Florida solar tax credit 2026: what changed

The federal tax credit homeowners claimed on their own returns for residential solar is gone. Florida's solar exemptions are not. The rule that ended it turns on a date most people were not watching.

26 U.S.C. §25D(h), the termination clause of the Residential Clean Energy Credit, now reads: "The credit allowed under this section shall not apply with respect to any expenditures made after December 31, 2025." Public Law 119-21, signed July 4, 2025, wrote that language into the code.

The deposit question

If you signed and paid a deposit in 2025 but your system was not finished until 2026, you do not get the credit.

Congress changed the test. The old framing homeowners remember was about when a system was "placed in service." The statute now turns on when an expenditure is "made," and §25D(e)(8) defines that term: "an expenditure with respect to an item shall be treated as made when the original installation of the item is completed."

IRS Fact Sheet FS-2025-05, question 7, asks whether a taxpayer who paid before 2026 but completed installation after 2025 can claim the credit. The answer given is "No," citing §25D(e)(8)(A). Completion of the original installation on or before December 31, 2025 is what mattered.

A related credit ended on the same date under a different trigger. §25C, the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit, terminated under §25C(i) for "any property placed in service after December 31, 2025." Same date, same law, different test: §25C looks at placed in service, §25D looks at completed installation.

What Florida still gives you

The federal homeowner credit is the part that ended. The Florida benefits sit in separate statutes that Public Law 119-21 did not touch.

No Florida sales tax on solar equipment

Fla. Stat. §212.08(7)(hh) exempts solar equipment from Florida sales tax: "Also exempt are solar energy systems or any component thereof." The Florida Solar Energy Center certifies the eligible equipment list to the Department of Revenue, so it is applied at the equipment level, not claimed later on a form.

Solar does not raise your assessed value

Fla. Stat. §193.624(2)(a) states that in determining the assessed value of residential real property, "the just value of the property attributable to a renewable energy source device may not be considered." §193.624(1)(a) names the covered equipment expressly: "Solar energy collectors, photovoltaic modules, and inverters." It applies to installations on or after January 1, 2013.

Two points of precision, because most pages get this wrong. First, this is an assessment exclusion handled by the property appraiser, not an exemption a homeowner applies for. Second, on a residence it is 100 percent of the device's contribution to value. The "80 percent" figure that circulates online comes from a different statute, §196.182, which covers tangible personal property and expires December 31, 2037 by its own terms.

Net metering, described accurately

Fla. Admin. Code R. 25-6.065, the state net metering rule, has not been amended since April 7, 2008. FPL's electric tariff Sheet No. 10.010, effective January 1, 2026, still provides a kilowatt-hour for kilowatt-hour offset. Under that tariff, excess generation "will be credited to the customer's energy consumption for the next month's billing cycle," and those credits accumulate "for a period of not more than twelve months."

At the end of that twelve-month period, whatever is left converts to the utility's COG-1 as-available rate and is applied as a bill credit rather than paid out, unless the customer closes the account. A system sized to your own annual usage keeps its full value under the current tariff. One that badly overproduces gives up value at the annual true-up.

The third-party route under §48E

§48E, the Clean Electricity Investment Credit, is still active in 2026. It is a business credit, claimed by whoever owns the system. §48E(a)(2)(A)(ii)(I) sets the rate at 30 percent for a facility "with a maximum net output of less than 1 megawatt," which every residential rooftop array is far under, and at that size no prevailing-wage or apprenticeship requirement attaches.

In a third-party-owned structure the owner claims that credit, not the homeowner. Nothing about §48E goes on a homeowner's personal return. Any benefit reaches the homeowner through the contract instead. We present two such structures on solar proposals: Midas My Incentives and Full Transfer. The economics are set out in the proposal, not on anything you file with the IRS.

Roofing gets no federal credit in 2026

A re-roof earns no federal tax credit this year, for two independent reasons.

• §25C(c)(3) defines a "building envelope component" as insulation and air sealing material, exterior windows and skylights, and exterior doors. Roofing is not on that list. The Inflation Reduction Act struck it in 2022.
• §25C is now terminated in any case, for property placed in service after December 31, 2025.

§25D never covered roofing at all. If a contractor tells you your new roof carries a federal credit in 2026, ask which code section they are citing.

The 2027 cliff

Public Law 119-21 §70513(g)(5) provides that the §48E termination "shall apply to facilities the construction of which begins after the date which is 12 months after the date of enactment of this Act." Enactment was July 4, 2025, which puts that date at July 4, 2026. It has already passed.

July 4, 2026 was not a qualification deadline. It is the date after which a hard placed-in-service cliff attaches. A project whose construction begins after that date falls under §48E(e)(4)(A), which allows no credit for "qualified property placed in service by the taxpayer after December 31, 2027." The two dates are not alternative routes to the same credit. The first determines whether the second applies to you.

Battery storage is carved out of that cliff. §48E(e)(4)(C) states: "This paragraph shall not apply with respect to any energy storage technology which is placed in service at any applicable facility." Storage is treated differently from generation on the timing question.

Your HOA cannot ban solar in Florida

Fla. Stat. §163.04(2) provides that a deed restriction or covenant "may not prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting solar collectors... from being installed." An association may specify roof location, but only "within an orientation to the south or within 45° east or west of due south if such determination does not impair the effective operation of the solar collectors." §163.04(3) awards costs and reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party in a dispute under the section.

Working with PrimeBid Energy LLC

PrimeBid Energy LLC installs solar and battery storage across Florida. We are Tesla Certified for Solar Roof and Powerwall, and we run design, permitting, installation, and utility interconnection as one team, end to end.

With the federal homeowner credit gone, a 2026 proposal has four inputs: production against your actual usage, the Florida sales tax and property tax treatment above, the net metering terms in your utility's current tariff, and the contract structure you select. We show each line instead of one blended savings figure.