solar federal tax credit

[gdub2gators]

If I paid in $6,000 in federal taxes in 2020 and I had solar put on my house in Nevada and have a $8,000 tax credit for solar, do I get the $8,000 in tax return?

[DoninGA]

The credit is used against your tax liability for the tax year.  If the credit reduces your liability to zero then any remaining credit is carried over to the next tax year.  If your tax liability is zero then you would receive all of your federal taxes withheld as a tax refund.

[gdub2gators]

So if i was in a position where I would be getting $5,400.00 in tax return, I would get the solar tax back on my return? 

[DoninGA · Accepted solution]

If your tax refund without the credit is $5,400 and you paid a total of $6,000 in federal taxes, the solar credit would reduce your tax liability to zero giving you an additional $600.  The remaining solar credit will be carried forward to the next tax year.

You cannot receive more of tax refund then what you actually paid.

[gdub2gators]

Thank you 

That makes perfect sense. Whatever you paid into federal taxes, you cannot get more back. You can take the amount that is left over and use for the following tax year. Correct? That is what the IRS page said

[DoninGA]

That is correct.