How to Complete Schedule NJ-HCC: New Jersey Health Care Coverage

To complete Schedule NJ-HCC, attach it to your NJ-1040 and answer Part I: if you and everyone in your tax household had minimum essential health coverage every month of the year, fill in the “Yes” oval, mark the oval at line 53c of your NJ-1040, and you’re finished. If anyone lacked coverage for any month, move to Part II, check the covered months for each household member, enter any exemption numbers you’ve obtained, and use Worksheet L in the NJ-1040 instructions to calculate the shared responsibility payment you enter at line 53c.¹

Who Files the Schedule

Every New Jersey resident filing an NJ-1040 with gross income above the state filing threshold must submit Schedule NJ-HCC. The threshold is $10,000 for single filers and married filing separately, and $20,000 for joint filers, heads of household, and qualifying surviving spouses.² If your line 29 income is at or below that threshold, you skip the schedule and owe nothing.³

The schedule covers your entire tax household: you, your spouse if filing jointly, and every dependent you claim or could claim.⁴ Part-year residents report only the months they lived in New Jersey. If someone else can claim you as a dependent, you don’t owe a payment yourself; complete only Part I, mark “Yes,” and attach the schedule to your return.¹

Residents not required to file an NJ-1040 at all are automatically exempt and don’t need to file just to report coverage.⁵

What to Gather First

Before you open the form, pull together:

Any Form 1095-A, 1095-B, or 1095-C you or your dependents received. 1095-A covers Marketplace plans, 1095-B covers Medicaid, CHIP, and other government or private plans, and 1095-C covers employer coverage. Multiple sources mean multiple forms.⁶
Social Security numbers for everyone on the return, matching what the Division of Taxation has on file.³
Exemption numbers for any household member who qualifies. You apply through the Division of Taxation’s online NJ Insurance Mandate Coverage Exemption Application before filing, and the application issues the number you’ll enter on the schedule.⁵

Download the current year’s Schedule NJ-HCC from the Division of Taxation; the form updates annually.

Filling Out Part I

Part I asks one question: did every member of your tax household have minimum essential coverage for every month? Part-year residents count only their New Jersey months.³

If yes, fill in the “Yes” oval, mark the oval at line 53c of your NJ-1040, attach the schedule, and stop. No payment is due. If the answer is no for even one person for one month, continue to Part II.¹

Filling Out Part II

Part II is a month-by-month grid. Enter each household member’s name and Social Security number. For every month a person had minimum essential coverage or a qualifying exemption, check the box. Any month with coverage for at least one day counts as covered.¹

For anyone with an exemption, check the box for each month the exemption applies and write the exemption number in the space provided. If a person has more than one exemption number, enter just one and still check every applicable month.¹

Cross-check every month against each person’s 1095 form before moving on. A single unchecked box that should have been checked will trigger a penalty calculation for that month.

Exemption Codes You Might Enter

Exemptions are applied for on the Division of Taxation’s online portal before filing, and each approved application returns a code you write on the schedule.⁵ The main categories:

Affordability and Income

A-1, Marketplace affordability: the lowest-cost Bronze plan available to you costs more than 8.05% of household income after any premium tax credit.
A-2, job-based affordability: your employer’s lowest-cost self-only plan (or lowest-cost family plan, if covering dependents) exceeds 8.05% of household income.
A-3, poverty line: household income at or below 138% of the federal poverty level, with a household income worksheet and family member count.

Short Gap

Code B-1 applies to a coverage gap of less than three consecutive months. Because any month with at least one day of coverage counts as covered, the gap is measured in full uncovered months. Hit three months and you lose the exemption for every uncovered month in that gap, not just the ones past the threshold. Two separate gaps in the same year? You can claim B-1 only for the first.⁵

Group Membership

C-1, religious sect recognized by the Social Security Administration as opposed to insurance benefits, or one relying solely on religious healing.
C-2, health care sharing ministry, a tax-exempt organization in continuous existence since December 31, 1999.
C-3, member of a federally recognized Indian or Alaska Native tribe.
C-4, eligible for services through an Indian health care provider or the Indian Health Service.

Other

Code D-1 covers incarceration (serving a sentence in prison or jail, not probation, parole, or home confinement). Additional codes exist for U.S. citizens living abroad and certain noncitizens; the full list with eligibility rules is on the state’s exemptions page.⁵

Calculating the Shared Responsibility Payment

When someone in the household went uninsured without an exemption, you owe a payment. Use Worksheet L in the NJ-1040 instructions, or the online calculator at nj.gov/treasury/njhealthinsurancemandate.⁴ The payment is the greater of a flat-dollar amount or a percentage of income, capped at the statewide average Bronze premium for your household size.

Flat-Dollar Amount

$695 per uninsured adult (18 or older) and $347.50 per uninsured child, with a family maximum of $2,085.⁴ Partial-year gaps prorate monthly: $57.92 per adult month and $28.96 per child month.

Income-Based Amount

Take household income (NJ-1040 line 27, plus tax-exempt interest and dependent income), subtract the filing threshold ($10,000 single, $20,000 joint), and multiply by 2.5%. If anyone was covered for only part of the year, the income-based amount is prorated by the share of total person-months uncovered.⁴

The Cap

The payment cannot exceed the statewide average annual Bronze premium multiplied by household size. Worksheet L lists the current-year cap by household size; the 2019 worksheet, for example, listed $3,012 for one person and $15,060 for a household of five or more.⁴ Use the figures printed in the worksheet for the year you’re filing.

A quick example: a single adult earning $60,000 with no coverage all year compares $695 (flat) to $1,250 (2.5% of $50,000 above the $10,000 threshold). The income figure wins, so the payment is $1,250, provided that stays under the Bronze cap for a one-person household.

Attaching and Filing

Schedule NJ-HCC never goes in alone. It attaches to the NJ-1040 and travels with the full return. If you owe a payment, enter the amount at line 53c and mark the oval. Full-year coverage with nothing due: mark the oval at line 53c and leave the dollar amount blank.¹

Electronic filing is the simplest route. New Jersey’s free Online Filing Service is open to all residents and part-year residents, and commercial tax software that supports NJ returns transmits the schedule automatically.¹ Either way, you get confirmation the state received it.

Filing on paper? Print the schedule and put it in the same envelope as your signed NJ-1040. Where you mail it depends on whether money is owed:⁷

With payment: State of New Jersey, Division of Taxation, Revenue Processing Center, PO Box 111, Trenton, NJ 08645-0111.
Refund or no tax due: State of New Jersey, Division of Taxation, Revenue Processing Center, PO Box 555, Trenton, NJ 08647-0555.

Paper returns process noticeably slower than e-filed ones. Whichever way you file, hold on to your 1095 forms and a copy of the completed schedule. If the Division of Taxation later questions your coverage or your penalty math, those are your proof.

1
New Jersey Division of Taxation. NJ-1040 New Jersey Resident Return 2025
2
New Jersey Division of Taxation. Gross Income Tax Overview
3
New Jersey Department of the Treasury. Schedule NJ-HCC Health Care Coverage
4
State of New Jersey Department of the Treasury Division of Taxation. NJ-1040 Line 52 Instructions
5
State of New Jersey. Claim Exemptions – NJ Health Insurance Mandate
6
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1095-A, Health Insurance Marketplace Statement
7
New Jersey Division of Taxation. Where to Mail Your Return