I have to admit that I am not convinced the roof should be included in the 30% credit. The sentence, "No costs relating to a solar panel or other property installed as a roof (or portion thereof) will fail to qualify solely because the property constitutes a structural component of the structure on which it is installed..." is misleading to me. I have a client who had to put on an new roof. His house is 150ft long, so it's a lot of roof! The panels would make up about a quarter of that. There is nothing special about the roof except it's new and better. I am concerned that if he was audited, the roof would be disallowed, and only applicable to the 10% energy credit that is capped at $500. I welcome any input please. His contractor told him that the roof can be included, but again, I'm not comfortable that he's correct. I called the IRS tax preparer hotline, but they don't field tax guidance questions when it's not tax season, and the recording tells you to look on their website, which brings me back to the beginning. Thank you for any light anyone can shed on this for me. I appreciate it very much.
