Can I Pay IRA distribution with solar energy tax credit

[brian50hudg]

My household sole income is social security. I've not had a tax liability for 3 years now.
A distribution was taken from my spouses IRA in 2024. She was 63 at that time.
We left taxes for this distribution until filing for 2024 because we had $5k of solar energy tax credit carried over from 2022.

Turbo tax informs me that I can't use the solar credit for the tax incurred from the IRA disbursment.
2 questions then.
Why?
Is there an exception I can use in order to use the credit?

[VolvoGirl · Accepted solution]

How much was the IRA distribution?  If it was low you might not owe any tax in it.   Was it less than the Standard Deduction for Joint 29,200?  So there might  not be any tax on it for the credit to reduce.  

[brian50hudg]

Rewind a little here. I had made an error when entering some "other income".

Tax went from 12k to 0.

VolvoGirl, the IRA withdrawal was less than the standard deduction.

So, after my error with other income is accounted for, Turbotax shows a tax liability of $0.00

Restating: Our income from SS, interest, and the IRA withdrawal, is below the base amount for our status.

Answered my own question thanks to the question you asked of me. Your question gave me new areas to think about and look into.

Thanks!!