Self-employed people

Reporting self-employment income to the Marketplace

When you fill out a Health Insurance Marketplace ® application, you’ll have to estimate your net self-employment income. Marketplace savings are based on your estimated net income for the year you’re getting coverage, not last year’s income.

Estimating unpredictable income

When you’re self-employed, it can be hard to estimate your income for the coming months or year.

IMPORTANT Update your estimated annual net income when your business circumstances change. If you wind up making more than you reported on your Marketplace application, you could have to pay back some or all of the premium tax credits you took during the year. If you wind up making less, you could qualify for more savings than you claimed during the year. Learn how to update your income when it changes.

Filling out your Marketplace application

On your Marketplace application, you’ll report your net income from your self-employment. (Net income is sometimes called "profit.")

Your net income from self-employment is what you report on Schedule C of your federal tax return. Learn about self-employment income from the IRS (PDF).

If you’re asked to confirm self-employment income on your application

You may be asked to confirm information you put on your Marketplace application, or to provide additional information. You can usually resolve this issue by uploading documents.

If you’re self-employed, you may be asked to upload a “ self-employment ledger

Any accurate, detailed record of your self-employment income and expenses. It can be a spreadsheet, a document from an accounting software program, a handwritten "ledger" book, or anything that records all self-employment income and expenses.

Refer to glossary for more details.

” to confirm your income. There isn’t a standard self-employment ledger format. It just needs to provide an accurate, detailed record of your self-employment income and expenses.

Other income to report