The Tax Incentives Assistance Project (TIAP), sponsored by a coalition of public interest nonprofit groups, government agencies, and other organizations in the energy efficiency field, is designed to give consumers and businesses information they need to make use of the federal income tax incentives for energy efficient products and technologies passed by Congress as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and subsequently amended several times.
Update as of 2/13/12:
Several tax incentives expired at the end of 2011. These can be used for investments placed in service in 2011, but do not apply to investments in 2012, unless Congress votes in the next few weeks to extend them. Incentives that expired on 12/31/11 include:
- Residential insulation, windows, heating and cooling systems and water heaters
- New homes that use half the energy of a home building to model codes
- High-efficiency refrigerators, clothes washers and dishwashers
Five incentives remain in place:
- New and retrofitted commercial buildings that use half the energy of a building built to model codes
- Plug-in electric drive vehicles
- Combined heat and power systems
- On-site renewable energy systems including ground-source heat pumps
- Fuel cells and microturbines
The first is currently scheduled to extend until 12/31/13, the other three until 12/31/16.
Update as of 06/24/11:
We've updated a number of resources about energy efficiency tax incentives. These include:
- a white paper on the status and successes of each of the major energy efficiency tax incentives put in place since 2005,
- the TIAP Flyers for Residential and Commercial Incentives - Add your organization's logo and distribute at your next event to spread the word about energy efficiency incentives,
- and a presentation on each of the major energy efficiency tax incentives.
What About 2012?
The first three items listed above extend until the end of 2011. These three incentives were originally enacted in 2005 and have been revised and extended by Congress multiple times, generally for one or two years at a time. Discussions have begun in Congress about further revisions and extensions, although we do not expect any action until the fall or early winter. So far, discussions have focused on simple extensions of the new home and appliance credits, and some modifications to the residential credit, updating qualification levels and modifying incentive amounts. There has also been some discussion about reinstating the commercial vehicle tax incentive that expired at the end of 2009. In addition, there is discussion of incentives for comprehensive energy-efficiency retrofits to homes and commercial buildings. Under these proposals, incentives would be paid for homes or buildings that reduce energy use at least 20%, with incentives increasing as higher levels of savings are achieved. Any changes to the incentives or new incentives would likely not begin until January 1, 2012.
IRS Forms
- Residential Energy Efficient Property: Form 5695
- New Homes: Form 8908
- Vehicle Incentives: Form 8910
- Commercial Solar Incentives: Form 3468 (Investment Credit)
Note: The links above go to the IRS web site. TIAP makes every effort to keep these links up to date. IRS often does not publish new versions of forms until the beginning of the following tax year.
Additional Resources
Some additional information on tax incentives can be found HERE!
Extension Service Home Energy Community of Practice Webinar - Presentation by Jen Amann, ACEEE (4/10/2009)
Overview of Federal Energy Efficiency Tax Incentives passed as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act of 2009
*Updated matrix of energy efficiency incentives
RESNET has completed a survey of rating providers regarding the number of homes that their raters certified for the federal tax credit (2007 only). 23,702 homes were certified by RESNET during 2007, which is triple the number of homes certified in 2006. For more information, click here.
NREL Energy Savings Modeling and Inspection Guidelines for Commercial Building Federal Tax Deductions (1.9 MB PDF)
