So, now that it appears that the ACA will remain in place, Trump’s executive order from January 20th relaxing the individual mandate becomes relevant again.

Sean Williams Feb 27, 2017 at 8:27AM

In 2014 and 2015, … the IRS had made it clear that any Form 1040s (the standard tax form) filed for the 2016 calendar tax year without line 61 filled in – the line that would demonstrate to the IRS if you had health coverage or paid the SRP – would be rejected.

But Trump’s executive order changed everything.

According to Yahoo Finance, the IRS will once again be accepting electronic and paper tax returns for calendar year 2016 without line 61 filled in.

Now here’s where things get tricky. On one hand, the ACA is still the health law of the land, even if it seems to be living on borrowed time. This means the individual mandate is still law, and those who choose not to purchase health insurance should be paying the SRP, unless they’re exempt. On the other hand, without line 61 filled in, the IRS has no guarantee that the taxpayer paid the SRP or was even insured in 2016.

The IRS has suggested that if it has a question about a particular tax return it’ll follow up with those taxpayers after the filing process is over. However, the IRS has also previously said that it wouldn’t garnish wages or go after a person’s property for not paying the SRP. In effect, Trump’s executive order has made it nearly impossible for the IRS to collect the SRP or to concretely verify an individuals’ health insurance status.

The individual mandate broadens the health characteristics of the people in the insurance pool, and so keeps premiums down.  

If the administration does nothing, chaos ensues over the next several weeks as taxes come due.  Which sounds about right for this administration.  You know that enough someones somewhere will test whether or not the IRS is going to enforce the individual mandate.  

The individual mandate will be law, but I’m betting that the administration is not going to enforce it.  Both this administration and the GOP are invested in the ACA imploding, and I’m sure they will do so by undermining the individual mandate under the cover of claiming to give the people back “choice.”  But choosing between insurance you can’t afford because the premiums have risen too high because of market forces, and insurance you can’t afford because the government’s insurance tax breaks overwhelmingly go to people who make over $200,000, is no real choice.

Trump’s Executive Order on Obamacare Leads to a Big Tax Change — The Motley Fool