2012 Tax Credits

Toyota Rav4 EV Forum

Help Support Toyota Rav4 EV Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Dsinned

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 6, 2012
Messages
1,213
Location
San Jose, CA
Fwiw, I usually dread this time of year, and April 15th in particular. It's almost time to pay income taxes, but this time will be different! I worked on my 2012 federal and state tax returns over the weekend, and claimed the full amount for the EV Tax Credit. In fact, I claimed TWO EV tax credits totally $15,000! This is because last year I decided to go all out for green cars and purchased not one, but TWO EVs; one for me (Chevy VOLT) and another for my wife (RAV4 EV)!

This is the first set of tax returns in many, many years - decades in fact, where I got all my federal withholding back as a FULL refund! I even scored a fairly big refund from the State as well, not counting the EV rebates, which I already received. The latter totalled $4k ($1500 for my 2012 VOLT and $2500 for my 2012 RAV4 EV). VERY NICE!!!

I won't get my five figures refund from the IRS for a more few weeks, via direct desposit, but it will be a GREAT day when I do!

It wasn't entirely a "windfall tax season" however, because I did NOT get the personal tax credit (worth up to $1000) for "investing" in EV battery charging equipment. I'm not sure why, but after filling out the supplemental IRS form, I was not deemed eligible to claim anything. Last year, I shelled out nearly $2400 for two L2 EVSE home charging stations installed in my garage. The last minute Fiscal Cliff legislation Congress enacted at the end of last year supposedly extended the tax credit for this thru 2013. Anybody else get nixed out of this one?

Btw, I did my taxes "online" using TAXACT, which I highly recommend. Both Federal and State online electronic filings only cost $14. Totally painless!

As an aside, this is turning out to be the ONLY advantage of buying a RAV4 EV last year. Since December, extremely sluggish sales has resulted in massive Toyota rebates, dealer discounting and further inducements to purchase such as 0% APR financing. I paid close to sticker, and only got 1.9%APR, and NO CASHBACK from Toyota. Ample reason for a good case of buyer's remorse! However, in a few weeks I will have $15,000 (total tax credits for purchases in 2012) of Uncle Sam's money and there is no finer feeling or reward for buying not one, but TWO phenomenal EVs mostly before everyone else! :mrgreen:
 
Hi,
You should be able to get a tax credit on your EVSE(s) and their installs up to 30% of $1,000 ($300).
I was reinstated as part of the "fiscal cliff" tax extensions so the IRS just got the form up and
finalized last week so maybe TaxAct didn't have it in their database. The form is IRS form 8911:
http://www.irs.gov/uac/Form-8911,-Alternative-Fuel-Vehicle-Refueling-Property-Credit
Unfortunately this means you might have to do an amended 1040 to get the extra $.
Hope that helps,
- Jay
Plug In America
 
Nope, TaxACT had the new form, but I just didn't qualify after filling it out per IRS instructions.

If it was only a credit worth up to $300, then no big deal, but I believe it is worth up to $1000 for those qualifed. I actually paid $2350 for my EV charging equipment in 2012, including installation costs. Therefore, I "would have" got 30% of that amount, or $705 off my taxes as a "credit". That amont was "as calculated by TaxACT" from the "2012" online form. Unfortunately, it was the way the IRS calculates this tax credit based on some "gotcha" related to AMT, resulting in it being disallowed in my case.

Here is the fine print . . .

Line 17: Although you may not owe alternative minimum tax (AMT), you must still figure the tentative minimum tax (TMT) to figure your credit. Complete the applicable AMT form or schedule and enter the TMT on line 17.

Line 19: If you cannot use part of the personal portion of the credit because of the tax liability limit, the unused credit is lost. The unused personal portion of the credit cannot be carried back or forward to other tax years.


After subtracting line 17 from line 16, a negative amount resulted. Apparently, because of the amount I had to declare for "TMT" was way more than the what I declared for "net" regular tax owed in 2012 (adjusted downward by $15k for two EV personal tax credits in the same year), that essentially zeroed out the personal EVSE credit I could otherwise have claimed.

I HATE doing taxes, there is so much red tape in favor of the IRS, you just can't win sometimes. :cry:
 
***UPDATE***
The IRS "accepted" my tax return as of today, which means the supplemental forms for EV and charging station tax credits must now be officially finalized in their system. :mrgreen:
 
TonyWilliams said:
http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS-Plans-Jan.-30-Tax-Season-Opening-For-1040-Filers

Summary - EV filings won't be processed by the IRS until March.

Also, the IRS will not ACCEPT electronic filings of these two forms before the first week of March:

IRS Form 8936 - $7500
IRS Form 8911 - Home charge station install up to $1000

GRRR, this is annoying. I got my taxes all wrapped up today in TurboTax, only for it to tell me I cannot e-file my return and must do it by snail mail. Are you suggesting that if I wait a bit more, I should be able to file it electronically?
 
No such problem using TaxACT! It took my CA return submission (online) a week ago and I already got my state refund. It also accepted my federal return, but "held it on file" till yesterday, at which time it automatically filed it with the IRS. I should get my IRS refund within 21 days according to the acknowledgement received from filing online.

TaxACT ROCKS!!! :mrgreen:
 
Looks like the turbotax patch today allows for returns with form 8936 to be e-filed.

Though there is an after model year 2010 validation bug affecting form 8936 preventing the return from actually being filed. The bug is known by intuit and there is a schedule fix on 3/7. Really hoping that will finally come through - http://turbotax.intuit.com/support/iq/Error-Check/Unable-to-Enter--Energy-Efficient-Vehicle--Purchased-after-2010/SLN68993.html

Looks like Taxact is the only one that got things right out of the gate. It could be worse...I've read that people using H&R Block Tax software will not even bother handling form 8936, and you won't know that until you've almost completed your taxes in its software, only for it to be a dead end without any recourse but to redo it all elsewhere.
 
I checked out HRBlock online tax submission last night, and just spoke with them on the phone. They still don't have or support forms 8936 / 8911. IF you buy and download the HRBlock software package called "Premium and Business", for a whooping $79.95, then you can file the forms. Appears TaxACT may be the way to go.
 
fusiondynamics said:
Can we claim the free EVSE we got?
You can claim your actual expenses. So, if they charged you permit fee and extra installation fees for a complicated install, you can get 30% of that.
 
miimura said:
fusiondynamics said:
Can we claim the free EVSE we got?
You can claim your actual expenses. So, if they charged you permit fee and extra installation fees for a complicated install, you can get 30% of that.
I thought this incentive has expired Dec 31, 2013. Please let me know if this is not the case.
 
Learned the hard way that the H&R Block Deluxe 2013 software still doesn't support IRS Form 8911. TurboTax does interestingly enough.

Think 2013 will be the last year to claim the EVSE 30% tax credit as well.
 
Back
Top