Tax Rebate for Solar System?

[Al B]

Does anyone know whether or not the tax rebate for installing a solar system in your home applies also to a RV? I am looking into having one installed on our RV. We are not full-timers, but plan to travel 6 months of the year.

[ols1932]

From what I've been told by someone I respect, RV owners don't qualify. It makes sense to me because in essence we don't have an electric bill (unless of course, you lived in your RV on your property and power was metered; then you may have some say in the matter). For me, I don't even want to begin to ask for anything special for our RV living because I don't want to begin having to pay property tax and who knows what else.

Orv

[8.1al]

This is an interesting question. I believe rv's qualify as a second home for interest deduction on federal income tax return so why not an energy tax credit?

[Glenn and Lorraine]

YES, an RV solar system would qualify. See your tax accountant for further info.

BTW--Lorraine is a Tax Accountant so you heard it from the horse's mouth.

[Trailer Trash 2]

Very interresting the only thing I see as being a problem is that most solar co's use your home electrical usage to comput the amount of solar cells needed, the government only allows so much for a rebate on the % of use in your home, never the actual cells needed to be off the grid. Example. my home was just estamated and I would need approx 30 pannels to come to 80% of my usage, Edison dosen't want you off the grid, they wont have that money comming in to support there bussiness. so you only get the % of the 80% for a rebate from Unk S. unless you are fulltiming and have electrical bills I would bet that will be there excuse for not getting what you deserve on a rebate.
to have pannels put on my home it was 49,867 and a Unk Sam rebate of 10,212 spred out over 4 years of tax forms big deal why not all at once.

[Carl n Susan]

Very interesting question! I did some searching at it appears that a RV Solar system would qualify. Here is a link to one source:

http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/incentive.cfm?Incentive_Code=US37F

which says (in part):

A taxpayer may claim a credit of 30% of qualified expenditures for a system that serves a dwelling unit located in the United States and used as a residence by the taxpayer. Expenditures with respect to the equipment are treated as made when the installation is completed. If the installation is on a new home, the "placed in service" date is the date of occupancy by the homeowner. Expenditures include labor costs for onsite preparation, assembly or original system installation, and for piping or wiring to interconnect a system to the home. If the federal tax credit exceeds tax liability, the excess amount may be carried forward to the succeeding taxable year. The excess credit can be carried forward until 2016, but it is unclear whether the unused tax credit can be carried forward after then.

There is additional information and clarification there. Two things of particular notice: one, the residence doesn't have to be your principal one (consistent with an RV being considered a second residence); and two, there is no mention of an outside evaluation of what is needed (i.e. no estimate of allowable size from a utility supplier).

Definitely worth talking about with your tax accountant (which I am not!!)

[simonsrf]

On our 2006 taxes we got a tax credit for our solar system which is installed on our RV which is our primary residence in Washington state.

We deducted $2000. on our 2006 taxes using form 5695 on our 1040. Line 13. For Qualified electric solar property costs $7,723.
Line 14. Multiply line 13 by 30% (.30)
Line 15. Maximum credit amount $2000.

[Carl n Susan]

quote:Originally posted by simonsrf

On our 2006 taxes we got a tax credit for our solar system ....

Once again, you were ahead of the times! Now, you can deduct 30% of the total cost with no cap. Maybe it is time for a major re-do of your solar system. After all, Steve does have more capacity than you!

[simonsrf]

quote:Originally posted by Carl n Susan

Once again, you were ahead of the times! Now, you can deduct 30% of the total cost with no cap. Maybe it is time for a major re-do of your solar system. After all, Steve does have more capacity than you!

Steve NEEDS more capacity...he also needs a bigger truck to haul it around....and then he's got that huge generator....aaaaaggggHHHHH!!!!!! BTW, our 600Ah are fine for us, he needs 900Ah. We have learned to live within our means...

We have since added a couple more panels, so we'll deduct that 30% on those toooo....

[Al B]

Thanks for all your input. I plan to persue this further. Based on what I am reading here, I would be eligible for the tax credit.

Thanks again,
Al