Federal solar credit · status for 2026
If you were quoted solar in the last two years and didn’t move on it, you’ve probably been told you missed the window. If you never looked, you’ve probably heard the whole thing is dead. Both are half right — and the wrong half is the expensive one.
§25D terminated for systems placed in service after 31 Dec 2025 · Public Law 119-21
Get a straight read on my house →
Nothing to sell you. We explain how the programs work and what a fair offer looks like.
If you ask for an introduction, it goes to one vetted company in your area — not blasted to five.
Every claim traces to the law, by section number, so you can check it yourself.
One law, signed 4 July 2025, moved the credit from your tax return to somebody else’s balance sheet. Nothing else about solar changed. The panels, the utility rates, the roof — all the same. Only who claims the 30%.
Ended
The 30% you claimed on your own return. Scheduled to run through 2032. It ended early, with no phase-down and no transition period.
Still active
Claimed by whoever owns the equipment. Under a lease, PPA, or prepaid arrangement that’s the finance company — and the value is supposed to reach you as a lower payment.
In 2026 that second column is the only route a homeowner has to a federal solar credit. Not the better route. The only one. Full explanation of what changed →
Ask these in order, at the table or on the phone. You don’t need to know anything else about solar to use them.
If the answer is buying — and anything about a 30% tax credit follows — that statement is false. Not aggressive, not optimistic. False. There is no federal credit on a system you own in 2026.
If this happens, stop the conversationOn a lease or PPA, a straight operator tells you plainly that they claim it and that it’s why your payment is what it is. Vagueness here means they’re confused, or hoping you are.
That date set the safe harbor. Projects started on or before it kept a long window to finish. Projects starting after generally have to be up and running by 31 December 2027 or the credit doesn’t apply — which means the price you’re shown may not survive to installation.
The federal piece is what changed. Rebates, performance payments and SREC markets mostly continued. A good rep names yours specifically instead of waving at “incentives.”
Payback that ran five to eight years now runs closer to eight to twelve in most markets. See how that math works →
Standalone storage under third-party ownership keeps its credit into the 2030s, with no equivalent construction deadline. If it hasn’t come up, your rep may not know.
The annual increase built into a lease payment. Some are zero. Some compound for twenty-five years. What that costs →
Tell me where you are and roughly what you pay. I come back with what is actually available in your utility territory, which structure fits, and what to watch for in the paperwork. No rep at your door.
If you sell solar
Pull one call recording from this week and listen for “thirty percent.” If you sell owned systems and your rep said it, that’s a false statement about a federal benefit on a recorded line — and the homeowner either didn’t catch it, or did and went quiet on you. Meanwhile every homeowner in your market is confused about the same thing at the same time, and nobody is explaining it on camera. Here’s the whole argument →