How to use the Form 8962 calculator
- Pick your filing status, state and tax family size. The tax family is you, your spouse if you file jointly, and every dependent you claim, whether or not they had Marketplace coverage. The state only matters for Alaska and Hawaii, which have their own poverty tables.
- Enter your 2026 household income. This is modified AGI: the AGI on your Form 1040 plus tax-exempt interest, Social Security benefits that weren't taxed and excluded foreign income, plus the same for any dependent who has to file a return.
- Copy Form 1095-A, Part III. If everyone was covered all year and the amounts never changed, enter the line 33 totals of columns A (premiums), B (SLCSP premium) and C (advance payments). Otherwise choose Month by month and type lines 21 to 32; Copy fills a run of months with the same amounts. With more than one Form 1095-A, add the premiums and advance payments together, but take column B from only one form when the policies are in the same state, and add the column B amounts when they are in different states.
The result updates as you type, and the tables under it show every line of the form with your numbers. Share result gives a link holding your inputs, so someone helping you with your return can see the same thing.
How reconciliation works
During 2026 the Marketplace paid part of your premium in advance, based on the income you expected. Form 8962 works out the credit you are actually allowed from your real income and compares the two. The credit for each month is the benchmark plan's price (column B) minus what the law expects you to pay, but never more than your own premium (column A).
What you are expected to pay is a share of your household income, the applicable figure, which rises with income measured against the poverty line. For 2026 it runs from 2.10% under 133% of the poverty line to 9.96% from 300% to 400% (IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-25). The form drops the decimals of your percentage (306.7% counts as 306%) and rounds the figure to four decimals, and the calculator does the same.
The poverty line for 2026 is the 2025 HHS guidelines, those in effect when open enrollment for 2026 started: $15,650 for one person in the 48 states and DC, plus $5,500 for each extra person.
Example, the calculator's starting numbers: a single filer in Texas, covered all year, got $400 a month in advance payments, $4,800 for the year, on a lower income estimate, but earned $48,000. That is 306% of the poverty line, so the applicable figure is 0.0996 and the expected contribution is $4,781. The benchmark plan cost $6,600 for the year, so the credit allowed is $6,600 − $4,781 = $1,819. The other $2,981 of advance payments is repaid with the return.
No repayment limit from 2026
For 2025, most people below 400% of the poverty line repaid at most $375 to $3,250, depending on income and filing status. The 2025 budget law removed that limit for tax years starting after December 31, 2025 (Pub. L. 119-21, section 71305), and the IRS's proposed regulations, October 15, 2026 describe it the same way: "a taxpayer's tax liability for the taxable year of the coverage is increased by the full amount of the excess APTC". The draft 2026 Form 8962 now sends line 27 straight to Schedule 2. Above 400% of the poverty line ($62,600 for one person) there is no credit at all, so every dollar of advance payments comes back.
If you owe, the calculator shows the household income at which the advance payments would have matched, which helps if you are estimating 2027 income now. Close to the 400% line, deductible IRA or HSA contributions for 2026 that you make before the filing deadline lower modified AGI, if you are eligible to make them.
What this calculator doesn't cover
- Shared policies and divorce (Part IV) and the alternative calculation for the year of marriage (Part V).
- The self-employed health insurance deduction, which changes AGI and the credit at the same time; IRS Publication 974 has the worksheet.
- Married filing separately is allowed only with the exception for domestic abuse or abandonment; tick it if it applies to you.
- Unpaid premiums: generally no credit is allowed for a month whose premium wasn't paid by the return's due date.
- Two other 2026 changes in the same law: a plan enrolled in during the special enrollment period offered on the basis of low expected income gets no credit for plan years from 2026 (section 71304), and lawfully present immigrants under 100% of the poverty line who couldn't get Medicaid because of their status no longer qualify through that route (section 71302). If either applies to you, the calculator overstates your credit.
As of October 2026, the IRS has published the draft 2026 form and the 2026 applicable percentages, but not the 2026 instructions; the calculator follows the 2025 instructions' worksheets with the 2026 figures, and will be checked against the final instructions when they come out.
Choosing coverage for next year? The ACA subsidy calculator estimates the 2027 credit and shows where the 400% cliff sits for your household. Untaxed Social Security counts in modified AGI, and the Social Security COLA calculator shows how much your benefit changes next year.