self-employed health insurance

[AccTaxMan]

Does the health insurance coverage of a self-employed person has to be placed under a business name before it can be an above the line deduction on line 28 of Form 1040? What about if he is a sole-proprietor and the policy is under his own name? If I remember correctly, an insurance agent has explained to me before that a health policy cannot be placed under the business name unless the business has employee(s).

[ddoshan]

No ... it does not have to be in the business name.

[AccTaxMan]

No ... it does not have to be in the business name.

Thank you.

What threw me off is that my tax program says "payment for health policy established under the business". So if a health policy is placed under the sole proprietor's name, how can it be established that it is "under the business"?

[ddoshan]

Not sure other than the IRS after many years of controversy defined it as such. The individual is the business.

[AccTaxMan]

Not sure other than the IRS after many years of controversy defined it as such. The individual is the business.

Thank you again. Do you have the source that the IRS defined it as such? I want to have something to fall back on in case the deduction got challenged in the future.

[Lion]

Instructions

The instructions for Form 1040 Line 29 are a starting point:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040gi.pdf