Used EV tax credit 25,000 “sales price”

[Jotoole1]

Hello,

I am looking to purchase a used EV that otherwise would qualify for the tax credit, but the price is $27000. After trade it, the price I will pay is less than $25000 (even including sale tax). Would this vehicle qualify for the used EV tax credit?

[NCperson]

no.  the sales price has to be $25,000 or less. 

https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/used-clean-vehicle-credit

while a little shady, why can't the dealer drop the sales price by $2,000 and offer you $2,000 less for the trade-in? the net to the dealer would be the same but you'd have a sales price of $25,000. 

In fact, since the tax credit is worth up to $4,000 to you, why not ask the dealer to drop the sales price by the $2,000 and you'll accept $3,000 less on the trade-in in return.  You get $3,000 for the tax credit (net of the $1,000 extra you are giving up on the trade-in) and the dealer gets an extra $1,000 as in incentive to lower the price for you.

[Mike9241]

this may not work with many bew car dealers. They have a bookkeepping manual which is supposed to be folowed  so while the invoce may read one way the internal bookkeeping may be different whic could cause issues.   think of this way if internally the same numbers are used the new car manager would be showing a below normal profit on the new car while the used car manager would be showing above normal profit whn the used car is sold. in many cases bonuses depend on department profitability.  ebery month the dealer must file a financial rpeort with the franchisor. and that is broken down by departments both current month and year to date. the Franchsor can raise questions if the numbers are not within the espected range. the statements incude reporting by department new car, used car, parts and accesssories, and service department. 

[NCperson]

@Mike9241 - in this case, the New Car manager would not be involved.  This is the "Pre-Owned" Sales manager selling a pre-owned auto and buying (the trade-in) a pre-owned auto.  The profit margin reported by the Pre-owned side of the house doesn't change.  

bottom line is we can debate this all we want, but if the OP is successful getting the dealership to adjust the invoices, more power to him!