During enrollment through the Marketplace, the Marketplace will determine if you are eligible for advance payments of the premium tax credit, also called advance credit payments.

Based on the estimate from the Marketplace, you can choose to have all, some, or none of your estimated credit paid in advance directly to your insurance company on your behalf to lower what you pay out-of-pocket for your monthly premiums. These payments are called advance payments of the premium tax credit or advance credit payments. If you do not get advance credit payments, you will be responsible for paying the full monthly premium.

Per IRS Affordable Care Act website:

If you received the benefit of advance credit payments, you must file a tax return and use a Form 8962, Premium Tax Credit (PTC) to reconcile the amount of advance credit payments made on your behalf with the amount of your actual premium tax credit. You must file an income tax return for this purpose even if you are otherwise not required to file a return.

If the premium tax credit computed on your return is more than the advance credit payments made on your behalf during the year, the difference will increase your refund or lower the amount of tax you owe. This will be reported in the ‘Payments’ section of Form 1040.

If the advance credit payments are more than the amount of the premium tax credit you are allowed, you will add all or a portion of the excess advance credit payments made on your behalf to your tax liability by entering it in the ‘Tax and Credits’ section of your tax return. This will result in either a smaller refund or a larger balance due.

The amount of your excess advance credit payments that you are required to repay may be limited based on your household income and filing status. If your household income is 400 percent or more of the applicable federal poverty line, you will have to repay all of the advance credit payments.