Premium Tax Credit Repayment Calculator
The estimate, and what actually happened
Your result will appear here
Fill in the fields on the left and this updates as you type.
Know what this estimate is based on
- Jurisdiction
- General mathematical model
- Scope and limitations
- Educational estimate only. Confirm the assumptions, current rules, fees, and rounding that apply to your situation before making a decision.
- Source links checked
- Jul 30, 2026
Built and regression-tested by Smart Tools Lab. It has not been individually reviewed by a licensed financial, tax, or legal professional.
How to use
- 01
Enter the household income you estimated when you enrolled, then the income the year actually came in at. The gap between the two is what creates a repayment, so both matter.
- 02
Enter your household size and the number of months you were enrolled in the Marketplace plan. The credit is worked out month by month, so a part year earns a part-year credit.
- 03
Take the benchmark Silver premium from column B of your Form 1095-A and the advance credit paid on your behalf from column C. Those are the figures the IRS will reconcile against, so use the form rather than memory.
- 04
Set the filing status flag: 1 for single, 2 for anything else. It does not change what you owe for 2026, because the caps are gone, but it does set the historical cap the page shows for comparison.
- 05
Read the repayment, then the two cap lines. One says there is no cap for this year; the other says what the old cap would have held the same repayment to, which is the clearest way to see what the change in the law actually cost.
Formula
Credit you should have had = (benchmark Silver premium × 12 − household income × the applicable percentage for your poverty-line percentage) × months enrolled ÷ 12, never below zero, and zero outright above 400% of the poverty line. Advance taken = the monthly advance credit × months enrolled. Repayment = advance taken − credit you should have had, never below zero; if the credit is the larger of the two, the difference is added to your refund instead. For plan year 2026 that repayment is the final figure, because the cap at section 36B(f)(2)(B) was repealed. The historical comparison applies the tax-year-2025 cap for your poverty-line band and filing status and takes the smaller of the two. Your poverty-line percentage = income ÷ the poverty line for your household size, on the guidelines the plan year uses.
Example
A household of 2 enrolled for plan year 2026 estimating $42,000 of income, which was 199% of the poverty line, and took $430 a month of advance credit for all 12 months, or $5,160 in total. The year actually came in at $58,000, which is 274% of the poverty line of $21,150. At that income the benchmark premium of $700 a month earns a credit of $3,078 for the year, so the excess of $2,082 is repaid in full. Through tax year 2025 a single filer at 274% would have been capped at $975, so the repeal costs this household $1,107; a joint filer's cap of $1,950 would have saved $132. The cliff sits at $84,600, $26,600 above where the year ended. Had the income instead landed at $90,000, above that cliff, the credit would have been $0 and the whole $5,160 repayable; had it landed at $36,000, the credit would have been $6,541 and $1,381 added to the refund.
Definitions
- Advance premium tax credit
- The credit paid directly to your insurer each month during the year, based on the income you estimated at enrollment. It is an estimate, and it is settled against your real income on your tax return.
- Reconciliation
- Comparing the advance credit paid on your behalf with the credit your actual income earned, done on Form 8962. The difference is either repaid with your tax or added to your refund.
- Form 1095-A
- The statement your Marketplace sends by 31 January showing, month by month, your plan premium, the benchmark Silver premium and the advance credit paid for you.
- Repayment limitation
- The cap that used to limit how much excess advance credit a household below 400% of the poverty line had to repay. Repealed for tax years beginning after 31 December 2025.
- Applicable percentage
- The share of income the IRS expects a household to pay towards the benchmark Silver plan, rising with income up to 9.96% for 2026. The credit is whatever the benchmark costs above that share.
Good to know
How an advance credit turns into a tax bill
The premium tax credit is calculated on your actual income for the year, but almost nobody waits until the year is over to receive it. Instead, the Marketplace estimates your income when you enrol and pays a credit in advance, monthly, directly to your insurer, so that what you see is a reduced premium rather than a refund fourteen months later. That design makes coverage affordable in real time, and it creates the problem this page exists to solve. The advance is based on a projection, and projections are wrong. When the year ends, the credit is recalculated on what you actually earned, and the two figures are compared on Form 8962, filed with your tax return. The inputs come from Form 1095-A, which your Marketplace must send by 31 January: column B carries the benchmark Silver premium and column C the advance credit paid on your behalf. If the advance was larger than the credit your real income earned, the difference is excess advance payment and it is added to the tax you owe for the year. If it was smaller, the difference increases your refund. On this page's example a household of two estimated $42,000 and took $430 a month of advance credit for the full year, or $5,160. The year actually came in at $58,000, which at a poverty line of $21,150 is 274% of the poverty line rather than the 199% the estimate implied. At that higher income the household is expected to contribute more towards the benchmark plan, so the credit it truly earned was $3,078, and $2,082 has to be repaid. Nothing went wrong here and nobody was dishonest: the household simply earned more than it expected, which is usually good news attached to an unwelcome bill. The repayment is added to the tax due on the return rather than billed separately, so it can turn an expected refund into an amount owing.
The repayment caps, and the law that removed them
Until recently the tax code softened this outcome for households on modest incomes. Section 36B(f)(2)(B) capped how much excess advance credit a household below 400% of the poverty line had to repay, with the cap rising in bands and doubling for anyone not filing as single. For tax year 2025 the figures in Table 5 of the Form 8962 instructions were $375 single and $750 otherwise below 200% of the poverty line, $975 and $1,950 from 200% to under 300%, and $1,625 and $3,250 from 300% to under 400%. At 400% and above no cap ever applied. That protection no longer exists. Public Law 119-21, enacted on 4 July 2025, struck section 36B(f)(2)(B) outright at its section 71305, under the heading eliminating limitation on recapture of advance payment of premium tax credit. Its subsection (c) applies the repeal to taxable years beginning after 31 December 2025. The IRS confirmed the change at section 2.04 of Rev. Proc. 2025-32, which removed the inflation adjustment for that paragraph from the annual table because there is no longer anything to adjust. So for plan years 2026 and 2027 the whole excess is repaid, at every income. The page shows both figures side by side so the change is visible rather than abstract. In the example the repayment is $2,082, and a single filer at 274% of the poverty line would previously have been held to $975, so the repeal costs that household $1,107. A joint filer, whose cap in that band was $1,950, loses $132. The difference is largest for households whose income rose a long way, because their repayment is large while their old cap was fixed. One consequence deserves stating plainly: the protection that used to limit the downside of underestimating income has gone, so the cost of a bad estimate now falls entirely on the household. The 2026 Form 8962 and its instructions had not been published when this page was written on 16 September 2026, so the rule described here comes from the amended statute and the revenue procedure.
The cliff at 400%, where the whole advance comes back
The repayment bands describe how much comes back below 400% of the poverty line. At and above that line the answer has always been simple and severe: everything. Because the enhanced credits expired after 2025, the credit for plan years 2026 and 2027 is zero above 400% of the poverty line rather than merely reduced. A household that took an advance all year and then crossed the line owes the entire advance, and no cap has ever applied in that band even under the old law. Running this page's example at $90,000 of actual income shows the mechanism starkly. The household of two is at 426% of the poverty line, the credit its income earned is $0, and the full $5,160 advance is repayable. The cliff for that household sits at $84,600, so the last $5,400 of income cost $5,160 in credit, an effective marginal rate on that slice of income of over 95%. Crossing the line by a single dollar produces the same result as crossing it by twenty thousand. This is why income near the cliff deserves attention before the year closes rather than after. The items that most often push a household across are the ones that are easiest to control: a year-end bonus, a Roth conversion, realising a capital gain, cashing in savings bonds, or a spouse taking work late in the year. Each can often be deferred into the following year. Equally, a deduction that reduces modified adjusted gross income can be worth far more than the tax it saves, because it can restore an entire year's credit. A deductible contribution to a traditional retirement account or a health savings account is the usual route, and for someone self-employed the health insurance deduction itself can help. The page's schedule is built for exactly this: it prices the repayment at a range of incomes around the one you entered, so you can see how steeply the bill rises as the year approaches the line, and where it stops rising because the credit has already reached zero.
Keeping the estimate close to the year you actually have
Because the caps are gone, the practical answer is no longer to accept a surprise and rely on a limit. It is to stop the gap opening in the first place, and the tools for that are ordinary and effective. The first is to report changes as they happen. The Marketplace asks you to update your application when your circumstances change, and a raise, a bonus, a new job, a spouse starting work, a marriage, a divorce or a change in household size all qualify. Reporting mid-year recalculates the advance for the remaining months, so the same total money is spread across the year rather than arriving as one bill in April. Reporting a change that increases your income feels like volunteering for a higher premium, and it is, but it is the same money either way and paying it monthly is easier than paying it at once. The second tool is to take less than the full advance. You are entitled to claim any amount up to the calculated credit, including none of it, and to settle the balance on your return. For anyone with variable income, commission, freelance work, investment income or a business, deliberately taking perhaps three quarters of the advance builds in a margin, and if the year comes in as expected the remainder arrives as a larger refund. The third is to watch household composition as carefully as income, since it changes both the poverty line and the benchmark premium. The example shows why the direction of the error matters. When the same household's year came in at $36,000 instead of $58,000, the credit earned was $6,541 against the $5,160 advance, and $1,381 was added to its refund. Underestimating income produces a refund; overestimating it produces a bill. Where income is genuinely unpredictable, erring towards the higher estimate costs a little cash flow during the year and removes the risk of a repayment entirely. What the credit is worth in the first place is the ACA subsidy page, and what a repayment does to the rest of the return is the federal income tax page.
Frequently asked questions
How much of my premium tax credit do I have to pay back?
All of the excess. On this page's example, a household of 2 estimated $42,000 and the year came in at $58,000, with a $700 benchmark premium and $430 a month of advance credit. The credit that income actually earned was $3,078; the advance taken was $5,160; so $2,082 is repaid. There is no cap standing between the two figures for plan year 2026.
Are there still repayment caps on excess advance premium tax credit?
No, not for tax years beginning after 31 December 2025. Public Law 119-21, the act passed on 4 July 2025, struck section 36B(f)(2)(B) of the tax code outright at its section 71305, and Rev. Proc. 2025-32 confirmed the change at section 2.04 by removing the inflation adjustment for that paragraph. Whatever the excess is, and whatever the income, the whole of it is now repaid.
What would the old cap have been for my situation?
Through tax year 2025 the caps came from Table 5 of the Form 8962 instructions: $375 single and $750 otherwise below 200% of the poverty line, $975 and $1,950 from 200% to under 300%, $1,625 and $3,250 from 300% to under 400%, and no cap at all at 400% or above. In the example the household landed at 274% of the poverty line, so a single filer's repayment would have been held to $975 instead of $2,082, a difference of $1,107. A joint filer would have been held to $1,950, saving $132.
What happens if my income crossed 400% of the poverty line?
The whole advance comes back, because above that line the credit is zero rather than merely smaller. Running the example at $90,000 of actual income puts the household at 426% of the poverty line, earns a credit of $0, and makes the entire $5,160 advance repayable. The cliff for that household of 2 sits at $84,600, so crossing it by a single dollar costs the full advance.
What if my income came in lower than I estimated?
Then the reconciliation runs the other way and you are owed money. Running the example at $36,000 of actual income earns a credit of $6,541 against the $5,160 advance already taken, so $1,381 is added to your refund rather than repaid. Underestimating your income is the safer direction to be wrong in.
How do I avoid a repayment next year?
Report changes as they happen instead of at filing. Telling the Marketplace about a raise, a bonus, a new job or a change in household size lowers the advance for the remaining months, which spreads the same money across the year rather than leaving it as one bill in April. You can also choose to take less than the full advance during the year and claim the rest on the return.
Which forms does this happen on?
The reconciliation is done on Form 8962, filed with your income tax return, using the Form 1095-A your Marketplace sends by 31 January. The repayment is added to the tax you owe for the year rather than billed separately. The 2026 form and its instructions were not published when this page was written on 16 September 2026, so the rule stated here comes from the statute as amended and from Rev. Proc. 2025-32.