Investment Tax Credit - solar panel

[Lisaannallen100]

My son lives with me and is paying for half of my solar panel project.  Can he claim half of the tax credit? He is not an owner of the home, but does reside here.  The current tax code defines home as where you reside and does not specify ownership, but many forums explaining the new ITC tax credit specify you must own the home?  I am confused by this.  Can anyone explain? Can he claim the the tax credit?  Aren't tax credit transferrable anyway?

[Opus 17]

The solar panel tax credit may be claimed by the person who actually pays for the system to be installed on a home that they live in. It does not have to be their main home, and they do not have to own the home.

However, you must take care in your own accounting of the solar panel system.  Normally, if you pay for a permanent improvement to be installed on your home, the cost of that improvement is added to your cost basis, and may reduce the amount of capital gains tax you owe when you sell the home. With the solar tax credit, you have to reduce the cost basis by the amount of the credit. For example, if you paid $30,000 to install a system and received a $9000 tax credit, you would add $21,000 to the cost basis of your home.   However, you can only increase your basis by the amount you actually pay, even if the solar system cost more. You can’t increase your basis by the cost of an improvement that somebody else paid for.

[Opus 17]

I will mention in passing that some of the energy efficiency credits can only be used by the homeowner, or by somebody who uses the house as their main residence. There are several different kinds of credits under section 25C and 25D and they all have slightly different rules, and I don’t have my reference materials to post a detailed comparison right now.  But the solar panel credit can be claimed by anyone who uses the home as their residence and pays for the system.  The taxpayer does not have to use the residence as their main home or be an owner.