DEERS and Your Income Tax Reporting
11/15/2016
When you do not have your family enrolled in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility
Reporting System (DEERS), a database of information on uniformed services
members (sponsors), U.S.-sponsored foreign military, DoD and uniformed services
civilians, other personnel as directed by the DoD, and their family members. You
need to register in DEERS to get TRICARE. (DEERS), the Department of Defense
(DoD) cannot accurately report your healthcare coverage to the Internal Revenue
Service.
Starting last year, the DoD reported health care coverage of its service members
and their dependents to the IRS. This report allows the IRS to determine which
families had minimum essential coverage Basic health care coverage that meets
the Affordable Care Act requirement. If you don't have coverage, you may have to
pay a fee for each month you aren't covered. (MEC) as required by the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).
For tax purposes, individuals and family members are identified by their Social
Security Numbers (SSN). If a sponsor receives a letter indicating that their SSN
or a family members' SSN needs to be updated in DEERS please follow the
instructions in the letter to ensure your information is correctly reported to
the IRS. Those who have not met the MEC requirement will be required to pay a
fee for the number of months each family member did not have coverage. If your
family information is not reported accurately in DEERS, then your IRS
information will be reported incorrectly.
Make sure you go to the right place if you have questions about any required
forms you might need. Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy members, retirees
and annuitants serviced by Defense Finance and Accounting Services can opt-in to
receive their IRS Form electronically via myPay
(https://mypay.dfas.mil/mypay.aspx) or call 1-888-332-7411 for assistance.
Active duty members and active reservists of the U.S. Coast Guard, National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) can call 1-866-772-8724 or visit
their Pay and Personnel Center page at http://www.uscg.mil/ppc/aca/. Non-active
duty Coast Guard, NOAA, Public Health Service (PHS) retirees, annuitants and
former spouses can call 1-800-772-8274. Active Public Health Service members
can call 240-276-8799, email the PHS pay center at compensationbranch@xxxxxxx
<mailto:compensationbranch@xxxxxxx> or fax an email to 240-276-8817.
For general ACA tax questions, please use the Yellow Pages to contact your local
IRS Service Center or go to www.irs.gov/aca <http://www.irs.gov/aca>
For more information on how TRICARE works with the ACA, go to the TRICARE
website (http://www.tricare.mil/About/MEC)
SOURCE: TRICARE News Release at http://www.tricare.mil/TaxReporting2016
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