Tax

On October, 5, 2022, the U.S. Department of Treasury and Internal Revenue Service published six Notices requesting public comments by November 4, 2022 on certain of the clean energy tax incentives included in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.  However, the IRS and Treasury will consider written comments received after November 4 that do not delay the relevant guidance.  Input from industry stakeholders is important to help inform next steps for the IRS and Treasury and shape how these clean energy tax incentives are accessed in practice.

Read about the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee’s proposed tax legislation intended to partially fund the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act to fund Democratic priorities.

Late on December 21, 2020, the Senate debated and approved a COVID-19 relief package and omnibus spending bill for 2021 that included, deep in its 5,500-plus pages, tax extenders for a selection of renewables tax credits, including a one-year extension for the wind production tax credit ("ITC") and a two-year extension for the solar investment tax credit ("ITC"), as well as a five-year extension for offshore wind projects taking the ITC. The bill, which was earlier approved by the House, is expected to be signed by President Trump later this week.

On October 2, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service released final regulations providing guidance for Section 529A “qualified ABLE programs” established by states under the Stephen Beck Jr. Achieving a Better Life Experience Act of 2014 (the “ABLE Act”) to provide tax-favored savings and investment accounts for individuals with disabilities.  Building on proposed regulations issued in 2015 and 2019 and several prior IRS notices as to how the final regulations would resolve specific issues under the ABLE Act, the final regulations clearly seek to avoid, within statutory constraints, imposing major administrative burdens on ABLE programs. Nonetheless, several key provisions contain ambiguities or raise concerns.  As indicated by prior IRS guidance, the regulations provide a transition period of at least two years for ABLE programs operating in good faith to implement provisions applicable to such programs, and thus an opportunity for the IRS address such ambiguities and concerns through notices or other guidance prior to their full implementation.

This article summarizes the most recent pandemic-era proposals for wind, solar, and carbon capture federal tax incentives and attempts to discern potential trends for the future.