IRS enforcement of individual mandate may be light

The first question: How will the agency know if someone didn’t have health coverage in 2014? The simplified answer: Taxpayers will tell them. If confused or dishonest taxpayers don’t report it accurately, chances are the IRS will not know right away.

Even if the Obama administration wanted to track down every person who did not have coverage in 2014, the agency will not have all the data it needs to accomplish that. This year the IRS is not expected to have any massive database pinpointing which taxpayers have coverage. With 140 million tax returns to process, the agency will need to primarily rely on self-reporting the first year.

“Individuals will report their own coverage on the 2014 income tax return that they file in 2015,” wrote IRS officials in an emailed response to questions. “The accuracy of the information shown on the tax return is the responsibility of the taxpayer.”