Hey everyone. I'm considering purchasing a new Nissan Leaf as my first electric car. As I research pricing, I'm trying to accurately figure in the tax credits. I'm hoping someone with experience and more knowledge than myself can chime in.
I've searched around and done quite a bit of reading on the tax credit already, however almost everything I find seems to be sort of a glossed over version of what I expect has some hidden 'gotchas' under the veneer. However, it would be wonderful if this was less true than I fear.
I think it would be easiest if I just asked a few questions specifically that come to mind. I'll just start in, not in any order of importance.
1. When I search for cars, I find some considerably reduced prices in other states... If I were to purchase a car from another state, will this present a problem with claiming the tax credit on either the federal or state level? I mentioned state taxes because here in New York we also are able to claimcla additional $2,000 credit.
2. What criteria is used by the government to determine whether you've purchased a new or used car? Can I rely on the tax credit being valid if I purchase a car that is advertised as new from any dealer, or are there some pitfalls here that I really need to be aware of?
3. Is the tax credit truly as simple as "just subtract $7,500 from whatever the total is that you owe on federal taxes"? And, likewise, subtracting $2,000 from the total owed state taxes? That would be great if this were the case, and I could just rely on actually having that much payment deducted. However, I fear that there may be some catch here that I'm not aware of, and I would like to avoid any surprises come tax time. For example, I wonder if perhaps the credit in fact only applies to a certain section or portion of your taxes, and not bluntly the total sum... So, for example, what if I owe $9,000 in federal taxes total, but for some reason the EV tax credit can only be applied to $4,000 of that, so I end up with the surprise that I didn't get the benefit from the remaining $3,500 that I counted on.
I should mention that I do already understand that if you don't owe the full credit amount for your taxes, you forfeit in the remainder of the credit and it cannot be spilled over in any way (i.e., if you owe only $1,000 total, you're only going to receive a credit of $1,000).
4. Is there a mandatory time of ownership that you need to uphold in order to benefit from the EV credit? For example, what if, in a theoretical scenario, I purchase this car for my wife, and I want the car to be in her name, but I would like to benefit from the rebate? In this scenario, would I need to purchase the car under my name, and then immediately transfer the title to her name? Would this constitute some grounds for disqualification of the tax credit because I only technically owned the car for one day?
Well, I may be forgetting to include a question or two that I had thought about, but this covers the bulk of my concerns. I really appreciate any solid insight that can be offered here. I hope we may help others who have similar concerns as well.
I've searched around and done quite a bit of reading on the tax credit already, however almost everything I find seems to be sort of a glossed over version of what I expect has some hidden 'gotchas' under the veneer. However, it would be wonderful if this was less true than I fear.
I think it would be easiest if I just asked a few questions specifically that come to mind. I'll just start in, not in any order of importance.
1. When I search for cars, I find some considerably reduced prices in other states... If I were to purchase a car from another state, will this present a problem with claiming the tax credit on either the federal or state level? I mentioned state taxes because here in New York we also are able to claimcla additional $2,000 credit.
2. What criteria is used by the government to determine whether you've purchased a new or used car? Can I rely on the tax credit being valid if I purchase a car that is advertised as new from any dealer, or are there some pitfalls here that I really need to be aware of?
3. Is the tax credit truly as simple as "just subtract $7,500 from whatever the total is that you owe on federal taxes"? And, likewise, subtracting $2,000 from the total owed state taxes? That would be great if this were the case, and I could just rely on actually having that much payment deducted. However, I fear that there may be some catch here that I'm not aware of, and I would like to avoid any surprises come tax time. For example, I wonder if perhaps the credit in fact only applies to a certain section or portion of your taxes, and not bluntly the total sum... So, for example, what if I owe $9,000 in federal taxes total, but for some reason the EV tax credit can only be applied to $4,000 of that, so I end up with the surprise that I didn't get the benefit from the remaining $3,500 that I counted on.
I should mention that I do already understand that if you don't owe the full credit amount for your taxes, you forfeit in the remainder of the credit and it cannot be spilled over in any way (i.e., if you owe only $1,000 total, you're only going to receive a credit of $1,000).
4. Is there a mandatory time of ownership that you need to uphold in order to benefit from the EV credit? For example, what if, in a theoretical scenario, I purchase this car for my wife, and I want the car to be in her name, but I would like to benefit from the rebate? In this scenario, would I need to purchase the car under my name, and then immediately transfer the title to her name? Would this constitute some grounds for disqualification of the tax credit because I only technically owned the car for one day?
Well, I may be forgetting to include a question or two that I had thought about, but this covers the bulk of my concerns. I really appreciate any solid insight that can be offered here. I hope we may help others who have similar concerns as well.
