A New Reason to Green Your Home

The stimulus package recently adopted by Congress is putting more money into consumers’ pockets via the expansion of tax credits available for those who make energy-efficient improvements to their homes.

Making your home more energy-efficient is obviously good for the environment and helps you save money on water and energy bills. But now the new tax credits will make such home upgrades even more affordable, providing a financial incentive for homeowners who go green on their renovation projects in 2009 and 2010.

Under Internal Revenue Code section 25C, tax credits for existing homes expired at the end of 2007. These credits were reinstated by the Bush Administration as part of its economic rescue package passed last fall. Those credits rewarded homeowners who installed energy-efficient windows, doors, roofs, insulation, furnaces, air conditioners and heat pumps.

But that credit was equal to only 10 percent of the cost of each product, with a lifetime cap of $500, and it wasn’t strong enough to encourage homeowners to act.

Now, the tax credit has been tripled—to 30 percent—and the lifetime cap has been lifted to $1,500. Plus, the list of eligible improvements has been expanded. So homeowners opting to make their homes more energy-efficient will be financially rewarded for doing so.

For more information about tax credits or greening your home, give our office a call.