Believe it or not, this first year of compliance is the honor system for the penalty of having coverage or not......they are putting some of the responsibility on paid tax preparers and forcing them to get signatures from clients or be faced with a fine if audited. BUT, next year, they are planning on forcing the preparers to not being able to check the box without some sort of proof....no one in the tax industry knows exactly what this is going to entail, but most, including myself, are thinking they will do something similar to the Mass Healthcare Mandate and force insurance companies to issues 1099's on which months you were covered and which months you were not, then you won't be able to file your tax return without it, much like a W2, 1099MISC, etc.

Second, as a tax professional, from what I've seen in my office this tax season so far, the ACA has helped 1 person for every 50 it screws in some way......incredible......return costs have increased because of the additional forms and people are being penalized for either not having insurance, not paying enough in to the ACA they applied for a year earlier, or like everyone else is experiencing, their insurance has gone up dramatically.

But you will find that one person that says, hey, I got a great policy for $62/month (already qualified for the state welfare health care plan to begin with) that is a Cadillac plan.....someone has to pay for that.