Energy Tax Credit

By Author: Angela Stringfellow
Total Articles: 8
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If you made energy-efficient improvements to your home during the year of 2008 you may be eligible for money saving tax credits. To be eligible for these credits, the installation must be completed in the year 2008, or the use of the improvements must have begun in 2008 if the improvements involved new home construction or remodeling of an existing home.

You may be able to take up to 10% of the amount paid or incurred in energy saving improvements to your primary residence . Your primary residence is any home, houseboat, mobile home, apartment, or condominium where you lived for the greater part of the year . Some of these improvements include insulation, exterior doors, a qualified water boiler, a main or circulating fan, and a metal roof. This credit can total a maximum of $500 and no more than $200 of that credit can be attributable to windows—the labor associated with installation, their maintenance, or otherwise.

Some of the maximum credits are itemized:

* $50 for each advanced main air circulating fan
* $150 for each qualified natural gas, propane, or oil furnace ...
... or hot water boiler
* $300 for each item of qualified energy efficient property.

You may be eligible to take a 30% tax credit for costs of certain solar and renewable energy additions to your new home. These include qualified solar electric property, solar water heating property, and fuel cell property (Money spent on the installation and preparation of the property is also eligible for a tax credit). The tax credit for qualified solar electric, solar water, or fuel cell property costs can even be taken from property that is not your main home. This credit can total up to $1000.

If you are married and live separately the credit applies to each party of the couple individually. If you are married and live in the same home, each individual has to file their own Form 5695.

For any of the home improvements to qualify, a component must meet or exceed the criteria established by the 2000 International Energy Conservation Code and can ONLY be installed in the taxpayer's main home in the United States. If the home or property is outside of the United States the Tax Credit does not apply.
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