Energy credit built new home

[5511]

I built a new home that is total electric.  Do I qualify for home energy credit?

[rrangan]

How do I enter the Energy Tax Credit carryover for our geothermal unit?

[ThomasM · Accepted solution]

It depends.  There are two broad types of credits:  Residential Energy Efficient Property Credit and the Non-Business Energy Property Credit.  Each is unique, with its own set of rules & requirements.

Since you mentioned that this was new construction, that eliminates the Non-Business credit, since that's exclusively for existing homes (not new construction).

The Residential credit is a possibility, but only if the electricity is generated by solar power or fuel cell power.  The credit is also available for small wind energy systems and geothermal heat pumps.

Here's a link to the instructions for IRS form 5695, which discusses all aspects of these credits:  https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i5695.pdf