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The type and rule above prints on all proofs including departmental reproduction proofs. MUST be removed before printing.
working hours at your place of work and outside your reg-
ular working hours away from your place of work. The
reader's services are only for your work. You can deduct
your expenses for the reader as business expenses.
Health Insurance Costs for
Self-Employed Persons
If you were self-employed and had a net profit for the year,
you may be able to deduct, as an adjustment to income,
amounts paid for medical and qualified long-term care in-
surance on behalf of yourself, your spouse, your depend-
ents, and your children who were under age 27 at the end
of 2023. For this purpose, you were self-employed if you
were a general partner (or a limited partner receiving guar-
anteed payments) or you received wages from an S cor-
poration in which you were more than a 2% shareholder.
The insurance plan must be established under your trade
or business and the deduction can't be more than your
earned income from that trade or business.
You can't deduct payments for medical insurance for
any month in which you were eligible to participate in a
health plan subsidized by your employer, your spouse's
employer, or an employer of your dependent, or your child
under age 27, at the end of 2023. You can't deduct pay-
ments for a qualified long-term care insurance contract for
any month in which you were eligible to participate in a
long-term care insurance plan subsidized by your em-
ployer or your spouse's employer.
If you qualify to take the deduction, use the Self-Em-
ployed Health Insurance Deduction Worksheet in the In-
structions for Form 1040 to figure the amount you can de-
duct. But if any of the following applies, don't use that
worksheet.
•
You had more than one source of income subject to
self-employment tax.
•
You file Form 2555, Foreign Earned Income.
•
You are using amounts paid for qualified long-term
care insurance to figure the deduction.
If you can't use the worksheet in the Instructions for Form
1040, use Form 7206, Self-Employed Health Deduction,
to figure your deduction.
Use Pub. 974, Premium Tax Credit, instead of the work-
sheet in the 2023 Instructions for Form 1040 if the insur-
ance plan established, or considered to be established,
under your business was obtained through the Health In-
surance Marketplace and you are claiming the premium
tax credit.
When figuring the amount you can deduct for insurance
premiums, don't include amounts paid for health insur-
ance coverage with retirement plan distributions that were
tax free because you are a retired public safety officer.
Where to report. You take this deduction on Form 1040
or 1040-SR. If you itemize your deductions and don't claim
100% of your self-employed health insurance costs on
Form 1040 or 1040-SR, include any remaining premiums
with all other medical expenses on Schedule A (Form
1040) subject to the 7.5% limit.
Child under age 27. If the insurance policy covers your
nondependent child who was under age 27 at the end of
2023, you can claim the premiums for that coverage on
Form 1040 or 1040-SR. If you can't claim 100% of your
self-employed health insurance costs on Form 1040 or
1040-SR, any excess amounts attributable to that child
aren't eligible to be claimed on Schedule A (Form 1040).
Generally, family health insurance premiums don't in-
crease if coverage for an additional child is added. If this is
the situation, no allocation would be necessary. If the pre-
miums did increase (such as where coverage was expan-
ded from single to family to add the nondependent child),
you can allocate the amount on Form 1040 or 1040-SR to
the nondependent child and any excess amounts not at-
tributable to that child would be eligible to be claimed on
Schedule A.
Example 1. You were self-employed in 2023 and had
self-only coverage for health insurance. Your premium for
that coverage was $5,000 for the year. You change to fam-
ily coverage only to add your 26-year-old nondependent
child to the plan. Your health insurance premium increases
to $10,000 for the year. After completing the Self-Em-
ployed Health Insurance Deduction Worksheet in the In-
structions for Form 1040, you can only deduct $4,000 on
Form 1040 or 1040-SR. The $4,000 is allocable to the
nondependent child. You can only claim the $5,000 allo-
cable to your coverage on Schedule A. The $1,000 excess
premiums allocable to the nondependent child can’t be
claimed by you.
Example 2. The facts are the same as in Example 1,
except that you had family coverage when you added your
26-year-old nondependent child to the policy. There was
no increase in the $10,000 premium. In this case, you
could claim $4,000 on Form 1040 or 1040-SR and $6,000
on Schedule A.
More information. For more information, see Pub. 535.
How To Get Tax Help
If you have questions about a tax issue; need help prepar-
ing your tax return; or want to download free publications,
forms, or instructions, go to IRS.gov to find resources that
can help you right away.
Preparing and filing your tax return. After receiving all
your wage and earnings statements (Forms W-2, W-2G,
1099-R, 1099-MISC, 1099-NEC, etc.); unemployment
compensation statements (by mail or in a digital format) or
other government payment statements (Form 1099-G);
and interest, dividend, and retirement statements from
banks and investment firms (Forms 1099), you have sev-
eral options to choose from to prepare and file your tax re-
turn. You can prepare the tax return yourself, see if you
Publication 502 (2023) 21