• Advance payments were made for you or someone in your tax family.
• Someone enrolled a person in your tax family and advance payments were paid for that coverage. Get a copy of their Form 1095-A.
• If someone else claims you as a dependent, they file Form 8962, not you.

There is no separate filing date for this form. You attach it to Form 1040, 1040-SR, or 1040-NR and send it with that return. Its attachment sequence number is 73. You need Form 1095-A first. For 2025 coverage, the Marketplace has to provide or send Form 1095-A by January 31, 2026. If you are expecting one and it has not arrived by early February, contact the Marketplace. Your share of a month's premium has to be paid by the due date of your return, not counting extensions, for that month to count.

Part I sets your yearly and monthly contribution amount. Enter your tax family size, your modified AGI, your dependents' modified AGI if they were required to file, and the federal poverty line figure for your state and family size. Line 5 turns that into a percentage. Line 7 is the applicable figure from the table in the instructions. Part II then compares your credit with the advance payments, using either the annual row on line 11 or the monthly rows on lines 12 through 23. Enter whole dollars only.

If line 24 is more than line 25, the difference is your net premium tax credit. Put it on line 26 and on Schedule 3 (Form 1040), line 9. If line 25 is more than line 24, leave line 26 blank and go to Part III. Line 27 is the excess advance payment, line 28 is the repayment limit from Table 5 in the instructions, and line 29 is the smaller of those two. Copy line 29 to Schedule 2 (Form 1040), line 1a.

As of January 1, 2025, a month can still count as a coverage month when part of that month's premium is unpaid, as long as the amount paid, including advance credit payments, is enough to avoid your coverage being cut off under one of the situations the instructions list. Reporting entities no longer send forms showing proof of coverage (Forms 1095-B and 1095-C) automatically in some cases. If you ask for one, it must be provided by January 31, or 30 days after the date you ask, whichever is later.

Two reminders carry over. For tax year 2025, you may be allowed the credit even if your household income is more than 400% of the federal poverty line for your family size. And for tax years beginning after 2022, employer coverage counts as affordable for your spouse and dependents only if your share of the cost for yourself plus those family members is no more than 9.02% of your household income.

You cannot take the credit if your filing status is married filing separately unless an exception applies. One exception covers certain married people living apart. The other covers victims of domestic abuse or spousal abandonment, who check the box on line A and cannot use that exception for more than 3 consecutive years. If you shared a policy with another tax family, Part IV splits the premiums, the second lowest cost silver plan premium, and the advance payments. You and the other taxpayer can agree on any percentage from 0% to 100%, and 50% each applies if you cannot agree.

If you got married during 2025 and advance payments were made for someone in your tax family, Part V lets you elect the alternative calculation for year of marriage. It is optional and may cut the amount of excess you repay. Table 4 in the instructions has the five questions that decide whether you qualify, including whether you and your spouse were each unmarried on January 1, 2025, and married on December 31, 2025.