Obama Tax Credit Changes

President Obama has made some changes to the tax credits for energy efficient products. (The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) This is the Program that President Bush initiated several years ago and was to end in 2007 and then was extended to end of 2008. The changes are very significant for new homes and remodels.

I have included some snippets from the Energy Star website http://www.energystar.gov

“How has the new Stimulus bill affected the tax credits for energy efficient home improvements?”

On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed a stimulus bill (The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) that made some significant changes to the energy efficiency tax credits. The highlights are:

• The tax credits that were previously effective for 2009, have been extended to 2010 as well.
• The tax credit has been raised from 10% to 30%.
• The tax credits that were for a specific dollar amount (ex $300 for a CAC), have been converted to 30% of the cost.
• The maximum credit has been raised from $500 to $1500 for the two years (2009-2010). However, some improvements such as geothermal heat pumps, solar water heaters, and solar panels are not subject to the $1,500 maximum.
• The $200 cap on windows has been removed, but the requirements for windows has been increased significantly. Not all ENERGY STAR qualified windows will qualify.

To get the full version from Energy Star and the excellent chart explaining the credit amounts for each product go here.

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=products.pr_tax_credits

The above information came directly from the Energy Star website. I found this information very valuable and wanted to pass it along to my readers.

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