Service
Subsidy verification
Estimate the credit, then defend it
About Subsidy verification
The premium tax credit is advanced on your projected income. Project wrong and you repay the difference. We help you project right and adjust mid-year.
The premium tax credit is advanced monthly against a projection of income you have not earned yet. That design is generous and it carries a specific risk: project too low and you repay the difference when you file, with the repayment caps disappearing entirely once you cross 400% of the federal poverty level.
Subsidy verification is the unglamorous work of getting that projection right at the start and keeping it right through the year.
Building a projection that survives
Marketplace income is modified adjusted gross income for the whole tax household, and the definition trips people up in predictable places. Self-employment means net profit after business expenses, not gross receipts. Non-taxable Social Security counts. Rental income counts net of expenses. Child support does not count at all.
For a household with a steady W-2 income this is a five-minute conversation. For a household with two contractors and a rental property it is a genuine modelling exercise, and it is exactly the case where getting it wrong costs the most.
Reporting changes as they happen
A raise, a lost job, a new second income, someone joining or leaving the tax household, or gaining access to employer coverage all change the credit. Reporting within thirty days re-prices the credit going forward, so you pay slightly more each month instead of accruing a lump sum that lands in April.
We keep a standing check-in on every file: once at mid-year, once before renewal, and any time you tell us something changed. It takes about ten minutes each time and it is the single highest-value habit in this whole category.
Reconciliation, and the form people lose
In January your carrier issues Form 1095-A showing what was advanced on your behalf month by month. Form 8962 compares that against what your actual income entitled you to. We walk through both, and we flag repayment exposure before the year ends, while there is still time to make a deductible retirement or HSA contribution that reduces modified adjusted gross income.
How it runs
Model the projection properly
Every income source in the tax household, translated into modified adjusted gross income the way the Marketplace defines it.
Stress-test the number
What happens to the credit if income lands 20% high or 20% low, and where the cliff sits relative to your projection.
Report changes within 30 days
A standing mid-year check-in plus an open line whenever something changes, so the credit tracks reality.
Reconcile at tax time
Form 1095-A checked against Form 8962, with repayment exposure flagged before the year closes rather than after.
Questions about this specifically
What happens if I underestimate my income?
You repay the excess credit when you file. Repayment is capped by income band, which softens it considerably, but the caps disappear once you cross 400% of the federal poverty level and the full amount advanced becomes repayable.
What if my income is genuinely unpredictable?
We set a conservative projection and plan to revise it. Taking a slightly smaller credit through the year and receiving the balance at filing is far more comfortable than the reverse, particularly for self-employed households with lumpy revenue.
Can you help after I already got a repayment bill?
We can check whether the reconciliation was computed correctly, whether a repayment cap was applied properly, and whether anything in your situation qualifies for relief. What we cannot do is retroactively change a projection that was already advanced.
More general questions are answered on the questions page, and the vocabulary is on theglossary.