Form 8911 section for Electric Vehicle Charging Stations doesn't work. The credit always computes as zero dollars.

[Woodchucked]

I purchased a EV Charger for my house for my EV that I both purchased in 2020. When I use Form 8911 on TurboTax, and enter my cost for purchasing the charger and then the paying an electrician to install it - it always calculates as $0.

I look at the requirements of the credit per TurboTax, and it states the following. We meet all the requirements (my answers in RED).

Credit Requirements
The following conditions must be met to qualify for this credit:
 - You started using the station in the current tax year (2020). PURCHASED & INSTALLED SEPT 2020
 - You are the original owner of the station. YES, THE ONLY OWNER
 - The station is used primarily in the United States. YES, IN NY
 - The station is installed at a residential or business location. AT MY HOUSE

Eligible Expenses to Claim
The cost of the charging or fueling station include:
 - The amount you paid to purchase the station PURCHASED FROM TESLA, I HAVE THE RECEIPT
 - The fees you paid to have the station installed in your home or business location (i.e., electrician fees). PAID AN ELECTRICIAN
 - Permit fees DOES NOT APPLY
 - Any city, local, or state fees that you were required to pay in order to be able to install your station. DOES NOT APPLY

Example: You purchased your charging station for $850, paid an electrician $2,000 for installation and hardware. You would enter total cost as $2,850 for your station.  YES AND MY TOTAL IS OVER $1000

So I can't figure out why this is happening. We also called into TurboTax and the basic support I received was unable to answer my question, and suggested I upgrade to speak with a CPA. I wanted to check to see if anyone had an ideas as to why the form wasn't working before paying extra....

Also as a hail mary, I tried two different browsers, and that didn't make a difference. Still rang up as $0.

Would appreciate some help.... thank you!

[Woodchucked]

Howdy - any tax experts have any idea about this? Thank you 🙂

[AnnetteB6 · Accepted solution]

There are a couple of things that can cause the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit to be reduced to zero.

First, the credit is non-refundable and you must have a tax liability in order to take advantage of the credit.  Also, the calculation of possible Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) is involved in the calculation of the credit and may reduce it to zero.  

There is a tentative minimum tax for AMT that is calculated in the background as your return is completed.  Form 8911 compares that tentative minimum tax to the net regular tax after certain other credits have been taken into account.  If the tentative minimum tax is greater than the net regular tax, then the Form 8911 credit is disallowed.  

Take a look at your Form 8911, lines 16, 17, and 18.  If line 17 is greater than line 16, then your personal credit for Form 8911 will be disallowed.  

@Woodchucked

[Woodchucked]

OK that's it! I didn't realized that I had to have a tax liability. That's the part I missed. And that would be why it's coming up as zero! Thank you very much!

[jgiangrande]

I've seen this issue and the potential reasons why the software calculates the credit as zero.  Neither apply to me.  I've got plenty of tax liability and am not in AMT.  Any thoughts here?

[JohnW152]

You're most likely seeing the charging station credit limited to zero because of other credits you're receiving. 

Please read through this to see whether or not this applies to you. It's a complicated explanation and it relates to AMT, but can affect taxpayers who aren't subject to AMT, as you suggest is your case.

If it doesn't apply to you, please post back. 

You may be seeing your charging station credit limited, or reduced to zero, if you've claimed these credits:

• Child tax credit or credit for other dependents from Schedule 8812
• Credit for child and dependent care expenses from Form 2441
• Education credits from Form 8863, line 19
• Retirement savings contributions credit from Form 8880
• Residential energy credits from Form 5695
• Adoption Credit from Form 8839
• Credit for the elderly or disabled from Schedule R
• Alternative motor vehicle credit from Form 8910
• Qualified plug-in motor vehicle credit from Form 8936
• Mortgage interest credit from Form 8396
• District of Columbia first-time homebuyer credit from Form 8859 
• Qualified electric vehicle credit from Form 8834 
• Partner's Additional Reporting Year Tax from Form 8978

Even if these credits, combined, wouldn't be enough to offset your tax, your charging station credit may be limited.

There's a limitation on claiming the refueling credit that's not always apparent when you're working on your return, and it's quite possibly the cause of what you're seeing.  It's called tentative minimum tax.  It's related to Alternative Minimum Tax, but isn't quite the same thing. 

If you have significant credits, as described below, your ability to claim the charging station credit may be limited by tentative minimum tax, even if you don't owe Alternative Minimum Tax.

In determining whether you can claim the refueling credit, the TurboTax program takes into account the computation for net regular tax, which is a computation made on line 16 of Form 8911, Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit. (Please see the linked form; this is an involved computation, and seeing it might make this easier to visualize.) This amount equals your regular tax before credits (line 14), minus certain credits reflected on line 15. 

This net regular tax is then compared to your tentative minimum tax (line 17).  If your tentative minimum tax is greater than your net regular tax, you can't claim the credit. 

If you'll look at Form 8911, linked above, you'll note that line 15 reflects credits that reduce your regular tax (line 14) before the alternative fuel vehicle refueling property credit can be applied.  This includes foreign tax credit on line 15a.

But it also includes certain credits included on line 15b.  If you'll look at Line 15b in the Instructions for Form 8911, the taxpayer is instructed to:

Enter the total of any credits on Form 1040, 1040-SR, or 1040-NR, line 19, and Schedule 3 (Form 1040), lines 2 through 5, and 7 (reduced by any general business credit reported on line 6a, any credit for prior year minimum tax reported on line 6b, or any credit to holders of tax credit bonds reported on line 6k).

So, line 15b is:

• Form 1040, line 19, which is Child tax credit or credit for other dependents from Schedule 8812, plus
• Schedule 3 (further down the page in the link), line 2, which is Credit for child and dependent care expenses from Form 2441, line 11, plus
• Schedule 3, line 3, which is Education credits from Form 8863, line 19, plus
• Schedule 3, line 4, which is Retirement savings contributions credit from Form 8880, plus
• Schedule 3, line 5, which is Residential energy credits from Form 5695, plus
• Amounts totaled into Schedule 3, line 7 from
  • Line 6c, Adoption Credit from Form 8839
  • Line 6d, Credit for the elderly or disabled from Schedule R
  • Line 6e, Alternative motor vehicle credit from Form 8910
  • Line 6f, Qualified plug-in motor vehicle credit from Form 8936
  • Line 6g, Mortgage interest credit from Form 8396
  • Line 6h, District of Columbia first-time homebuyer credit from Form 8859 
  • Line 6i, Qualified electric vehicle credit from Form 8834 and
  • Line 6l, Partner's Additional Reporting Year Tax from Form 8978

And, if you have any of these credits, they can lower your net regular tax from what your regular tax amount is. 

In the end, net regular tax on line 16 equals line 14 (regular tax before credits) minus line 15 (the foreign tax credit plus any of the credits listed above).

If your tentative minimum tax on line 17 is greater than the net regular tax amount on line 16, you can't claim the refueling property credit.

[American_Coot]

Wow, how complicated. The only issue I have on the whole list is I bought an electric car in 2022. So, because I bought an electric car I can't get a credit for installing the ability to charge it?

Can this be true?

[American_Coot]

I take it back, evidently my income is too high according to the minimum tax form you mentioned.

[pfk93]

The problem in in line 12 where the federal instructions say to enter $1,000 for each house in which that you installed EV charging. TurboTax does not tell you that you should enter something on line 12. However, if you click on the field you get a subform where you can enter one or more address and $1,000 for each address. This info then gets put in line 12 and becomes the Federal EV tax credit.

I look at this as a TurboTax bug for not letting you know that you need to enter something in line 12.

[rrawat77]

I am also of the same opinion. I did form 8911 manually and I am getting some credit for EV charger installed at home but when I do in turbo tax, credit is zero. I checked the location  of charger (census tract GeoID) qualifies for the credit. My AGI is less than $150K filling married jointly. I don't think there is income limit to get the credit. I am still getting zero credit for Energy-Efficient Vehicle Charging Station.

Is this form fixed now?

[pfk93]

No, form is not fixed. You still need to select the line 12 input and enter $1,000 and that becomes your federal tax credit.

[rrawat77]

How can I enter $1000 on line 12 in form 8911 manually through Turbo tax?  Do I have to file the tax return manually via postal mail or can I still file the tax return through Turbo Tax? Thanks for quick response.

[pfk93]

You just:

1) Click on the line 12 input box

2) A popup-up window will open with two columns for input.

3) Each row represents one house where you have installed a charger

4) In the first column enter the address where the charger was installed and in the 2nd column enter $1,000

5) Click OK or Close or Save (I forget what the exit notation is) and that pop-will close

6.) The sum of the amounts you specified in column2 will now appear in form 8911 line 12

[ayyappan77]

How to edit that from 8911 error directly from Turbo tax online? I don't see any option to open and edit the form. The only option I see is to delete a form.

[pfkalin450564]

Just type "1000.00" in line 12, assuming that you only installed a charger in one house; it's $1000.00 for each installation.