Custom closet and storage businesses are part retailer, part manufacturer and part installer. That mix means real fixed overhead — usually a showroom — and it changes how health insurance should be budgeted compared with a trade run out of a van.
A Showroom Makes the Premium Easier, Not Harder
Most self-employed people treat a health premium as an unusual monthly bill. If you already carry showroom rent, utilities and display inventory, you have a fixed-overhead habit already, and the premium simply joins that list.
Doing it that way — overhead, recovered across jobs — is more reliable than paying it from whatever a good month leaves over. A $780 monthly premium is $9,360 a year; across sixty installs that is about $156 a job.
Deposits Are Not Profit
Custom work is usually 50% down. That deposit buys melamine, hardware, edge banding and drawer slides, and pays the fabricator. It is not income in any sense the marketplace cares about.
What matters is net profit for the calendar year after materials, fabrication, installation labour, showroom costs and design time. Reporting deposits or contract value dramatically overstates income and is a common way to lose a credit you qualify for.
A Family of Four at $85,000
With a spouse and two children, the 2026 poverty guideline is $32,150 and 400% of it is $128,600. Net profit of $85,000 is about 264% — comfortably inside subsidy range, with the benchmark Silver contribution capped at 9.96% of income.
The same $85,000 as a single filer would be roughly 543% of $15,650 and produce nothing. Owners who assume the business is too successful to qualify are often wrong for exactly this reason.
Self-employment tax is $85,000 × 0.9235 × 0.153, about $12,010, of which roughly $6,005 is deductible, plus premiums.
Designers on Commission Are a Classification Question
Many showrooms use commissioned designers, and whether they are employees or contractors turns on control — who sets their hours, whether they work your showroom on your schedule, whether they sell for anyone else. If they are employees, offering coverage puts you into group insurance, which usually determines your own plan as well.
Installation Is Where the Claims Come From
Shop fabrication and site installation carry different risks: saws and dust in one, lifting, ladders and overhead anchoring in the other. Coverage is guaranteed issue regardless, but if you install as well as sell, the out-of-pocket maximum deserves more weight than the monthly premium.
The Deduction
100% of premiums come off on Schedule 1, Line 17, above the line, up to net self-employment income, provided no employer plan is available through a spouse.
If you have a showroom and a family and have never checked your eligibility, call (713) 575-9904.