From everything I've read rental income DOES count as MAGI towards ACA subsidies so you'll probably have to consider that if deciding to leave the work force. Also, as other's have said, if your income is below the 138% FPL (which is around $15,500/year for a single person) then you can't get premium subsidies and, unless you are in a state that has expanded Medicaid or something similar, you will have to foot the entire cost of your medical insurance yourself.
Not quite. It's complicated.
If your state DOES NOT expand Medicaid, then you can get tax credits from 100-400% FPL.
If your state DOES expand Medicaid, then you can get tax credits from 138-400% FPL, and Medicaid from 0-138% FPL.
Thank you for all the responses!
Our state, NC, didn't expand Medicaid and we wouldn't qualify because we own so many properties. I wouldn't want to go that route anyway.
If our full rental income is counted, then we'll be paying close to $1,000 each month. That bites! I really want to retire but I just don't know what to budget for insurance.
Oh what to do.........
For Medicaid expansion, there is no asset test. NC will probably expand Medicaid in the next few years.
You can find out exactly what current private insurance policies cost by looking at
https://www.healthcare.gov/find-premium-estimates/If you want to qualify for a tax credit, just increase your income to above 100% FPL. You can use rental income, dividends, capital gains, and then convert just enough 401k/IRA to Roth to boost your income to the necessary level. You can report any taxable income you have, including mowing lawns, babysitting, etc.
But with $1k/mo in rental income, you only need to come up with about $4k for the year in other income to hit the 100% FPL. Should be easy.