In Massachusetts, you may be required to pay a state tax penalty if you don't have health insurance.
Since 2006, Massachusetts has imposed a state tax penalty on adults who don't have minimum creditable coverage (MCC). Now that the federal Affordable Care Act penalty has been set to zero, uninsured folks need not grapple with two different sets of penalties -- but you should know the rules for going without health insurance in Massachusetts.
The Massachusetts tax penalty depends on your income, age, and family size. You can find the penalty chart for tax year 2019 on Mass.gov, which you will have to pay when you file your tax return in April of 2020. Generally, your penalty can't be more than half of the annual cost of the lowest priced plan available to you through Massachusetts Health Connector.
There are many situations in which you may be exempt from paying the penalty. For example, you won't have to pay if you can show that health insurance wasn't affordable or that you couldn't buy insurance due to a hardship.
To find out what qualifies as minimum creditable coverage (MCC) in Massachusetts and whether you are exempt from obtaining it, see Do I Have to Get Health Insurance in Massachusetts?